Re: Review of: draft-ietf-v6ops-v6-aaaa-whitelisting-implications-03

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I disagree that "whitelisting" is a reserved trademark of the anti-abuse community.  It's a general term for a list of things that are granted something.  Likewise with "blacklist" and "deny".  Which means it's perfectly appropriate for this document.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitelist>



On Apr 30, 2011, at 1:32 AM, Dave CROCKER wrote:

> 
> Review:
> 
> Title:  IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications
> I-D:    draft-ietf-v6ops-v6-aaaa-whitelisting-implications-03
> 
> By:     D. Crocker <dcrocker@xxxxxxxx>
> Date:   29 April 2011
> 
> 
> Summary:
> 
> This draft is a discussion of a technique for resolving a dual-stack problem between IPv4 and IPv6, through the use of special DNS records.
> 
> The document appears to continue a recent use of the term 'whitelisting' that strongly conflicts with long-standing use of the term by the anti-abuse community.
> 
> The document needs to do a more careful job of introducing the problem it is solving and the explaining the way the 'whitelisting' mechanism works.
> 
> I also very strongly encourage finding a different term.
> 
> d/
> 
> 
>> Abstract
>> 
>>   The objective of this document is to describe what the whitelisting
>>   of DNS AAAA resource records is, hereafter referred to as DNS
> 
> RRs are whitelisted?  Isn't it the addresses and not the records that are whitelisted?
> 
> Does this mean putting whitelisting records into the DNS or does it mean something else?
> 
> Comcast's own considerable expertise notwithstanding, has this doc been vetted with a range of organizations that actually DO whitelisting?  Has it been circulated through MAAWG and APWG?  Any comments from Spamhaus?  The Acknowledgements list does not seem to indicate a range of whitelist ops folks whose names I know.  (But then, I only know a few...)
> 
> 
>>   whitelisting, as well as the implications of this emerging practice
>>   and what alternatives may exist.  The audience for this document is
>>   the Internet community generally, including the IETF and IPv6
>>   implementers.
> 
> I suspect that product marketers won't have much interest in this.  I suspect that the target for this is anti-abuse technical and operations staff.
> 
> 
>> Status of this Memo
>> 
>>   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
>>   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
>> 
>>   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
>>   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
>>   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
>>   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
>> 
>>   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
>>   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
>>   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
>>   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
>> 
>>   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 26, 2011.
>> 
>> Copyright Notice
>> 
>>   Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
>>   document authors.  All rights reserved.
>> 
>>   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
>>   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
>>   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
>>   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
>>   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
>>   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
>>   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
>>   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Livingood                Expires August 26, 2011                [Page 1]
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>> Internet-Draft   IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications   February 2011
>> 
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>>   described in the Simplified BSD License.
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>> Livingood                Expires August 26, 2011                [Page 2]
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>> Internet-Draft   IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications   February 2011
>> 
>> 
>> Table of Contents
>> 
>>   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
>>   2.  How DNS Whitelisting Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
>>     2.1.  Description of the Operation of DNS Whitelisting . . . . .  7
>>   3.  What Problems Are Implementers Trying To Solve?  . . . . . . .  8
>>   4.  Concerns Regarding DNS Whitelisting  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
>>   5.  Similarities to Other DNS Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
>>     5.1.  Similarities to Split DNS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
>>     5.2.  Similarities to DNS Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
>>   6.  Likely Deployment Scenarios  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
>>     6.1.  Deploying DNS Whitelisting On An Ad Hoc Basis  . . . . . . 13
>>     6.2.  Deploying DNS Whitelisting Universally . . . . . . . . . . 14
>>   7.  Implications of DNS Whitelisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
>>     7.1.  Architectural Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
>>     7.2.  Public IPv6 Address Reachability Implications  . . . . . . 16
>>     7.3.  Operational Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
>>       7.3.1.  De-Whitelisting May Occur  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
>>       7.3.2.  Authoritative DNS Server Operational Implications  . . 17
>>       7.3.3.  DNS Recursive Resolver Server Operational
>>               Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
>>       7.3.4.  Monitoring Implications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
>>       7.3.5.  Implications of Operational Momentum . . . . . . . . . 19
>>       7.3.6.  Troubleshooting Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
>>       7.3.7.  Additional Implications If Deployed On An Ad Hoc
>>               Basis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
>>     7.4.  Homogeneity May Be Encouraged  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
>>     7.5.  Technology Policy Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
>>     7.6.  IPv6 Adoption Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
>>   8.  Solutions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
>>     8.1.  Implement DNS Whitelisting Universally . . . . . . . . . . 23
>>     8.2.  Implement DNS Whitelisting On An Ad Hoc Basis  . . . . . . 23
>>     8.3.  Do Not Implement DNS Whitelisting  . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
>>       8.3.1.  Solving Current End User IPv6 Impairments  . . . . . . 24
>>       8.3.2.  Gain Experience Using IPv6 Transition Names  . . . . . 24
>>   9.  Is DNS Whitelisting a Recommended Practice?  . . . . . . . . . 24
>>   10. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
>>     10.1. DNSSEC Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
>>     10.2. Authoritative DNS Response Consistency Considerations  . . 26
>>   11. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
>>   12. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
>>   13. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
>>   14. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
>>   15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
>>     15.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
>>     15.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
>>   Appendix A.  Document Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
>>   Appendix B.  Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
>> 
>> 
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>> Livingood                Expires August 26, 2011                [Page 3]
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>> Internet-Draft   IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications   February 2011
>> 
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>>   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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>> Livingood                Expires August 26, 2011                [Page 4]
>> 
>> Internet-Draft   IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications   February 2011
>> 
>> 
>> 1.  Introduction
>> 
>>   This document describes the emerging practice of whitelisting of DNS
>>   AAAA resource records (RRs), which contain IPv6 addresses, hereafter
>>   referred to as DNS whitelisting.  The document explores the
>>   implications of this emerging practice are and what alternatives may
>>   exist.
>> 
>>   The practice of DNS whitelisting appears to have first been used by
>>   major web content sites (sometimes described herein as "highly-
> 
> Really?  Not for email first?
> 
> 
>>   trafficked domains" or "major domains").  These web site operators,
>>   or domain operators, observed that when they added AAAA resource
>>   records to their authoritative DNS servers in order to support IPv6
> 
> Oh.  You mean /IPv6/ whitelisting.
> 
> 
>>   access to their content that a small fraction of end users had slow
>>   or otherwise impaired access to a given web site with both AAAA and A
>>   resource records.  The fraction of users with such impaired access
>>   has been estimated to be roughly 0.078% of total Internet users
>>   [IETF-77-DNSOP] [NW-Article-DNSOP] [Evaluating IPv6 Adoption] [IPv6
>>   Brokenness].  Thus, in an example Internet Service Provider (ISP)
>>   network of 10 million users, approximately 7,800 of those users may
>>   experience such impaired access.
> 
> At a minimum, these sorts of statistics need to be normalized across IPv6 users/traffic, given how small a percentage that is in total users and total traffice.  If that's what is meant it should be stated.  If it isn't, the statistic should be recalculated.
> 
> 
>>   As a result of this impairment affecting end users of a given domain,
>>   a few major domains have either implemented DNS whitelisting or are
>>   considering doing so [NW-Article-DNS-WL] [IPv6 Whitelist Operations].
> 
> How or why does whitelisting affect slow performance for these folk?
> 
> 
>>   When implemented, DNS whitelisting in practice means that a domain's
>>   authoritative DNS will return a AAAA resource record to DNS recursive
>>   resolvers [RFC1035] on the whitelist, while returning no AAAA
>>   resource records to DNS resolvers which are not on the whitelist.  It
> 
> Oh.  The whitelisting is for resolving a conflict between AAAA and A record choices?
> 
> Normally, the term 'whitelisting' is used to refer to bypass anti-abuse mechanisms.  This appears to be for something else and it seems odd to call it whitelisting.
> 
> Note the more typical use of the term:
> 
>   <http://www.dnswl.org/>
> 
>   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSBL>
> 
> <http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.help.domino.admin.doc/DOC/H_USING_DNS_whitelists_OVER.html>
> 
> It appears that some v6 folks have chosen to co-opt a distinctive and very well established anti-abuse term for an entirely different purpose.
> 
> 
> 
>>   is important to note that these major domains are motivated by a
>>   desire to maintain a high-quality user experience for all of their
>>   users.  By engaging in DNS whitelisting, they are attempting to
>>   shield users with impaired access from the symptoms of those
>>   impairments.
>> 
>>   Critics of the practice of DNS whitelisting have articulated several
>>   concerns.  Among these are that:
>> 
>>   o  DNS whitelisting is a very different behavior from the current
>>      practice concerning the publishing of IPv4 address resource
>>      records,
>> 
>>   o  that it may create a two-tiered Internet,
>> 
>>   o  that policies concerning whitelisting and de-whitelisting are
>>      opaque,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Livingood                Expires August 26, 2011                [Page 5]
>> 
>> Internet-Draft   IPv6 AAAA DNS Whitelisting Implications   February 2011
>> 
>> 
>>   o  that DNS whitelisting reduces interest in the deployment of IPv6,
> 
> Well, it certainly suggests that there is a problem handling v4/v6 in dual stack environments cleanly.  And it certainly seems that dealing with the underlying problem would be better.
> 
> Beyond that, this appears to be a hack that is useful but not scalable.
> 
> 
>> 
>>   o  that new operational and management burdens are created,
> 
> well, yeah...
> 
> 
>>   o  and that the costs and negative implications of DNS whitelisting
>>      outweigh the perceived benefits, compared to fixing underlying
>>      impairments.
>> 
>>   This document explores the reasons and motivations for DNS
>>   whitelisting.  It also explores the outlined concerns regarding this
>>   practice.  Readers will hopefully better understand what DNS
>>   whitelisting is, why some parties are implementing it, and what
>>   criticisms of the practice exist.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
>  Dave Crocker
>  Brandenburg InternetWorking
>  bbiw.net
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