ICANN Raises Issues with DNS Redirect

This was written by Jim Garrettson on Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 12:31.

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has denounced the use of domain name system redirect requests. ICANN raised significant questions about its exploitation by cyber criminals and privacy issues.

According to an article by ComputerWorld, the DNS redirect system operates as follows: “Rather than return an error message for DNS (Domain Name System) requests for nonexistent domains, some DNS operators send back the IP (Internet Protocol) address of another domain, a process known as NXDOMAIN substitution. The target address is often a Web portal or information site.”

This could allow cyber criminals to use the DNS redirect system to redirect unsuspecting victims to their websites. Also, if a redirect request is routed through a different country, there could be problems for the domain host and the user based on local laws.