Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    DNS Proves to Be Weak Link in Internet Chain

    By
    Dennis Fisher
    -
    February 5, 2001
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      A series of high-profile events over the last few weeks has highlighted the fact that the DNS that is so critical to the Internets operation is also one of its weakest links.

      Though many of the specific problems have only recently come to light, security experts and CIOs said they have known for years that the Domain Name System is full of holes and have been holding their breaths, hoping to avoid a major incident.

      Last week, the CERT Coordination Center revealed that there are four vulnerabilities in two versions of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain), the open-source software that runs more than 80 percent of the Internets DNS machines. Some of the vulnerabilities could allow a remote user to take control of a name server running BIND and redirect Web traffic to any domain.

      That possibility nearly became a reality late last week. Two days after Network Associates Inc. released an advisory about the BIND vulnerabilities, an anonymous hacker posted to the BugTraq mailing list sample code allegedly designed to exploit one of the buffer overflow holes.

      The code contained a hidden Trojan that, when executed, launched an attack on Network Associates DNS server.

      Network Associates officials confirmed that the companys site did undergo a brief DoS (denial-of-service) attack last Wednesday but said it was never down completely and was back to normal within 90 minutes.

      “BIND has had problems forever because it has to be an open system in order to do name look-ups,” said Sean Swift, leader of the security practice at CoreTech Consulting Group Inc., of King of Prussia, Pa. “And DNS, in general, is pretty weak. One problem with DNS can have a lot of unintended consequences.”

      Thats a fact that Kevin Dunn, CIO and chief technology officer of EdExpress Inc., in Dallas, discovered firsthand last month. On the eve of a major ad campaign, Dunn discovered that traffic to the companys site had suddenly dropped to zero. After investigating, he discovered that EdExpress domains had mistakenly been assigned to another company.

      It took more than three days to reverse the mistake, by which time the ad campaign had expired, leaving the company with nothing to show for a big outlay of money and time, Dunn said.

      Two weeks ago, most of Microsoft Corp.s sites disappeared from the Internet several times over a period of days. Microsoft first attributed the problem to an employees configuration error on one of the companys DNS boxes.

      Later, Microsoft acknowledged that one of its routers had been the victim of a sophisticated DoS attack.

      The attack took advantage of what many experts called Microsofts poor network architecture and had the effect of preventing traffic from reaching the companys DNS servers, which were on the same subnet at the time.

      Microsoft has since hired Akamai Technologies Inc. to maintain a set of backup name servers in several locations.

      The good news, security experts said, is that many hackers consider attacks on the DNS to be too easy—as well as too risky—to bother with. Because changes to an existing domain are typically done via e-mail, the perpetrators are often easily traced.

      Just the same, officials from Arbor Networks Inc., a company being launched this week, said its managed availability service, which is deployed at the Internet service provider level instead of the network level, would have caught the flood on Microsofts router before it got out of hand.

      “You have to be at the core of the network in order to catch those events,” said Ted Julian, chief strategist of the Waltham, Mass., company. “If youre at the edge of the network, youll never see that attack coming.”

      However, dont expect to see such attacks go by the wayside. On the contrary, many people predict the newly publicized BIND vulnerabilities will spark renewed interest in the DNS as a potential target.

      “BIND has consistently been a target over the years, and BIND will continue to be a target,” said Dan Ingevaldson, a member of the X-Force research team at Internet Security Systems Inc., in Atlanta. “Its now sort of a race between us and the hackers as they try to develop tools to take advantage of these holes.”

      Dennis Fisher
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×