Techtree News Staff, Jul 22, 2008 1846 hrs IST
In Halvar Flake's view, all you need do is flood a DNS server with multiple requests for similar sounding domain names.
Two weeks ago, when security researcher Dan Kaminsky discovered a critical flaw in the Internet's Domain Name Server (DNS) system, he warned peers not to publicly discuss the same lest unscrupulous hackers got around to taking undue advantage of it.
Seems his advice has fallen on deaf ears as researcher Halvar Flake has posted a complete hypothesis describing a simple modus operandi for exploiting this vulnerability.
In Flake's view, all you need do is flood a DNS server with multiple requests for similar-sounding domain names -- confusing the poor server into querying a root server for name server/s handling lookups for these domains. This information could be then sent by a hacker to a DNS server making it look like authentic information. Flake's contention is that with so many requests, there is some probability that at least one would match -- meaning a hacker could be successful in redirecting a naive user to a fake site which then goes on to glibly steal his/her private and personal data.
Kamsinsky, whose concern seems to stem from the fact that public discussion of a vulnerability would only make it more vulnerable to being exploited by hackers; has declined comment on Flake's speculation. Kaminsky will wait till the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas to offer a detailed discussion of the DNS flaw.
Flake's is a highly-respected name in security circles; even then, he had to go through "DNS-for-dummies" to be able to achieve this feat.
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