Possible DOS attack in the .nu domain service

From: Shane Wegner (shaneat_private)
Date: Sat Feb 20 1999 - 21:20:13 PST

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    Hello all,
    
    I am not sure if this is known or even relevant to the list and if not,
    please excuse this post.
    
    There appears to be a bug in the niu DNS setup process which could result
    in a DOS attack for those using their domains.  For those unfamiliar with
    niu, they provide sub-domain service under the .nu domain to machines
    which do there own DNS.  I have written to them on several occasions about
    this issue but as of yet have received no response.
    
    OK the bug is that any user who is willing to pay the $25 to register a
    =2Enu domain can knock out or redirect a host under another.  This is best
    shown through an example.
    
    I register mycompany.nu and in the registration form enter the hosts I
    have doing the DNS for it.
    
    Name: mycompany.nu
    DNS1: machine.someserver.com
    DNS2: machine2.someserver.com
    
    After this step, my DNS entry in the .nu table looks like this
    
    $ORIGIN nu.
    mycompany	IN	NS	machine2.someserver.com.
    		IN	NS	machine2.someserver.com.
    
    mycompany.nu for the sake of this example had the following DNS table.
    
    $ORIGIN nu.
    mycompany	IN	SOA	mymachine.mycompany.nu. hostmaster.mycompany.nu. (
    		1 301 120 604800 600 )
    		IN	NS	machine1.someserver.com.=20
    		IN	NS	machine2.someserver.com.
    $ORIGIN	 mycompany.nu.
    mymachine	IN	A	192.168.1.1
    
    So Al's well until someone registers evil.nu with the goal of knocking out
    myserver.mycompany.nu.  On the form, they enter the following.
    
    name: evil.nu
    DNS1: mymachine.mycompany.nu
    DNS1IP: 127.0.0.1
    
    Now here's the bug, if you enter an IP for a machine which falls under the
    =2Enu name-space, it maps it statically.  It does not check to see if it
    falls under your name-space.  Therefore, our evil.nu entry in the .nu
    table looks like this.
    
    $ORIGIN nu.
    evil		IN	NS	mymachine.mycompany.nu.
    $ORIGIN mycompany.nu.
    mymachine	IN	A	127.0.0.1
    
    So the IP for mymachine.mycompany.nu has been redirected from its
    192.168.1.1 to 127.0.0.1.  An attacker could conceivably redirect the mail
    servers of a company to his own machine or anything to that effect.
    
    Regards,
    Shane
    
    --=20
    Shane Wegner: shaneat_private
    Tel: (604) 930-0530
    Sysadmin, Continuum Systems: http://www.cm.nu
    Personal website: http://www.cm.nu/~shane
    ICQ UIN: 120000
    PGP: keyid:       2048/F5C2BD91
         Fingerprint: 8C 48 B9 D8 53 BB D8 EF
                      76 BB DB A2 1C 0D 1D 87
    
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