[ga] Fwd: LACTLD comments on Zone Transfers

[Alexander Svensson <alexander@svensson.de>]

This has been forwarded by Oscar Robles to the Names Council list:
(http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc11/msg00045.html)

>To: root-mgmt@iana.org, cctld-adcom@wwtld.org, cctld-discuss@wwtld.org
>Subject: [cctld-discuss] LACTLD comments on Zone Transfers
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 07:55:35 -0600
>
>Hello all:
>
>For your information:
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Comments of LACTLD on zone transfers
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>As a result of several questions raised by the ccTLDs to ICANN
>(IANA) about the reasons to require zone file transfer to IANA, and
>the process they follow to review that information, ICANN issued
>recently a FAQ http://www.iana.org/faqs/tld-zone-access-faq.htm
>
>After reviewing this FAQ, we find the explanation provided by
>ICANN to be unconvincing. If these are the reasons why IANA has
>refused to update the name server configuration of ccTLDs that
>required urgent changes, changes that were needed to avoid
>possible chaos caused by the sudden bankrupcy of a major ISP, we
>believe that, in doing so, IANA may have been risking endangering
>the very operational stability of the Internet it is charged to
>preserve.
>
>We cannot deny that during the emergency created by the failure of
>KPNQuest, IANA personnel worked very hard to process the
>changes for many ccTLDs, but we also believe that their good work
>has been hampered by an unreasonable policy that has not allowed
>them to perform the changes for all the ccTLDs that required them.
>The fact that ns.eu.net is still operating has helped avoid a crisis,
>but this is in spite of the policy in question, not thanks to it.
>
>We believe that the tests that IANA needs to perform to ensure the
>DNS operational stability and performance may be done without
>the requirement of zone file transfers. The two examples provided
>to illustrate why zone transfer would be required, namely to check
>that two independent name servers be provided for the sub-
>domains of a TLD and to check for proper format, do not survive
>close examination. We do agree that it is IANA's job to check that
>each TLD has two independent functional DNS servers (which can
>be tested without zone access), but we think that IANA going
>routinely deeper down the tree goes against the principle of
>delegation of authority on which the DNS is based. Furthermore,
>current technology makes it possible that many servers be
>operating using a single IP address, through the use of anycast. As
>far as checking that the zone file follows the proper format, we think
>this is not necessary nor sufficient, as some versions of BIND are
>not RFC 1034 compliant.
>
>We also remain unconvinced of the need for IANA to have a copy
>of the zone file to allow the operation of the TLD in case of
>catastrophic failure. In case of a disaster, the TLD should have
>proper recovery mechanisms, because their operation is not limited
>to a single DNS server, but involves a much more complex IT
>infrastrucure which is needed to maintain the DNS operation.
>ICANN could not do anything more with the zone file than to
>preserve for a few hours an operation that is needed for many days
>in the event of a disaster and total loss of information. We firmly
>believe in the need to have a robust infraestructure and procedures
>in place to minimize the probability of this kind of failure, and to
>have sound contingency plans available, but the IANA policy might
>even work against this, by generating a false sense of security.
>
>Since ICANN is yet to provide a reasonable explanation for the
>requirement to open the zone files for transfer to IANA, we
>understand very well the position of those ccTLD administrators
>that have decided not to allow such transfers. It is quite possible
>that allowing this transfers might create a security hole. Even if
>transmission could be done in a completely secure way, it would be
>very hard for ICANN to provide a guarantee that the storage of the
>zone files in its servers would not be vulnerable to the frequent
>attacks that those servers suffer.
>
>Given that RFC 1591 does not explicitly require that zone files be
>available to IANA, and given that, until recently (two years after it
>appeared in ICP-1) IANA had not enforced this rule, we believe that
>this requirement should be eliminated. We are not against some
>ccTLD administrators making their zone files voluntarily available
>to IANA --in fact some of us do allow such access-- but we strongly
>reject IANA's policy of delaying urgent technical updates until it
>gets access to the zone file.
>
>It would be possible to argue endlessly about whether ICP-1 is valid
>ICANN policy or not, given that it did not go through the proper
>policy development process and that it appears that the Board only
>approved its number, and not its substance. However, we think that
>this is a matter of the greatest urgency and that it cannot wait for
>such a discussion to be settled. There is no rule anywhere that says
>that IANA is forbidden to process changes of TLD name servers
>unless the zone file is available to it, and we call therefore to IANA
>to stop demanding these transfers as a precondition to make these
>changes. Such a step would go a long way towards showing that
>IANA and the ccTLDs are able to work together to achieve the goal
>of Internet stability that we all share.
>
>LACTLD
>
>-----------------------------
>Rafael (Lito) Ibarra
>UCA JoseŽ SimeoŽn Can~as
>San Salvador, El Salvador (SV)
>Tel +(503) 210-6600, ext. 270, 271
>Fax +(503) 210-6640

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