New Open Source Technology Locks Down User's DNS Connection

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.darkreading.com/insider-threat/167801100/security/attacks-breaches/232300056/new-open-source-technology-locks-down-user-s-dns-connection.html

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Dark Reading
Dec 07, 2011

The connection between a user and his or her DNS service can now be 
locked down with an encrypted session to prevent man-in-the-middle 
attacks, spoofing, or sniffing: OpenDNS has written an open-source tool 
that secures that traditionally exposed link.

OpenDNS today offered a first release of its new DNSCrypt tool, which 
was built for OpenDNS's own DNS service and is also available in the 
public domain. David Ulevitch, founder and CEO of OpenDNS, hopes the 
technology will catch on to secure what he calls the "last mile" in DNS 
communications. It's basically akin to an SSL connection, but for DNS, 
he says. It uses elliptical curve cryptography to encrypt the traffic 
between the user and DNS.

And it's not a replacement for the emerging DNSSEC technology, which 
digitally signs DNS responses to ensure a website is who it says it is, 
for instance.

DNSCrypt could work alongside DNSSEC, Ulevitch says. "It's complementary 
to DNSSEC and all other DNS security services. But unlike DNSSEC, which 
requires everyone in the chain to use DNSSEC for it to work, DNSCrypt 
has immediate security and privacy benefit as soon as you install it for 
all DNS traffic between you and OpenDNS," he says.

[...]


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