An Introduction to Petname Systems (2010) | Hacker News Reader

An Introduction to Petname Systems (2010)

skyhunter.com

41 pointsnathcd5 comments

This is a always a fun thought experiment.

For those who administer qmail, postfix, etc. (e.g., I run qmail at home), consider the example of an email alias for the administrator, where the primary address is chosen by the administrator, and the alias functions as a key/id.

If the application interface shows the primary email address, then does the primary email address qualify as a petname.

For those who use the links browser, place the following entry in /etc/hosts

  93.184.216.34 edgecastcdn.net test123

"edgecastcdn.net" is the key/id. "test123" is an alias.

Then

  links http://test123/index.html

Then press the equal sign ("=") key to display "document info", i.e., the links equivalent of the "address bar".

The application displays the name "http://test123/index.html"

Does "test123" qualify as a petname?

The real address must be an unguessable identifier in order for this to qualify as a petname system. So change the IP/host in your example to a UUID/GUID and then "test123" would qualify as a petname local to the system (but not the user).

Think of petnames as a local DNS/namespace system that maps user-friendly names to user-unfriendly unguessable designators.

In practice, ICANN DNS caters to guessable DNS names. Theoretically does anything stop anyone from providing globally visible "unguessable" DNS names, e.g., DNS names that contain unique keys.

For example, the names for ianix.com's nameservers

uz5lr233zjlv6w9p0q43tygrps3mnc0ccy675sgvn19y3cf1u4hs5z.ianix.com

uz5cjwzs6zndm3gtcgzt1j74d0jrjnkm15wv681w6np9t1wy8s91g3.ianix.com

You could, and a server-side restriction to only respond to that host name would qualify as an unguessable designator, but it's kind of backwards. The unguessable tokens are supposed to be cheap and ubiquitous, where DNS names typically aren't.

"The unguessable tokens are supposed to be cheap and ubiquitous, where DNS names typically aren't."

Just to clarify, you are referring to the commercialisation of domain names, the DNS run by ICANN, not an inherent property of DNS per se.

I run authoritative nameservers at home, including a custom root.zone. I create names whenever I neeed them, so I still think of domain names as "free", in theory. Only ICANN domain names carry a fee. (In the very beginning they were free.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com