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<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_MailEndCompose"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Dear All,<o:p></o:p></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The goal of this emails is just to share with you
<u>some</u> of the possible risks/issues when using ZWNJ in domain names (as what many members have requested):<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">In Unicode the ZWNJ is considered to be an invisible join control character and listed in the "Unicode Security Considerations"
document which means that there are a some kind of risk when using it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Arab users (and any user who do not know ZWNJ) will not be able to type the domain name (because they will think it is a space
not ZWNJ) which will lead reachability problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Urdu/Farsi users (and other users that know ZWNJ) may not be able to type the domain name when they use Arabic keyboards (e.g.
airport/internet cafes outside their countries) which will lead reachability problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">4-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">I think the current IDNA RFCs does not totally solve the issue of ZWNJ and the TAH family (0637, 0638 or 069F) you can still
generate two different A-labels sharing the same U-Label (look alike)! see these links:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><a href="http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/idna.jsp?a=%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%84%0D%0A%D8%B7%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%D9%84"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/idna.jsp?a=%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%84%0D%0A%D8%B7%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%D9%84</span></a><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><a href="http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/idnbrowser?t=%D8%B7%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%D9%84"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/idnbrowser?t=%D8%B7%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%D9%84</span></a><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><img border="0" width="378" height="162" id="Picture_x0020_7" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CC7C42.C288E920"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">5-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Still there are other issues not only with the TAH family (0637, 0638 or 069F) but with other code points (for example 06BE
& 06FF and there might be more that share the same problem).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><img border="0" width="377" height="161" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.jpg@01CC7C42.C288E920"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><img border="0" width="378" height="160" id="Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image007.jpg@01CC7C42.C288E920"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">6-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">When Unicode changes there might be a risk that newly added code point might have the same issues as the TAH group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">7-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">..etc<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">At the end I am not saying that ZWNJ is not important because we don't use it. I am fully aware that there are many languages use ZWNJ but the use in domain
names might raise some risks/issues similar to what I have shown in this email.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">With best regards,<br>
<br>
Raed I. Al-Fayez<br>
------------------------------------------</span><span style="color:#1F497D"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Senior IT Projects Specialist, M.Sc, PMP<br>
Saudi Network Information Center (SaudiNIC) <br>
Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC)<br>
Tel: + 966-1-2639235 - Fax: + 966-1-2639393<br>
</span><a href="http://www.nic.net.sa/"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">http://www.nic.net.sa</span></a><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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