The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(Icann) has asked Verisign to suspend its Site Finder service while
it conducts an investigation into the system.
Site Finder is a web service that appears when users attempt to
reach a website whose domain name does not exist.
Site Finder offers users a search engine, a list of existing
domains with related spellings and a directory of websites. To
enable the service, Verisign has had to create a wildcard address
record so that all attempts to reach sites in the .com and .net
address space, except those with valid domain names, result in
redirection to Site Finder.
When Verisign launched the service on 15 September, a number of
complaints began to emerge, especially from those involved with
the technical side of the internet and those operating competing
search services. They see it as an attempt to hijack web traffic
that would otherwise result in an error message or redirection to a
search service of the user's preference.
Icann said that it has been "monitoring community reaction" to
the service and is also "carefully reviewing the terms of the .com
and .net Registry Agreements".
It also asked its Security and Stability Advisory Committee and
the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) to produce a report on the
subject which, when issued, noted concerns with the service.
These included the loss of local-language error messages to
Verisign's English-language Site Finder; additional load for e-mail
servers and the failure of some spam filters that check for valid
domain names.
It also noted that users who pay for data based on the volume
sent and received will see higher costs as a result a single
"domain not found" packet being replaced by the 17kbyte Site Finder
home page, and said the system represented a single point of
failure and raised privacy concerns.
The IAB report did not conclude that the use of wildcard
records, such as those used by Verisign, be prohibited, but rather
such a system is "dangerous" and should only be enabled with a full
understanding of the impact on the network.
Icann said it has called on VeriSign to suspend the service
voluntarily until various reviews are completed.
Martyn Williams writes for IDG News Service