Re: [Doh] [DNSOP] New I-D: draft-reid-doh-operator

[Christian Huitema <[e-mail]>]

On 3/19/2019 12:50 AM, Eliot Lear wrote:
>> On 19 Mar 2019, at 01:50, Matthew Pounsett <[e-mail]
>> <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>>
>> Somewhere up-thread it was suggested that there are other reasonable
>> steps that a network/security operator can take to maintain the
>> controls over resolution that we have today, but so far I haven't
>> seen them enumerated anywhere.
>>
>
> I had stated that one can use an MDM to manage the endpoint’s use of
> DoH.  This doesn’t eliminate the possibility of malware, but does
> reduce misconfiguration in the enterprise, and provides for some
> protection against infection by blocking known bad names.

Configuration works well for functions like "phishing protection": the
device users in most cases want some form of protection, and then it is
a matter of how this protection is configured. It does not work so well
for functions like intrusion detection, such as figuring out whether a
device is trying to contact a botnet C&C, because we cannot expect the
infected device to be amenable to configuration.

Third party DNS/DoH providers could probably block resolution of
phishing names or  botnet C&C names using the same methods as
enterprises do today, but the enterprise network will not be informed
that one of its devices just tried to contact a botnet C&C. It would be
very nice if the IETF standardized a way to do that.

>
> In addition, there’s at least a heuristic for detection: compare data
> plane activity against ANSWERs.  If you’re seeing activity to
> addresses that don’t match (modulo some noise), you know an alternate
> resolver is active on that device.  And while it’s possible for
> malware to mimic queries to Do53 for Good sites versus what it really
> wants to access, you start tarnishing the rep of the IP address as and
> when you detect the problem through other means (AV s/w, honey pots,
> binary inspection, et al).  That leaves it with cloud providers to
> sort their wagons.

Yes, one could imagine IP address or IP prefix reputation systems,
similar to the IP address block lists used to protect against spam. This
would work, and it would also provide intrusion detection signals when
an infected device starts contacting a botnet. The problem of course is
the gray line between "blocking phishing sites" and "blocking content
that I disagree with". The various attempts to block the whole of
Wikipedia in order to block some specific pages shows where this can lead.

-- Christian Huitema