[RSSAC Caucus] Rogue Operator Work Party: Source of zone data

[Marc Blanchet]

On 6 Oct 2020, at 13:19, Renard, Kenneth D CTR USARMY CCDC C5ISR (USA) 
via rssac-caucus wrote:

> A discussion topic brought up at the last Rogue Operator Work Party 
> call was on where [technically] an RSO fetches their root zone 
> information from.  Typically, an RSO will fetch zone data directly 
> from the RZM’s servers [distribution of the zone files among the 
> RSO’s instances is not considered here, just the initial fetch(es) 
> from a source].  What if an RSO obtained their copy of the zone data 
> from an intermediate source?  #RootZone
>
>
>
> The RSO is responsible for publishing the correct IANA zone, as made 
> available by the RZM.  Whether they get it directly from the RZM or 
> via some other party should(?) be irrelevant.  An intermediate source 
> certainly does introduce additional risk that the zone could have been 
> modified, but it is still the responsibility of the RSO to publish 
> true IANA data.  I would not consider it _wise_ to obtain the zone 
> from an intermediate source, but would we go so far as to say that 
> this is a _rogue_ operation?  Historically (1998?), fetching from an 
> intermediate was seen as a pre-cursor to rogue operations, where new 
> source may have had intentions of changing the zone, but there seem to 
> be different interpretations of those events.
>
>
>
> The question to the group is: “Would using an intermediate source of 
> root zone data, by itself, be considered a ROGUE operation?”  
> Regardless of who the intermediate is…, regardless of the 
> authenticity of the zone data…

to me, the first criteria for declaring rogue is that the operator is 
not serving the root zone, but a modified version. The only way to 
really find that is with DNSSEC. In this context, the source of the root 
zone seems irrelevant to me.

Marc.


>
>
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
>
>
> Ken Renard
>
> S&TCD Contractor – ICF
>
> Sustaining Base Network Assurance Branch
>
> C5ISR Center, Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate
>
> Office:  443-395-7809
>
> kenneth.d.renard.ctr at mail.mil


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