Complexity and Security of the Domain Name System
Kyle Schomp · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2016
The Domain Name System (DNS) provides mapping of meaningful names to arbitrary data for applications and services on the Internet.Since its original design, the system has grown in complexity and our understanding of the system has lagged behind.In this dissertation, we perform measurement studies of the DNS infrastructure demonstrating the complexity of the system and showing that different parts of the infrastructure exhibit varying behaviors, some being violations of the DNS specification.The DNS also has known weaknesses to attack and we reinforce this by uncovering a new vulnerability against one component of the system.As a result, understanding and maintaining the DNS is increasingly hard.In response to these issues, we propose a modification to the DNS that simplifies the resolution path and reduces the attack surface.We observe that the potential costs of this modification can be managed and discuss ways that the cost may be mitigated.xiv