Re: [idn] punctuation

[Erik van der Poel <erik@vanderpoel.org>]

John C Klensin wrote:
> We can try
> to restrict characters that are clearly dangerous, adopting, if
> necessary, a view that the fact someone wants to register or use
> a particular string doesn't mean that they are entitled to do
> so.

You can write RFCs, move them to STD status, and jump up and down all 
you want, but you can't stop domain name owners from creating "deep" 
sub-domains with deceptive names that make the important part of the 
name go off the end of the display area.

> We
> can use the UDRP and/or the legal system in various countries to
> push back on those who register deceptive names and on the
> registrars and registries that encourage the registration of
> such names.

The registrars and registries are not the problem. The domain name 
owners are. If a poor individual has created a deceptive name that hurts 
a huge company, that company may go after Microsoft (since it has deep 
pockets) instead of the poor person.

So, the apps' current way of displaying the domain name (right-to-left) 
in left-to-right cultures is the problem. I tried to make the case that 
this is even a problem in the ASCII DNS (regardless of IDN), since 
hyphens are allowed in most DNS implementations. I wonder if a phisher 
would only have to change their own DNS server to get other characters 
(like ASCII slash '/') into the names? Or would many of the DNS clients 
refuse to lookup names containing such characters? (I tried to create a 
name containing ASCII slash yesterday, but my DNS server wouldn't accept 
it.)

Hasn't this stuff been covered in any RFC yet?

Erik