[HN Gopher] Proposed top-level domain string for private use: "....
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Proposed top-level domain string for private use: ".internal"
        
       Author : zacwest
       Score  : 283 points
       Date   : 2024-01-27 03:45 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.icann.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.icann.org)
        
       | NoZebra120vClip wrote:
       | Other currently reserved TLDs:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain#Reserved_doma...
        
         | gnabgib wrote:
         | .example (for examples), .invalid (invalid domains), .localhost
         | (avoids conflict with localhost hostname), .test (for tests),
         | .local (link-local names), .onion (for Tor)
        
           | jchw wrote:
           | Also good to reserve localhost since some system resolvers
           | will actually resolve any subdomain of localhost as
           | 127.0.0.1. (I think systemd-resolved does, but I know for
           | sure glibc NSS with the nss-myhostname module does.)
        
             | tommiegannert wrote:
             | That's the speced behavior of localhost:
             | 
             | > The domain "localhost." and any names falling within
             | ".localhost." are special in the following ways:
             | 
             | > 4. [---] Instead, caching DNS servers SHOULD, for all
             | such address queries, generate an immediate positive
             | response giving the IP loopback address
             | 
             | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6761#section-6.3
        
               | globular-toast wrote:
               | I haven't figured out how to get unbound to do this. It's
               | easy to configure dnsmasq to do it, though
               | address=/localhost/127.0.0.1
               | address=/localhost/::1
               | 
               | I do this on my network because not every system resolver
               | does it itself (annoyingly).
        
               | jchw wrote:
               | I actually did not know this was specified by a standard.
               | That does indeed make it perplexing that not all
               | resolvers do it.
        
               | NoZebra120vClip wrote:
               | Couple things here:
               | 
               | The GP describes resolver software, which corresponds to
               | item 6.3.3, not a caching server. This does specify the
               | same behavior.
               | 
               | In RFC terminology, "MUST" > "SHOULD" > "MAY", so there
               | is some wiggle room there.
               | 
               | 6.3.2 permits Chromium and other apps to hardcode
               | localhost names as such, instead of using a resolver.
               | 
               | A very popular vector for adware/malware is to take over
               | the system resolver, or replace the DNS client
               | configuration, so this is one reason Chromium jealously
               | guards 127.0.0.0/8
        
           | webstrand wrote:
           | what about .localdomain? I haven't been able to find anything
           | standards-wise about it.
        
         | AndyMcConachie wrote:
         | The IANA link is probably better.
         | 
         | https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-names/sp...
        
       | vmurthy wrote:
       | From the article
       | 
       | "ICANN has picked the TLD string that it will recommend for safe
       | use behind corporate firewalls on the basis that it will never,
       | ever be delegated.
       | 
       | The string is .internal, and the choice is now open for public
       | comment"
       | 
       | Saved you a click :)
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | ICANN: [Proposed Top-Level Domain String for Private
       | Use](https://www.icann.org/en/public-
       | comment/proceeding/proposed-...) "The Internet Assigned Numbers
       | Authority (IANA) has made a provisional determination that
       | ".INTERNAL" should be reserved for private-use and internal
       | network applications(...)"
       | 
       | ... possibly a better link.
        
       | Terr_ wrote:
       | At last (or at least soon) I can stop using the special reserved
       | example.com for things. :p
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com
        
       | p1mrx wrote:
       | Eh, .internal is fine, but it's 8 characters to type. I'll
       | probably keep using .lan until someone else takes it.
        
         | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
         | You still can provide your input on the matter till march; so
         | it's not too late (yet): https://www.icann.org/en/public-
         | comment/proceeding/proposed-...
        
           | p1mrx wrote:
           | The problem is that .internal is the bureaucratically correct
           | answer, and not all internal networks are LANs.
           | 
           | Maybe they can reserve both .interNAL and its convenient
           | abbreviation, which just happens to be written backwards
           | because it's DNS.
        
             | ChrisArchitect wrote:
             | Ha, excellent
        
               | p1mrx wrote:
               | Submitted to ICANN; everybody keep yelling .interNAL
               | until it happens!
        
             | pxtail wrote:
             | Answer is simple and straightforward - nothing like this is
             | going to happen because short abbreviations and any
             | potential short alternatives can be sold and sweet sweet
             | money can be extracted
        
         | junon wrote:
         | Not all use cases for .internal involve a LAN though.
        
           | deng wrote:
           | Wait, so all the '.io' domains are actually registered by
           | people operating in the British Indian Ocean Territory?
           | 
           | Seriously, .lan is just a convention. For all I care they
           | could come up with any three-letter thingy, as long as
           | there's a mutual understanding that no global DNS will ever
           | resolve it.
        
           | p1mrx wrote:
           | Per my other comment, we could define LAN to be the
           | abbreviation for interNAL, because INT was already taken.
        
       | LeoPanthera wrote:
       | Also worth noting that "home.arpa" is already reserved and
       | specifically designed for residential use. It will never conflict
       | with anything.
        
         | Mountain_Skies wrote:
         | And is nine characters long, which is cumbersome for those
         | using it in an IOT context where data entry is often not
         | straightforward.
        
           | fastball wrote:
           | Huh?
        
             | Filligree wrote:
             | Typing it on your TV with a laggy UI where you can only
             | select letters using arrow keys. Which only work half the
             | time, and also it isn't QWERTY.
        
               | globular-toast wrote:
               | It's so sad this is still necessary. We've had service
               | discovery via avahi/zeroconf for years. Why does it seem
               | like uPNP has been and gone? It shouldn't be necessary to
               | type hostnames any more.
        
           | loktarogar wrote:
           | so, exactly the same as .internal
        
             | eqvinox wrote:
             | You didn't quite count that right with the dots ;)
        
         | scraplab wrote:
         | I use this, mostly for the .arpa vibes.
        
           | sph wrote:
           | I avoid it for the same reason. The ARPANET branch of the US
           | Department of Defense feels anything but home to me.
        
             | yrro wrote:
             | Would it relax you to know that it has been retconned into
             | "Address Routing Paramater Area"?
        
         | ahoka wrote:
         | I use it and it's very confusing for my guests.
        
       | matt3210 wrote:
       | .local already does this
        
         | CountSessine wrote:
         | .local is used by mdns so your .local machines can conflict
         | with discoverable devices and services. I guess they wanted
         | something that wouldn't conflict?
        
         | miles wrote:
         | > .local already does this
         | 
         | Best to avoid it for that purpose:
         | 
         | 1. "Using '.local' as a private top-level domain conflicts with
         | Multicast DNS and may cause problems for users."
         | https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6762#appendix-G
         | 
         | 2. ".local has since been designated for use in link-local
         | networking, in applications of multicast DNS (mDNS) and zero-
         | configuration networking (zeroconf) so that DNS service may be
         | established without local installations of conventional DNS
         | infrastructure on local area networks."
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local
         | 
         | 3. "PSA: Don't use domain.local"
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/a9sfks/psa_dont_u...
         | 
         | 4. "Why using .local as your domain name extension is a BAD
         | idea!" https://community.veeam.com/blogs-and-podcasts-57/why-
         | using-...
        
           | axytol wrote:
           | That's a good list of reasons, however it seems the biggest
           | concern is if you run a dedicated DNS service on your
           | network.
           | 
           | For a simple home network setup, as long as naming conflicts
           | can be managed, it looks like mDNS is quite handy.
           | 
           | On a side note, I find .local to be best suited for the
           | purpose, since from the language perspective it's easier on
           | international users than .localhost
           | 
           | The newly proposed .internal comes close, but .local still
           | looks more semantically flexible or maybe this is a cognitive
           | bias of mine.
        
         | Brian_K_White wrote:
         | Only to the same extent that .test and .example do, which is to
         | say it does not.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Url changed from https://domainincite.com/29381-icann-picks-the-
       | domain-it-wil..., which points to this.
        
       | amne wrote:
       | .intranet ?
        
       | rickette wrote:
       | host.docker.internal
        
       | w-ll wrote:
       | since ".dev" was hijacked ive been using ".lan" and ".lab"
        
         | mongol wrote:
         | I also use .lan
        
       | INTPenis wrote:
       | This makes me think of some AD best practices I read a long time
       | ago. One of the practices was to never use made up local TLDs
       | like .internal or .local because some day they might be real and
       | get picked up by someone.
       | 
       | Essentially you should always use a domain you control both
       | outside and inside, like a regular gTLD or ccTLD.
       | 
       | Pretty much every single company I've worked for with AD has
       | broken this rule.
        
         | NoZebra120vClip wrote:
         | The last time I set up DNS at home, I decided to use a
         | fictitious and undelegated subdomain under my ISP's domain
         | name. This structure did not create any "extra" problems in the
         | short term.
         | 
         | But I suppose that I still ran the risk that the subdomain
         | could "become real", or draw attention from security admins, or
         | I would change ISPs.
        
           | justusthane wrote:
           | > draw attention from security admins
           | 
           | How? I'm not saying this is great practice -- there are
           | certainly better options -- but no one outside your network
           | will ever know about it. It also won't matter if you switch
           | ISPs.
        
             | justsomehnguy wrote:
             | It's not a problem (well, most of the time), but you would
             | see the requests for 'internal' resources in DNS (ie your
             | machine is not on your network but tries to resolve the
             | internal DNS records) and in certificate checks even for
             | non-public PKIs
        
         | blowski wrote:
         | I saw a successful attack on a .dev domain doing exactly this.
         | Links on PCs worked correctly, but phones showed a scam site,
         | so emailed links were attacked.
         | 
         | It was hard to fix because they couldn't get the spoofed
         | domain, and there were so many copies of bad links everywhere.
        
           | gerwim wrote:
           | Another fun fact about .dev which I recently found out while
           | working on a side project:
           | 
           | You NEED to use https when visiting any .dev domain. Google
           | has put it on the HSTS preload list.
           | 
           | It took me a while to find out why my browser kept
           | redirecting me to https when I wanted to use http (local
           | development). Curl worked fine...
        
             | chopin wrote:
             | Pretty much the first I do on any fresh server is to
             | disable http, no matter what it is used for.
             | 
             | IMHO http has no use in the modern world.
        
             | traceroute66 wrote:
             | > Google has put it on the HSTS preload list.
             | 
             | Just for the record, anybody can add their own domain to
             | HSTS via the submission site[1].
             | 
             | [1] https://hstspreload.org/
        
         | malinens wrote:
         | We used .dev before google registered it so we migrated to
         | another paid domain so we don't need to pay huge amount per
         | year to google
        
           | maxcoder4 wrote:
           | To this day this story still blows my mind:
           | 
           | >Register a TLD which is informal standard for development
           | websites and environments (.dev)
           | 
           | >Charge an excessive amount of money for it
           | 
           | >To make sure you ruin everyone's day, put it on a HSTS
           | preload list
           | 
           | >Refuse to elaborate
        
             | enormousness wrote:
             | >Sell your domain business and force your customers to
             | migrate.
        
               | blooalien wrote:
               | ... to a provider that doesn't even offer all the same
               | services.
        
             | dijit wrote:
             | oh. its worse. the original request for the TLD was only
             | granted because in the application Google specifically
             | mentioned that it should be reserved due to its unofficial
             | use by developers and that if anyone else got it then they
             | might put real domains on it.
             | 
             | You cant make it up.
        
             | progbits wrote:
             | I specifically use some .dev domains because of HSTS. Some
             | of us don't cling to http and I prefer an error rather than
             | transparent fallback to unsafe protocol if I screw up the
             | config.
             | 
             | The first point is valid but that is mostly ICANN's fault,
             | they should have proposed it as reserved instead of selling
             | it.
        
             | yrro wrote:
             | > informal standard
             | 
             | FAFO, as they say.
        
           | deltaburnt wrote:
           | Just my person experience, but I got my relatively uncommon
           | name on .dev for $12/yr so I'm pretty happy with that. While
           | the situation worked in my favor, I agree .dev probably
           | should have been the official internal only TLD.
        
         | argiope wrote:
         | I understand that .home.arpa is the standard TLD for home
         | networks as per RFC-8375
         | 
         | https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8375
        
           | badgersnake wrote:
           | I tried to use that on my Turris Omnia and it broke a lot of
           | things. I ended up using .lan
        
             | voltagex_ wrote:
             | What broke?
        
             | INTPenis wrote:
             | I never heard of home.arpa so I'm also curious what broke.
             | 
             | The only thing I can imagine would be if you accidentally
             | created a root for .arpa.
        
         | keeperofdakeys wrote:
         | The ".local" domain specifically is a bad choice as many
         | platforms use MDNS instead of DNS for looking up those names.
         | Leading to issues resolving names on some client devices. It's
         | also very common due to Microsoft suggesting it as best
         | practise in the early days of AD.
        
           | rzzzt wrote:
           | I'm wondering about one thing, now that I've read a few "may
           | cause issues" and "is used for mDNS" replies: what the F is
           | mDNS actually doing in the background?
           | 
           | Is it really going to assign "lancelot.roundtable.local" to
           | my washing machine on a whim, which leaves the microwave
           | unresolvable?
           | 
           | Can't I instruct the mDNS server running on my machine to
           | respond to a particular name ending in .local?
           | 
           | Can't eg. dnsmasq insert itself into a conversation on
           | 224.0.0.251 saying "Let me answer this question" for certain
           | queries?
        
             | jt2190 wrote:
             | If you've set up x.local in your DNS for your dryer but
             | your laptop uses mDNS, it's possible that your lapatop's
             | mDNS will get a response from your microwave that it's
             | reachable at x.local. The solution (not an expert, please
             | check this) is to set up the dryer in DNS as x.domain-thar-
             | you-own or x.home.arpa
        
             | hgomersall wrote:
             | I'm a little fuzzy on this, but my understanding is that
             | for mDNS to be reliable it is required that all .local
             | hosts implement mDNS to allow for conflict resolution.
        
           | HackerThemAll wrote:
           | Thank Apple for this half-baked bullsh*t.
        
             | MissTake wrote:
             | How so?
        
               | lioeters wrote:
               | Maybe because of this?
               | 
               | > mDNS implementations
               | 
               | > RFC 6762 was authored by Apple Inc. employees Stuart
               | Cheshire and Marc Krochmal, and Apple's Bonjour zeroconf
               | networking software implements mDNS. That service will
               | automatically resolve the private IP addresses of link-
               | local Macintosh computers running MacOS and mobile
               | devices running iOS if .local is appended to their
               | hostnames. In addition, Bonjour devices will use those
               | .local hostnames when advertising services to DNS Service
               | Discovery clients.
               | 
               | > Most Linux distributions also incorporate and are
               | configured to use zeroconf.
               | 
               | > ..The connection of Macintosh and Linux computers or
               | zeroconf peripherals to Windows networks can be
               | problematic if those networks include name servers that
               | use .local as a search domain for internal devices.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local
        
               | thinkmassive wrote:
               | Kinda weird to blame the people who made an RFC, instead
               | of the industry leader who recommended using .local
               | completely on their own, without support from the wider
               | industry. This is explained in the next couple
               | paragraphs, where you stopped copying.
        
               | lioeters wrote:
               | You're right, the confusion about the use of .local
               | domain seems to be more due to Microsoft going back-and-
               | forth about it.
               | 
               | > At one time, Microsoft at least suggested the use of
               | .local as a pseudo-TLD for small private networks with
               | internal DNS servers.
               | 
               | > ..However, more recent articles have cautioned or
               | advised against such use of the .local TLD.
               | 
               | > Microsoft TechNet article 708159[7] suggested .local
               | 
               | > ..but later recommended against it.
               | 
               | > The Microsoft Learn article "Selecting the Forest Root
               | Domain"[8] cautioned against using .local
               | 
               | > By default, a freshly installed Windows Server 2016
               | Essentials also adds .local as the default dns-prefix
               | when a user doesn't select the advanced option, resulting
               | in a domain with .local extension.
        
               | nullindividual wrote:
               | mDNS was announced after the Windows 2000 RTM date, so it
               | would be unfair to blame Microsoft with regards to mDNS
               | functionality.
               | 
               | Not that Microsoft should have made that recommendation,
               | but hindsight and all that.
        
             | irusensei wrote:
             | No. Fuck MS for encouraging their MVPs to use a reserved
             | domain.
        
         | Hendrikto wrote:
         | > made up local TLDs like .internal or .local
         | 
         | .local actually exists. It is used for mDNS.
        
           | apexalpha wrote:
           | TIL, woops!
           | 
           | I use this for all my internal domains, haha. I guess this is
           | why we need a proper tld like this.
        
             | baobun wrote:
             | The following TLDs are fine and reserved:
             | .test                     .example
             | .invalid                   .localhost
             | 
             | RFC2606 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2606)
        
               | wolverine876 wrote:
               | Not really: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154082
        
             | rmccue wrote:
             | You could consider making them real mDNS domains then, and
             | using mDNS to resolve them to your desired IPs.
        
         | baobun wrote:
         | The following TLDs are fine and reserved:
         | .test                     .example                     .invalid
         | .localhost
         | 
         | RFC2606 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2606)
        
           | deng wrote:
           | Yes, but who would want .test, .example or .invalid as an
           | internal domain? Also, they are too long (yes, that matters).
           | 
           | What I've seen lately is '.int' for internal usage. While
           | this is a valid TLD, it is only for international
           | organizations, and it is not possible for "normal" people to
           | reserve a domain with that TLD, so unless your company is
           | called "WHO" or similar, you shouldn't have any problems...
        
             | ocdtrekkie wrote:
             | People thought .dev was safe until it wasn't. Bear in mind
             | they can still do something like "enroll all of .int in
             | HSTS preload" (like was done for .dev), and suddenly your
             | browsers will permanently refuse to load any of your
             | internal sites.
        
               | yrro wrote:
               | No one competent would ever have thought dev. was safe.
               | It's quite simple: if you don't own the domain, or it
               | hasn't been reserved (e.g., home.arpa.), don't use it!
        
             | patmorgan23 wrote:
             | .Corp exist and is reserved for private use.
        
           | codetrotter wrote:
           | Test is best used in temporary setups that you use for
           | testing things.
           | 
           | Example is best used in documentation only.
           | 
           | Invalid is weird and confusing.
           | 
           | Localhost as a TLD should still be on the machine itself.
           | Keeping in mind that 127.0.0.1 is not the only loopback
           | address at your disposal - you have the whole /8. You could
           | bind different services on different loopback ip addresses
           | and then assign host names in the .localhost tld to those.
           | 
           | So for example you could run different Wordpress instances
           | locally on your machine on ips 127.87.80.2, 127.87.80.3, and
           | 127.87.80.4, so that each can run on port 80 without
           | colliding with one another, and without resorting to having
           | non-80/non-443 ports.
           | 
           | Then have corresponding entries in /etc/hosts
           | 
           | 127.87.80.2 dogblog.localhost
           | 
           | 127.87.80.3 cooking.localhost
           | 
           | 127.87.80.4 travel.localhost
           | 
           | And use those domains to access each of those from your
           | browser. Then you don't even need to keep all services behind
           | the same Nginx instance for example, as you otherwise would
           | do if you had different domain names but was using 127.0.0.1
           | and port 80 for all of them.
           | 
           | Whereas having the localhost tld refer to hosts elsewhere on
           | a physical network.. that's about equally as weird and
           | confusing as "invalid".
        
             | pwdisswordfishc wrote:
             | > Keeping in mind that 127.0.0.1 is not the only loopback
             | address at your disposal - you have the whole /8.
             | 
             | Tell that to Google Chrome developers, who are so arrogant
             | they think they know better than the operating system, and
             | force-resolve *.localhost. to 127.0.0.1
        
               | loloquwowndueo wrote:
               | Then use a non-brain dead browser :)
        
               | yrro wrote:
               | Looks like someone might have been trying to prepare the
               | ground for a hijack of 127.0.0.0/8...
        
               | bluejekyll wrote:
               | 'The ".localhost" TLD has traditionally been statically
               | defined in host DNS implementations as having an A record
               | pointing to the loop back IP address and is reserved for
               | such use. Any other use would conflict with widely
               | deployed code which assumes this use.'
               | 
               | Reading that sentence implies a single loop back address.
               | I appreciate that IPv6 "fixed" this confusion by having a
               | single loop back address of ::1. While you are correct
               | that IPv4 reserved the entire /8 in practice the
               | expectation is generally that 127.0.0.1 is the loopback
               | address, and using other addresses in the 127/8 space
               | tends to lead to unexpected issues across many pieces of
               | software. The intention of the .localhost domain is to
               | ensure that DNS resolutions never resolves to something
               | external, for security reasons.
               | 
               | See also, RFC 5735: "... This is ordinarily implemented
               | using only 127.0.0.1/32 for loopback." --
               | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5735
        
           | CranberryDefuse wrote:
           | They are reserved for Testing, & Documentation Examples.
           | 
           | You should not used them in production.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | The only one of those appropriate for accessing actual hosts
           | would be .test, and obviously using .test for non-testing
           | purposes would also not be appropriate.
        
             | patmorgan23 wrote:
             | .domain, .lan, .home, .host, and .Corp
             | 
             | Are all options as well.
        
         | globular-toast wrote:
         | My work used .local which means mDNS and service discovery etc
         | doesn't work. Very annoying. What are they teaching these
         | network admins? Why don't they even know what a domain name is
         | for?
        
           | mtillman wrote:
           | Similar issue with modern devs that don't know what a page of
           | memory is.
        
             | londons_explore wrote:
             | Or don't even know the bandgap of the transistors the
             | computer is running off.
        
               | ahoka wrote:
               | Yeah, developers nowadays don't know their Pauli
               | exclusion principle.
        
             | HackerThemAll wrote:
             | or a database.
        
           | HackerThemAll wrote:
           | Thank Apple for designing the protocol the Apple way, that is
           | being not interoperable with the world.
        
             | JonathonW wrote:
             | Yes, the classic not-interoperable approach of publishing
             | the protocol as Standards Track RFCs with the IETF.
        
               | p_l wrote:
               | The timeline was IIRC
               | 
               | 1. MS made recommendations to use .local
               | 
               | 2. Apple networks started to use Bonjour and used .local,
               | breaking on networks that used .local already
               | 
               | 3. RFC was submitted
               | 
               | 4. MS recommended against using .local or any domain you
               | do not own fully
        
           | Uvix wrote:
           | Even if they know now, that doesn't mean they knew when
           | setting up the AD domain back in 2000.
        
           | patmorgan23 wrote:
           | Microsoft's recommendation in the early 2000's was to use
           | .local
        
         | maccard wrote:
         | > Essentially you should always use a domain you control both
         | outside and inside, like a regular gTLD or ccTLD.
         | 
         | Yep. We use two domains - everything on A is "public" and
         | everything on "B" is internal. The root of "B" is a static page
         | on AWS that is gated behind our VPN so it serves as a quick
         | "can you hit our infra at all" check when troubleshooting, and
         | catches the people who are convinced they've enabled their VPN.
         | 
         | One thing to note here that we haven't solved (We've only got
         | two "infra" people, we're a small company) is how you handle an
         | internal portal to an external service. If our public domain is
         | maccard.com and private is maccard.dev, where does internal-
         | admin.maccard.com _actually_ live? Our solve for this is we
         | have an internal.maccard.com for this very specific use case,
         | but I'd much rather it was admin.live.maccard.dev
        
           | justusthane wrote:
           | We just use the same domain internally and externally with
           | split DNS. Works fine.
        
             | justsomehnguy wrote:
             | Until it doesn't.
             | 
             | And having a website on the domain.tld adds shenanigans.
             | 
             | One of many examples I had is when Outlook loses connection
             | to Exchange (eg S2S VPN is down) it starts autodiscovery
             | process, hits domain.tld (because users have
             | email@domain.tld, duh) and complains to user with a scary
             | messages (which are also blocks the process until the users
             | hit _something_ ). Which is totally understandable, because
             | the website is on some public hosting, so CN in the cert is
             | from the public host at best and != domain.tld.
             | 
             | Using corp.domain.tld or even techdomain.tld solves this
             | totally and also let you use public certs (LE in the
             | current era) even on the 'local' side of the network.
        
             | maccard wrote:
             | We have enough issues with DNS that adding split DNS into
             | the mix is a ball ache I don't want to contend with.
             | 
             | We actually have the DNS for our private domain set
             | publicly, and all the actual work happens on a load
             | balancer which is on the network. We're fully remote so
             | this avoids the "my communal WiFi provider seems to have
             | issues with the VPN" (which is what we had when we used
             | split DNS)
        
               | noAnswer wrote:
               | I buried split DNS (and (for the most part) private CAs
               | for that matter) with ACME DNS-01.
        
             | johannes1234321 wrote:
             | Aside from all technical issues the biggest problem I have
             | seen with such an approach is that is really hard for
             | employees to remember what is external and what internal
             | that way. Distinct domains help there
        
             | NewJazz wrote:
             | We use split DNS and the admins can't even do it right,
             | they keep fucking it up and configuring one DNS view but
             | not the other, so when I'm on VPN I randomly can't use
             | certain domain names.
             | 
             | Also as another commenter mentioned, it is impossible to
             | tell based on the name if it is an internal or external
             | resource
             | 
             | I'm curious what split DNS offers that a separate internal
             | zone wouldn't.
        
         | solatic wrote:
         | Devil's advocate: using an Internet-public domain for internal
         | purposes will publicly expose your internal hostnames if you
         | enable DNSSEC on the Internet-public domain. This is a problem
         | if you're required to enable DNSSEC, e.g. for FedRAMP
         | compliance.
         | 
         | The number of cases where this is actually a legitimate
         | concern, IMO, is extremely small, and I'm personally of the
         | opinion that using Internet-public domains for internal
         | purposes is generally fine. But it's still important to point
         | out that the number of cases is not zero.
        
           | akdev1l wrote:
           | You can use a public domain but a local/private DNS server
        
           | INTPenis wrote:
           | I believe the advice about using a TLD you control outside
           | and inside is mostly to prevent takeover on the outside that
           | could affect the inside.
           | 
           | But you can still have completely separate DNS for the
           | inside. Using a shared DB for both would probably be
           | recommended to avoid conflicts.
        
           | eqvinox wrote:
           | > expose your internal hostnames if you enable DNSSEC
           | 
           | Zone content enumeration in DNSsec was fixed by NSEC3 records
           | (RFC5155, March 2008)
        
             | tptacek wrote:
             | No it wasn't! NSEC3 is crackable the same way a 1990s Unix
             | password file is. This was such a big problem that two
             | competing approaches were introduced to defeat it:
             | "whitelies", which I perceive as the "best practices
             | standard" answer, requires servers to operate as online
             | signers (they should have been all along) so they can
             | generate dynamic chaff records to foil enumeration, and
             | NSEC5.
        
               | eqvinox wrote:
               | Hmm. Interesting. I wasn't aware of that, thanks! ...
               | also, https://github.com/CyberCX-STA/NSEC-3-Walker ...
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | Every security auditor in ever regs regime will flag zone
           | transfers.
        
         | tambourine_man wrote:
         | This happened with the .dev situation. I switched to .d ever
         | since. I've read somewhere that new TLDs are required to be at
         | least 2 letters so I guess I'm safe this way.
        
           | patmorgan23 wrote:
           | You can use .lan, . domain, .home, .host or .Corp as they are
           | all reserved TLDs
        
             | tambourine_man wrote:
             | .d is easier to type.
        
             | ehPReth wrote:
             | they aren't reserved that I can see?
             | https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-
             | names/sp...
             | 
             | Where did you see that? would be interesting to have
             | reference for a couple people
        
         | chaz6 wrote:
         | I joke that I would use .icannsux because there is just no way
         | they would assign it.
        
           | lifthrasiir wrote:
           | `.sucks` _is_ a real TLD though, so you can register
           | `icann.sucks` today!
        
             | mdaniel wrote:
             | https://www.hover.com/domains/results?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=ican
             | n... alleges it is $219,999.99 and renews at $2599.99/yr
             | due to "This is a tiered price domain."
             | 
             | Also, yeah, they almost had me with those .99 figures :-/
        
           | INTPenis wrote:
           | Hah that's a funny idea that you'd be relatively safer if you
           | used something outrageous like godsavethequeen or
           | crappymcfartlegs. But you never know what promotional TLDs
           | are created in the future. Or how free the process might
           | become, as remembering names becomes less and less important
           | to a majority of internet users.
        
         | irusensei wrote:
         | The .local bullshit gate so much headache. When I was working
         | on Ubuntu based POS systems we had to make sure avahi or any
         | kind of mDNS wouldn't be installed. It became a running joke
         | "we got another MS MVP here" every time we had issues with a
         | client with a .local domain.
        
         | drbawb wrote:
         | >Pretty much every single company I've worked for with AD has
         | broken this rule.
         | 
         | It's a lot better now. Ever since companies started moving from
         | on-prem Exchange to O365 in droves I've noticed that most orgs
         | I work with (painfully) updated their domain so their user
         | principals align w/ their O365 mailbox.
         | 
         | There's only one customer I have that still uses a ".local"
         | domain for AD, and they got bought out last year. (By an org
         | that uses a real FQDN.)
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | I worked for Merrill Lynch around 2000 and they used other
         | people's public _IP addresses_ on their (theoretically)
         | internal network.
         | 
         | Naturally, this went terribly as soon any of their sites had
         | their own connection to the internet.
        
           | carterschonwald wrote:
           | I've been told that this is still a problem at large
           | organizations in that industry.
        
           | wolverine876 wrote:
           | Why not use the designated private IP ranges? There are more
           | than enough addresses there, unless it's some crazy
           | application with millions of instances each needing an IP.
           | But then use IPv6?
        
         | yencabulator wrote:
         | I've sold IT stuff to a city that had some expensive
         | consultants configure their ActiveDirectory as
         | <name_of_city>.ad, as in the ccTLD of Andorra.
        
         | bitcurious wrote:
         | We had a bunch of .dev urls break thanks to google and our lack
         | of foresight.
        
       | loupol wrote:
       | I think I would have preferred .intra (Unless it's already used
       | somehow ?).
       | 
       | Just 5 letters is less annoying to type repeatedly than
       | .internal, while still conveying the overall purpose relatively
       | well.
       | 
       | It might just be my laziness talking though.
        
         | steve_adams_86 wrote:
         | I liked this idea at first, but the more I think about it the
         | less I'm sure it works. Intra seems like a word which denotes
         | physical boundaries to be within. It prefixes words like
         | intramural, intramuscular, and intracellular. It's used for
         | intranet as well, and while this usage of the prefix works, it
         | has more broad use-cases than that. On the other hand, internal
         | seems very clear and direct, and might suit a more digital,
         | organizational context with less of a physical or spatial
         | aspect to it.
         | 
         | Also, since intra is typically used as a prefix, it seems
         | strange to use it bare. People familiar with intranets will
         | probably make (or assume) the connection, but others might find
         | it unclear while "internal" would likely not be.
         | 
         | Even so, I do prefer .intra for selfish reasons.
        
         | deng wrote:
         | You are not alone. Typing matters, 'internal' is just too long.
         | I'd much prefer if they for instance would reserve '.lan' for
         | internal usage.
        
           | Terretta wrote:
           | so, for example, an entirely internal zero trust network
           | across all locations, should be .lan and not .internal?
           | 
           | .lan is so "back to office"
        
           | josho wrote:
           | Isn't it possible to setup a default search domain. So most
           | places you could just type something like https://site/ and
           | your dns config knows to look for https://site.internal/
        
         | hannob wrote:
         | Counterpoint: .internal is much easier to understrand, .intra
         | sounds like a reference to "intranet" as opposed to "internet".
         | That's terminology networking people would use, but .internal
         | is likely something both non-tech and tech people would
         | intuitively understand.
        
       | DiabloD3 wrote:
       | I use .localnet to go with the name of localhost, as this has
       | been suggested by ... one of the RFCs, but I can't remember
       | which.
       | 
       | If .localnet ever becomes a real TLD, well, I'm pretty sure the
       | entire global infra is going to collapse and not necessarily be
       | my problem.
       | 
       | Edit: And to be clear, I'm doing this for my house, not some
       | enterprise setup; using real actual FQDN for internal services at
       | a company, especially one that is multi-site/cloud, is still the
       | best advice.
        
         | erik_seaberg wrote:
         | I've seen localhost.localdomain often but I'm not sure whether
         | it's actually reserved.
        
       | mezzode wrote:
       | As others have mentioned there already is the ".home.arpa" TLD
       | but I definitely think ".internal" is a step up in terms of
       | clarity. That said, for my internal network I just put things
       | under a subdomain of a domain I own so I can use HTTPS with a
       | proper SSL cert
        
         | MaxBarraclough wrote:
         | That seems like a great way to go - get it signed the normal
         | way and TLS will 'just work', no messing about configuring
         | trust on your devices.
         | 
         | Will this be possible with _.internal_ ?
        
         | ahoka wrote:
         | You can use a proper certificate with any domain you like.
        
           | eqvinox wrote:
           | except not with .home.arpa .internal .lan or whatever else,
           | since you don't have "domain ownership"
        
         | eqvinox wrote:
         | > I just put things under a subdomain of a domain I own
         | 
         | Yup, same here. Great in combination with ACME DNS-01 so your
         | DNS server can request all those certificates and then push
         | them out to your devices. (Otherwise the hostnames need to be
         | externally accessible, which means either exposing the internal
         | devices, or mucking around with split-view DNS. The former is a
         | terrible idea, the latter is also DNS server complexity and
         | worse than doing DNS-01 IMHO.)
        
           | mdaniel wrote:
           | IMHO if you are already doing some process of "push
           | certificates out to devices," you'll likely be much happier
           | with getting a wildcard cert using DNS-01 and change that
           | update process from "all devices all the time according to
           | their schedule" over to "all devices but once every 80 days"
           | 
           | I do appreciate the threat model of one device getting owned
           | leaks all your certs but security is always a trade-off
           | between security and convenience. It also lowers the load
           | upon the LE servers, for what that's worth
        
             | eqvinox wrote:
             | Not sure everything updating at the same time is more
             | "convenient" than staggered failures. For one, if multiple
             | things break at the same time, it's easier to lock yourself
             | out of things in more complicated ways. Also it's generally
             | the first refresh that breaks, and everything at once only
             | helps when you freshly roll out certs to a whole bunch of
             | devices... if you add things incrementally (e.g. either
             | because you finally get around to it, or you just bought
             | something new) it makes no difference if it's all in the
             | same cycle. Except now you have a wildcard cert floating
             | around...
        
       | lifthrasiir wrote:
       | Another possibility is `.zz`, which technically can be a ccTLD
       | but it's a user-assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, and its last
       | position makes extremely impossible for it to be repurposed as a
       | valid code even in that setting. In comparison, some user-
       | assigned codes like `XZ` are often used for temporary country
       | codes so `.xz` would be less appropriate.
       | 
       | It seems that ICANN did consider this choice among others, but
       | reject for the lack of meaningfulness:
       | 
       | > The qualitative assessment on the latter properties was
       | performed in the six United Nations languages (Arabic, Chinese,
       | English, French, Russian and Spanish). [...] Many candidate
       | strings were deemed unsuitable due to their lack of
       | meaningfulness. [...] In this evaluation, only two candidates
       | emerged as broadly meeting the assessment criteria across the
       | assessed languages. These were "INTERNAL" and "PRIVATE". Some
       | weaknesses were identified for both of these candidates. [...]
       | 
       | I wonder if this means that they only scored the highest among
       | others and _all_ candidate strings were indeed unsuitable, but
       | that they had to pick one anyway. I 'm not even sure that
       | laypersons can relate `.internal` with the stuff for "internal"
       | uses.
        
         | unclet wrote:
         | I opposite to use the `.zz`. Instead, I think this should be
         | assigned as new TLD domain for all people live in any country,
         | because it is a reserved ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, and will not
         | be assigned to any country. It's the best convenient TLD for
         | human on the earth.
        
           | matrss wrote:
           | I consider .xyz to be a good TLD for that purpose already,
           | but .zz would be nice too.
        
       | fmajid wrote:
       | This may generate confusion with the .int gTLD used for
       | international organizations like UN agencies.
        
       | denkmoon wrote:
       | .lan thanks.
        
       | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
       | Personally I use the HOSTS file instead of DNS.
       | 
       | Alternatively I use a map file loaded into the memory of a
       | loopback-bound forward proxy. No DNS.
       | 
       | I also use loopback-bound authoritative DNS to a limited extent
       | as it provides wildcards.
       | 
       | There are ways to avoid using DNS.
       | 
       | Most web developers do not understand DNS, or at least dislike
       | it, and some get annoyed by the HOSTS file. Quite funny. But I'm
       | not a developer. DNS is something I understand well enough, I
       | like it, and, in addition, the HOSTS file is useful for me. But
       | sometimes it's most useful for me to avoid DNS.
        
         | sedatk wrote:
         | How do you synchronize hosts file between clients?
        
           | rzzzt wrote:
           | You can set up a server listening to port 53 that will return
           | the corresponding entry from a "hosts file" if you query it
           | for an A record. To avoid the file growing uncomfortably big,
           | it can be split up amongst hierarchically arranged servers.
        
             | alex_suzuki wrote:
             | How would you call this hypothetical system? It's almost
             | like a distributed system for looking up names.
        
               | rzzzt wrote:
               | An RFC might have been submitted for this already, let me
               | check!
        
         | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
         | While I have no need to lookup an address in local computer A's
         | HOSTS file from local computer B as this is not how I use the
         | HOSTS file, in the event that I did want computer B to look up
         | addresses in computer A's HOSTS file, it seems there are many
         | possible options. I could not even come close to listing all of
         | them. (The discussion here is computers on a local network. Is
         | there a need for a "distributed hierarchical system".)
         | 
         | pdns_recursor can serve /etc/hosts
         | 
         | https://docs.powerdns.com/recursor/settings.html
         | 
         | unbound can serve "local data"
         | 
         | https://unbound.docs.nlnetlabs.nl/en/latest/manpages/unbound...
         | 
         | dnsd from busybox can serve a HOSTS file                  (exec
         | 2>/dev/null;while read a b c ;do echo "$b $a";done <
         | /etc/hosts|busybox dnsd -c /dev/stdin -p1153 -i 10.21.66.4)
         | 
         | tinydns would work too                  echo . > data
         | while read a b c;do echo =$b:$a:1;done < /etc/hosts >> data
         | tinydns-data        ROOT=. IP=10.21.66.4 GID=0 UID=0 tinydns
         | 
         | Or just transfer the file instead;
         | 
         | rsync/mrsync could be used to keep computer A and computer B's
         | HOSTS files the same
         | 
         | Or ssh to transfer the HOSTS file from A to B.
         | echo cat /etc/hosts |ssh -T computerB "cat > /etc/hosts"
         | 
         | Or use ssh to query computer A's HOSTS file from computer B
         | echo getent hosts name|ssh -T computerB
         | 
         | Or some small httpd, e.g., darkhttpd                  httpd
         | /etc --port 1153 --addr 10.21.66.4        tnftp -4o'|grep name'
         | http://10.21.66.4:1153/hosts
         | 
         | It goes on and on.
         | 
         | But I'm not interested in using the HOSTS file in this way on
         | the local network. I'm more interested in IP addresses than
         | "domain names". I am not a fan of web browsers; I make HTTP
         | requests from the shell command prompt and from shell scripts.
         | For example, I like to create shortcuts for certain IP
         | addresses so I do not have to type them, e.g., when using
         | netcat. For me, the HOSTS file works perfectly for that
         | purpose. I use this functionality every day.
         | 
         | Not every computer on my local network has the same ability to
         | lookup names and IP addresses. Most have zero access to DNS
         | data. No lookups. Some may only be able to lookup a few remote
         | addresses. I might put those in the computer's HOSTS file.
        
           | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
           | There is a fear or hatred of /etc/hosts amongst web
           | developers. A regurgitated origin story about DNS and a
           | perpetuated myth about the HOSTS file, having to do with
           | constantly dynamic IP addresses. But the truth is that the
           | conditions of the internet have changed. As someone who uses
           | static, stored DNS data, and as such possesses a large chunk
           | of historical DNS data, I have proof that, for the websites I
           | may visit, most IP addresses do not change frequently.
           | 
           | Domain names are overrated. Web marketing hype. For example,
           | no one uses a domain name to log into their router. But no
           | one at home is getting internet access without typing an IP
           | address at least once to set up a router. If I want to type a
           | short, memorable name instead of an IP number to reach a
           | computer on the local network I can make an entry in
           | /etc/hosts. Using computers that have no /etc/hosts and no
           | control over DNS sucks. Let web developers use those
           | computers.
           | 
           | How many times have I seen developers copy entire portions of
           | RFC 1035 into their code as a "comment". Too many to count.
           | They will always struggle to understand it.
        
       | hyperman1 wrote:
       | I'd revently ran into this, after using .local for a long time,
       | and installing something with mdns. Nslookup gave the correct ip,
       | but ping got confused.
       | 
       | A quick google did not deliver a decent reserved domain, but
       | multiple people suggested .home
        
       | dkpk wrote:
       | Stumbled across this thread from 2020 -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24606723
        
       | tracker1 wrote:
       | I think imternal, .lan, .inside should all be reserved and
       | established to never allow registration with OCANN.
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | So sad that a big tech company stole the dot dev thanks to the
       | ICANN greediness...
        
       | nbadg wrote:
       | It would be nice to see this paired with more widespread support
       | for the Name Constraints TLS extension, which would in theory
       | allow internal CAs to be restricted to issuing certificates for
       | .internal domains. That would open up a lot of very interesting
       | applications in terms of streamlining HTTPS on local networks,
       | for example, ACME on openWRT routers.
        
         | 8organicbits wrote:
         | Absolutely. We're getting closer, but it's hard to measure what
         | actually supports it as bettertls (the caniuse equivalent in
         | this space) doesn't track it.
         | 
         | https://github.com/Netflix/bettertls/issues/19
        
           | teleclimber wrote:
           | Note there was a W3C community group that explored the "HTTPS
           | on local networks" question. It's closed now but they wrote
           | use cases and proposals:
           | 
           | https://www.w3.org/community/httpslocal/
           | https://httpslocal.github.io/proposals/
           | https://httpslocal.github.io/usecases/
           | 
           | I wish some of this work would continue as well.
        
       | tensility wrote:
       | After reading through the threads, I still think that '.lan' is a
       | better non-reserved suffix to use for this than '.internal';
       | however, my opinion rarely has significant weight in the grand
       | scheme of things.
        
         | dubcanada wrote:
         | Do you have a reason why you think '.lan' is better then
         | '.internal' besides being shorter? I am curious why.
        
           | surfingdino wrote:
           | lan = LAN or Local Area Network
        
         | TkTech wrote:
         | And when you're using it to connect to devices not physically
         | on your LAN, like servers reached via tailscale? `.internal`
         | implies your internal network, however it may be setup, `.lan`
         | implies your "local" area network.
        
       | gmuslera wrote:
       | What about ssl? will that work with i.e. letsencrypt?
        
         | dubcanada wrote:
         | I suspect you'd need to generate your own, unless they intend
         | on allowing people to register them. It's hard to provide a SSL
         | for the 100,000 different "tv.internal".
        
         | crote wrote:
         | It shouldn't. There is no way to prove ownership of a domain,
         | because _everyone_ owns it. Both a genuine company and their
         | attacker have the right to use the .internal TLD, so both
         | should be granted a certificate. This makes it completely
         | trivial for the attacker to MitM the company 's TLS
         | connections.
         | 
         | The only option to somewhat-securely run TLS would be to have
         | the company run their own internal CA, and trust its root
         | certificate on all internal clients.
        
       | 8organicbits wrote:
       | The server authentication story is fairly weak. Multiple
       | companies may use the same .internal domain name and none of them
       | can get a TLS certificate from a public certificate authority.
       | This means they'll each need to operate a private CA if they want
       | to authenticate connections to the server (and encrypt with
       | HTTPS). A major problem with this approach is that computers
       | (especially laptops) travel between networks and can end up
       | trusting more than one private CA. This means that you can have
       | multiple servers using the same domain name, but operated by
       | different orgs, and each appears valid to the end user. Session
       | cookies and other data can leak when this happens.
       | 
       | I think the right solution is that we should require domain
       | registration (google.internal, microsoft.internal, etc.) to avoid
       | these conflicts. A public CA may be able to verify ownership,
       | avoiding the need for private CAs.
       | 
       | I built a service [1] that does this and is compatible with Let's
       | Encrypt. The trick is that I only allow users to set ACME-DNS01
       | TXT records, not A/AAAA/CNAME records. So you'll still need to
       | run internal DNS for those.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.getlocalcert.net/
        
         | crote wrote:
         | What's the benefit over just buying a regular domain for my
         | internal stuff? The result would be about the same, and I
         | wouldn't be dependent on you never going out of business.
        
           | 8organicbits wrote:
           | Even with a TLD, going out of business is a concern. Take
           | Freenom as an example, they had rampant abuse and ran into
           | funding issues. People who previously used that service for
           | free internal domains have been looking for a new home.
           | 
           | What's different is that the public suffixes I operate cannot
           | publicly host content, which should protect the service from
           | the abuse concerns that plagued Freenom and other free public
           | suffixes. That reduces cost and should keep the site running.
           | 
           | I recommend buying your own domain if you don't mind the
           | cost. A free solution for domains with TLS on internal
           | networks is valuable to many.
        
       | icedchai wrote:
       | I use a subdomain of "int" for all internal hosts:
       | host.int.example.com. My internal machines have int.example.com
       | and example.com in the search path.
        
       | throwawaaarrgh wrote:
       | If it doesn't get accepted I'll use .arpanet because nobody's
       | registering that
        
       | VoodooJuJu wrote:
       | Why did this take so long?
        
       | traceroute66 wrote:
       | .corp, .home and .mail should also be perfectly viable for
       | private use after ICANN eventualy decided to cease all processing
       | of applications for those TLDs.                   "Whereas, on 30
       | July 2014, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee adopted the
       | Name Collision Management Framework. In the Framework, .CORP,
       | .HOME, and .MAIL were noted as high-risk strings whose delegation
       | should be deferred indefinitely".[1]
       | 
       | [1] https://www.icann.org/en/board-activities-and-
       | meetings/mater...
        
         | lolinder wrote:
         | Deferred indefinitely is not quite the same thing as reserved
         | for private use. For home use cases it's probably good enough,
         | but a corporation will want more assurance than "the current
         | ICANN has stopped processing applications for this TLD."
        
           | przemub wrote:
           | Yeah, with Google getting .dev we can't count on ICANN being
           | reasonable.
        
             | reactordev wrote:
             | Actually, if history is any indicator, we can't trust _any_
             | of these companies with this. Remember the org tld private
             | equity fiasco? ICANN only did something after public outcry
             | and EFF interest.
        
               | NewJazz wrote:
               | ICANN persisted with their antics until the California
               | attorney general announced an inquiry into the deal. Only
               | then did ICANN change their plans.
        
             | yencabulator wrote:
             | I trust ICANN to be the opposite of reasonable if they can
             | make money off of it.
        
       | fl0ki wrote:
       | This is exactly how a committee would design it if none of the
       | participants had actually used an internal domain.
       | 
       | For example, in Google, https://go/foo had "go" as technically a
       | TLD, and the memorable suffix that followed was already part of
       | the path and not the domain name. It made it easy to type or
       | include anywhere, including chats, posters, presentation slides,
       | etc.
       | 
       | If they were to follow this proposal instead, you'd be typing or
       | including https://go.internal/foo , which while more explicit
       | largely defeats the point of the short URL.
        
         | dogleash wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_domain
        
         | nullindividual wrote:
         | Are you sure go wasn't just the hostname?
         | 
         | This was very common in Windows shops back in the NT and even
         | post-NT4 days to leverage the hostname as the URL
         | (http://exchange, http://sharepoint, and so on).
        
         | jmgao wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure it was go.corp.google.com, with corp.google.com
         | configured as one of the search domains.
        
           | fl0ki wrote:
           | I think it was both, because I think it also worked even when
           | it wasn't a search domain. Can anyone still at Google check?
        
       | eqvinox wrote:
       | "foo.int/ernal" lookalike attacks in 3... 2... 1...
       | 
       | (to be fair, you generally can't get an .int domain registered.
       | "int is considered to have the strictest application policies of
       | all TLDs, as it implies that the holder is a subject of
       | international law.")
       | 
       | ... now that I think about it, "foo.in/ternal" makes so much more
       | sense ...
        
         | GTP wrote:
         | But you could do that with any domain, what's special in this
         | case?
        
           | eqvinox wrote:
           | > what's special in this case
           | 
           | There's an existing TLD that is a string prefix of the new
           | TLD.
           | 
           | Apart from lookalike attacks I'm also wondering if this will
           | do weird things while you type in an address, e.g. if you try
           | to type "foo.internal" and pause for a second after
           | "foo.int"... your application may run off and do lookups or
           | even prefetches.
        
       | lodovic wrote:
       | Please allow self-signed certificates for ".internal" by default
        
         | yencabulator wrote:
         | If all self-signed certs are allowed by default, then the
         | crypto means nothing at all -- that's not good.
        
           | rzzzt wrote:
           | Crypto is/could be still fine, it will still make it harder
           | for others to see the contents of the conversation that is
           | going on between the two machines.
           | 
           | What you are losing is the modicum of confidence that a
           | website is the real deal because another party (that browser
           | and OS manufacturers trust) took the time to, at the very
           | least, verify ownership of the domain.
        
             | yencabulator wrote:
             | Automatically trusting any cert raises the bar for
             | attackers from passive snooping to MITM. On a home
             | LAN/wifi, MITM is pretty much as likely as passive
             | listening. At the very least you need TOFU (trust-on-first-
             | use) for any kind of real attack prevention.
        
       | caymanjim wrote:
       | Didn't .local start out this way until it was co-opted by Apple
       | for some network abomination? Any new private domain is just
       | going to get co-opted by something else soon enough. Browser
       | authors and network service authors are going to start using it
       | for random, incompatible purposes and break everything.
       | 
       | If you need DNS, register and use a real domain name. Everything
       | else is going to be a hack. Anyone tech-savvy enough to know what
       | an internal, unroutable TLD is, and have a use for one, is going
       | to be just as comfortable and capable of managing a real domain.
       | 
       | I support the idea of something like .internal, but I'm certain
       | it will be made useless for its intended purpose in short order.
        
         | josho wrote:
         | I can see one benefit to this approach.
         | 
         | Messing up your .internal configuration won't result in leaking
         | queries to the public.
         | 
         | And maybe secondarily this may encourage tool development for
         | supporting internal names and make it easier for setting up
         | informal or per department configurations.
        
       | Arch-TK wrote:
       | I just use i.slow.network as my internal domain. Most things
       | support search domains to avoid having to type too much.
        
       | whycome wrote:
       | I can't find it now, but wasn't there a story about microsoft
       | using a 'dummy' url in some internal documents that later became
       | real?
        
         | miles wrote:
         | Yes:
         | 
         | Microsoft Buys Corp.com So Bad Guys Can't
         | https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/microsoft-buys-corp-com-...
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-27 23:02 UTC)