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Comments
DHS Issues Emergency Directive on DNS Security
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dan91266
dan91266,
 User Rank: Strategist
1/24/2019 | 11:37:10 AM
When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
This one just feels like Chicken Little to me. OMFG! If you're careless about your DNS registration, you can get Pwned.  Really? DHS has to tell us that in a way that makes people run around screaming the sky is falling?!  

This kind of security theater crap masquerading as vigilance gives us a bad name as a profession and contributes to alert fatigue.

 

How about this? If your DNS MX record or SOA record changes, and you don't notice, that might be a problem.

If you expose personal data from your DNS registrar and that person is also on Facebook and Linked In, you might have a problem.

If your DNS stops working right and you don't notice, you might have a problem. 

Yes indeed, you might a have a problem, but it's not the one DHS exposes in this overblown cry of "WOLF! WOLF!", the problem is you're doing security theater, not security.  

If your organization does security as a compliance checkbox for HIPAA or SOX, or just as a safe harbor for liability, you deserve to get Pwned by something as lame as social engineering your DNS registration. 

 

Meanwhile spare the rest of us warnings about the sky falling when it's just a fog bank.

 

 
Curt Franklin
Curt Franklin,
 User Rank: Author
1/24/2019 | 1:01:50 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
To be fair, this is a directive to government admins, not the general public. Virtually everything on the list of required actions is a common sense thing that anyone administering DNS should do -- this is just requiring that the government (which was, by and large, supposed to have already done these things) do them right dammit now.

The "news" piece of this is that something happened (we haven't been told precisely what) that spurred this rather unusual emergency directive from DHS. It's a chance for the rest of us to learn from their mistakes.
dan91266
dan91266,
 User Rank: Strategist
1/24/2019 | 1:17:06 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
I suppose there is some truth to that. However, I'm going to be harsh here; if you don't know these things you really have no business being a DNS administrator or in cybersecurity at all. These are things that you should know and should already be embodied in your standards, and if not followed the auditor should have pointed this out already. This just reeks of incompetence.
miletran168
miletran168,
 User Rank: Apprentice
1/25/2019 | 10:20:28 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
wow. so good. i think so
Dr.T
Dr.T,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/27/2019 | 6:18:27 PM
Expired certificate
There is no excuse to let certificates be expired, those can be automated for extensions.
Dr.T
Dr.T,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/27/2019 | 6:21:21 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
“DHS has to tell us that in a way that makes people run around screaming the sky is falling?! ” I hear you. At the sand time any vulnerability can easily turn itself to a big issue to many people.
Dr.T
Dr.T,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/27/2019 | 6:22:21 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
“If your organization does security as a compliance checkbox for HIPAA or SOX” Agree. This is one of the biggest problem I would consider, security for the shake of compliance.
Dr.T
Dr.T,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/27/2019 | 6:24:07 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
“Virtually everything on the list of required actions is a common sense thing that anyone administering DNS should do” Agee. Another thing they should all do not to let certification expire.
Dr.T
Dr.T,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/27/2019 | 6:26:00 PM
Re: When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability?
“These are things that you should know and should already be embodied in your standards, ” Agree with this. Some just do not play by the book.


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