nanog mailing list archives

Re: NAT etc. (was: Spam Control Considered Harmful)


From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra () scfn thpl lib fl us>
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 12:01:43 -0500

On Sat, Nov 01, 1997 at 07:44:55PM -0600, Tim Salo wrote:
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 17:37:57 -0500
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra () scfn thpl lib fl us>
To: "You're welcome" <nanog () merit edu>
Subject: Re: NAT etc. (was: Spam Control Considered Harmful)
    [...]
Well, yes, Paul, but unless I misunderstood you, that's exactly the
point.  If a client inside a NAT cloud does a DNS lookup to a
supposedly authoritative server outside, and the NAT box is _required_
to strip off the signature (which it would, because it has to change
the data), then it's not possibile, by definition, for any client
inside such a NAT box to make any use of SecDNS.

The point is that you _can't_ regenerate the signature, usefully to the
client, anyway, precisely because _it is a signature_.

Presumably, the NAT could,

o     Verify the signature of the DNS responses it receives, and
      dump any responses that don't meet its [authentication]
      criteria, or

o     Sign the the response it creates and let the client verify
      the NAT's signature.  Presumably, the client will trust
      the NAT.

Yup, it could, but as I noted to Paul, in the cases Sean is advocating,
the client and the NAT box may not be within the same span of
administration, either.  IE: no, you may _not_ trust the NAT op.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra () baylink com
Member of the Technical Staff             Unsolicited Commercial Emailers Sued
The Suncoast Freenet      "Pedantry.  It's not just a job, it's an
Tampa Bay, Florida          adventure."  -- someone on AFU      +1 813 790 7592


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