Comment by rphlx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rphlx | Hacker News Reader

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Not to start another DNSSEC melee (as I start another DNSSEC melee..) but for it to be effective we really need browsers to a) be able to tell whether a DNS response was properly DNSSEC signed or not, b) produce some large, scary, red warning for ones that aren't, mark them "Not Secure", etc. [1]

There is a major chicken-and-egg/game-theoretical problem though: any browser that does that today will piss off/irritate its users, forcing them to use other browsers or older versions of the same browser, as DNSSEC is not widely deployed on the corporate side. And until most/all browsers do something major to make the current DNS security crisis obvious to large numbers of users, most companies won't care enough to deploy DNSSEC.

At least it will be interesting to see whether, and how, this eventually gets solved.

[1] Certain abysmal DNSSEC cryptographic choices, such as 512-1024-bit RSA, should also be addressed.

> There is a major chicken-and-egg/game-theoretical problem though: any browser that does that today will piss off/irritate its users, forcing them to use other browsers or older versions of the same browser, as DNSSEC is not widely deployed on the corporate side. And until most/all browsers do something major to make the current DNS security crisis obvious to large numbers of users, most companies won't care enough to deploy DNSSEC.

This seems analogous to the problem browsers faced with Flash. Perhaps they can leverage the same incremental approach here.

For example: 1) Validate DNSSEC. If present and valid, the HTTPS "green lock icon" gets a bonus glow. 2) 6 months later, not having a DNSSEC response gives a little red X badge on the "green lock icon". 3) 6 months later, not having a DNSSEC response graduates to a little ignorable info/warning box near the location bar. 4) 12 months later, you have to click through a big scary warning to access the site.

Essentially, start by providing a carrot and then introduce a progressively larger stick. Communicate the whole plan up front so that large organizations can get the ball rolling.

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