Discuss mailing list

[Calum McAlinden <calum AT mcalinden.me.uk>]

The .bit domains in question being used for malware to call home are 
only accessible on OpenNIC though, so organisations see OpenNIC as 
responsible. This is a problem with linking a decetralised system with a 
centralised one like OpenNIC: the point of centralisation becomes a 
target for demands of censorship.

I think most of the OpenNIC TLDs have policies against illegal/unethical 
use, but .bit has no enforceable policy of anything. This leaves OpenNIC 
servers hypothetically acting as an authoritative nameserver for domains 
controlling malware, promoting terrorism, or distributing child pornography.

While censorship is obviously bad, is democratic blocking of known 
abusive domains that bad? A list of blocked domains and reasons could be 
published, and each domain could be voted on with evidence presented.

For example take another situation such as the recent ransomware 
affecting organisations such as the NHS, where the ransomware might (in 
the future) resolve .bit domains to command and control servers. I'm not 
sure how I'd feel about having the single handed ability to alter a line 
of code and halt the spread, yet not doing so.

Of course, I would never do this without the decision of OpenNIC members.

Given the increasing prevalence of .bit use in malware, I envisage a 
situation where maintainers of OpenNIC's servers or the providers may be 
put under pressure by governments to stop resolving domains. Also, as 
OpenNIC (as far as I'm aware) is not a legal entity, does that mean that 
individual members are liable for any damages that such incident might 
cause?


On 18/07/17 21:51, Daniel Quintiliani wrote:
> Does Google DNS, OpenDNS, or any ISP with their own DNS ever receive and 
> follow random demands from private companies with no legal threats? I know 
> there was that incident years ago when the FBI shut down malicious DNS 
> servers that were used by ransomware, but other than that?
>
> --
>
> -Dan Q
>
> On Tue, 18 Jul 2017 15:01:22 -0500, Daniel Shirley <aditaa05 AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Agreed its kind if what we do is to stand up to censorship
> >
> > On Jul 18, 2017 14:26, "Daniel Quintiliani" <danq AT runbox.com> wrote:
> >
> > Continue to resolve .bit domains. It's not anyone's job to police the
> > Internet at the demands of strangers you've never met.
> >
> > --
> >
> > -Dan Q
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 18 Jul 2017 17:11:25 +0100, Calum McAlinden <calum AT mcalinden.me.uk>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > (sorry, I wrote this email earlier but accidentally sent it to Arthur
> > > Garnier instead of the mailing list)
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I am the operator of the OpenNIC server which generates OpenNIC's .bit
> > > zone from the blockchain.
> > >
> > > This is something that has been concerning me for awhile. I recently
> > > became aware of malware developers are using OpenNIC T2 servers in their
> > > malware to resolve .bit domains which contain the IP address of command
> > > and control servers.
> > >
> > > I had also been answering a several inquiries about zone updates over a
> > > few months. Eventually I looked into the domains in question and what
> > > they appear to be used for, which was C&C servers for malware.
> > >
> > > OpenNIC really has 3 options:
> > >
> > > - Continue resolving .bit domains known to be used for malware purposes,
> > > in effect facilitating the distribution of malware
> > >
> > > - Blacklist these domains democratically, thus not being a true
> > > representation of the names registered in the blockchain and raising
> > > censorship issues
> > >
> > > - Drop the entire .bit zone
> > >
> > >
> > > What are people's thoughts on this?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Calum
> > >
> > > On 18/07/17 15:49, Jonah Aragon wrote:
> > > > You can probably blacklist that single domain for the time being as
> > > > attack mitigation, but blacklisting any domain or TLD would make your
> > > > Tier 2 no longer compatible with OpenNIC.
> > > >
> > > > But this is the reason we keep bringing up removing .bit entirely, from
> > > > what I can tell it seems to bring much more trouble than it's worth, but
> > > > maybe that's the cost of a successful alt-TLD. Perhaps we should revisit
> > > > the .bit removal discussion.
> > > >
> > > > Look into rate limiting or ask for help on IRC if your server is under
> > > > attack.
> > > >
> > > > Jonah
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 4:22 AM Arthur Garnier <arthur AT arthurgarnier.fr
> > > > <mailto:arthur AT arthurgarnier.fr>> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >      Hello,
> > > >
> > > >      My dedicated server provider (OVH.com) asked me, yesterday, to
> > blacklist
> > > >      the domain "letit2.bit" because it's a domain used by a malware
> > > >      (https://malwarebreakdown.com/2017/06/06/relst-campaign-
> > delivering-pony-downloads-chthonic/
> > > >      )
> > > >
> > > >      After checking my logs from yesterday, this domain name has been
> > > >      resolved more than 125,000 times in 24 hours.
> > > >
> > > >      Maybe we should blacklist this domain from an higher level than
> > Tier2.
> > > >      Or it's against the policy ?
> > > >
> > > >      Regards,
> > > >
> > > >      Arthur
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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