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DNS Vulnerability Survives Scrutiny of Peer Review

The security community is cynical. So much so, that most of the chatter that’s taken place over the past 24-36 hours has suggested that Kaminsky’s DNS vulnerability was little more than a publicity stunt and that his BlackHat presentation would be an over-hyped rehash of prior art. Granted, one has to suspend disbelief to even consider that something monumental would be discovered in DNS — that’s the protocol itself — but hell, it’s always nice to give a guy the benefit of the doubt.

Faced with nearly a month of criticism and questioning, and understanding the persuasive power of a technical peer review, Dan decided to expand the inner circle, so to speak. Rich Mogull arranged a phone call with Tom Ptacek and Dino Dai Zovi so that Dan could spill the beans and let them decide for themselves whether it was spin or substance. Turns out there was substance.

Now we sit around and wait until August 6th to cram into a ballroom with a thousand sweaty conference-goers to hear the juicy details. And Dan’s presentations are usually packed to the brim even when he’s not announcing anything.

In the meantime… how about patching those servers?

3 Comments »

Suckers. Next time, be wrong early like me!

Comment by Thomas Ptacek — July 9, 2008 @ 8:39 pm

[...] the hype was warranted.  I was flattered, however, when Rich Mogull called me and invited onto a conference call with Dan Kaminsky and the other Doubting Thomas (Ptacek, that is).  Dan explained the full details [...]

Pingback by Dan Kaminsky Disqualified from Most Overhyped Bug Pwnie « …And you will know me by the trail of bits — July 9, 2008 @ 11:03 pm

Hype is rarely warranted. It just makes the wrong people panic and carry on like headless chooks.

In any case, I’ve patched my own server today as I was too tired when I learnt about this last night. Though I wonder how useful my effort was, as my ISP enforces an http proxy and they haven’t yet patched their own DNS (and knowing them, they probably won’t know about the issue until Christmas and will not do anything about it in any case – tpg.com.au if you’re interested).

I’ve only jumped to it immediately, because I have had idiots try to exploit my bind installation from time to time.

Comment by Mathew Gregson — July 9, 2008 @ 11:47 pm

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