Subject: [ietf-dkim] draft-ietf-dkim-threats-02 nit//Packet Amplification

From: Douglas Otis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 12:03:03 -0700

,----
|4.3.1.  Packet Amplification Attacks via DNS
|
| DKIM contributes indirectly to this attack by requiring the
| publication of fairly large DNS records for distributing public keys.
| The names of these records are also well known, since the record
| names can be determined by examining properly-signed messages.  This
| attack does not have an impact on DKIM itself.  DKIM, however, is not
| the only application which uses large DNS records, and a DNS-based
| solution to this problem will likely be required.
'____

DKIM might directly contribute to a packet amplification attack.   
When an unlimited number signatures are evaluated or a label tree  
must be traversed for a list of email-address domains, the level of  
targeted network traffic must be considered.

Change to:

| DKIM contributes indirectly to this attack by requiring the
| publication of fairly large DNS records for distributing public keys.
| When published with a wildcard label, the impact these keys might
| have increases when being exploited.  DKIM may directly lead to an
| amplification attack without ensuring reasonable limits upon the
| number of verifications per message or the nature of the DNS
| transaction.  While DKIM is not the only application using large DNS
| records, caution is required as regulating DNS traffic is problematic.

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