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users:toxdns [2017/07/11 20:18]
aklyn [What you might want to know about ToxDNS] 		— (current)
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-===== ToxDNS ===== 
  
-ToxDNS is a tox ID-to-name mapping service. It allows users to shorten their regular, somewhat long, Tox IDs, with short and readable IDs, that closely resemble the format of an email address. An example of a ToxDNS service in use is **groupbot@utox.org**, Which when added, resolves to the full ID (''**56A1ADE4B65B86BCD51CC73E2CD4E542179F47959FE3E0E21B4B0ACDADE51855D34D34D37CB5**''). 
- 
-ToxDNS servers are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_%28information_technology%29| federated]], they are each run by their individual operators and their databases are stored online. This can, but doesn't necessarily, compromise your privacy, but really it's simple to minimize the risk so that it's nearly nonexistent. 
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-[The "minimal risk" statement is not to take seriously - there are more risks than are mentioned below and several are of the kind which the user can not influence, much less so without in-depth understanding of the implications -- aklyn] 
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-==== What you might want to know about ToxDNS ==== 
- 
-Some people have some concerns about how ToxDNS services could be used maliciously, mismanaged, or exploited as a single point of failure in order to deny a person the ability to look up the ID they want. Hopefully I can address those concerns here. 
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-[The main concern is not denial of service but the lack of reliability of the result of a "successful" lookup. 
- 
-The argumentation below is both incomplete and misleading, left as it was, for reference; MITM by hijacking on the network level at a name/id lookup is not mentioned; impersonation by preregistering a rogue id is not mentioned; impersonation by guessing a password is referred to as MITM which is hardly fair; a malicious or compromised server which at will redirects certain lookups to rogue ids is not mentioned; all of these lead not only to the possibility of talking to a wrong party but for MITM while talking to the right party (!), which is not possible to exclude] 
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-**Impersonating a user(MITM) by switching the Tox ID associated with the username:** If someone compromised your account on a ToxDNS Service or a server hosting ToxDNS records, they might be able to replace the Tox ID associated with the username. New users looking up a Tox ID using the compromised username would be directed to the wrong Tox ID. To minimize the chance of such a thing occurring, use a long, unique, random password for your ToxDNS account, and set the ID to be unchangable if the server supports it. This will not connect you with your intended friend and it does not give anyone access to your private key or any current or previous chat sessions keys. 
- 
-**Malicious Service Operator gathering metadata on Tox ID's as they are registered:** A malicious site operator could keep some information about the users of the ToxDNS service as they register by retrieving that information from their browsing session. This could be used to correlate the ID to the IP address they used to register the ID with the ID and the email. If this concerns you, then sign up for the service via a reliable Onion Router for browsing the Web like Tor. 
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-**Denial of Service against a ToxDNS Service:** If someone denies users access to the ToxDNS service they wish to use to lookup an ID, then they will not be able to look up ID's at that service. If this is a concern, you might join multiple ToxDNS services, host your own ToxDNS service, or distribute your whole Tox ID in text form or using a [[users:toxlinks| ''tox:'']] link. 
- 
-It should be noted that none of these area actually problems with ToxDNS itself. The first two are malicious activities that could be undertaken on a server, the third is just somebody taking a site down or blocking access to a site. 
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-[the actual issue is the fundamental problem of using a service which is insecure by design, to initiate a more secure one - the final security is not better than the one of the weakest part in the chain] 
-===== ToxDNS Services ===== 
-As of yet, there is no official ToxDNS service. All services listed here are run by volunteers, use at your own risk.  
- 
-|                                         ^ Owner                  ^ Description                                                                    ^ 
-^ [[http://register.utox.org/|uTox.org]]  | notsecure, irungentoo  | Simple and reliable ToxDNS for uTox fans                                     | 
-                                                              | 
- 
-===== Run your own ===== 
-Don't want to trust a third party service? Want to use your own cool domain? Or want to contribute by hosting your own public service? You can quickly and easily install a ToxDNS service to run on your own server! 
- 
-Some of the many open-source ToxDNS services include: 
-  * https://github.com/installgen2/tox.party 
-  * https://github.com/notsecure/tox-dns 
-  * https://github.com/Tox/Tox-QuickDNS < Good for personal ToxDNS, no registration page. 
- 
-==== Installation ==== 
-(help wanted) 
- 
-[[users:minitoxdns| Running a personal ToxDNS Service]] 
- 
-[[users:fulltoxdns| Running a full ToxDNS Service]] 

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