Overheard: Fixing DNS

If there’s one thing you do not want to be on fire, it’s your DNS server. Nothing makes a network go wobbly faster. Dan Kaminsky, Here Comes The Cavalry

Recently, a significant threat to DNS, the system that translates names you can remember (such as www.doxpara.com) to numbers the Internet can route (66.240.226.139) was discovered, that would allow malicious people to impersonate almost any website on the Internet. Software companies across the industry have quietly collaborated to simultaneously release fixes for all affected name servers.

Dan has posted a very handy DNS Test Widget on his site that allows you to find out if the DNS server you use is vulnerable. On a totally unrelated note, I wonder what made him pick this photo for his blog?