On 2 November 2017, the ICANN Board passed resolutions 2017.11.02.29 – 2017.11.02.31 which requested that the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) conduct a study to present data, analysis and points of view and provide advice to the Board on a range of questions that include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) a proper definition for name collision and the underlying reasons why strings that manifest name collisions are so heavily used |
Answered in Study 1: ncap-study-1-report-19jun20-en.pdf |
(2) the role that negative answers currently returned from queries to the root for these strings play in the experience of the end user, including in the operation of existing end systems |
Project Goal: Answer this in Study 2 |
(3) the harm to existing users that may occur if Collision Strings were to be delegated, including harm due to end systems no longer receiving a negative response and additional potential harm if the delegated registry accidentally or purposely exploited subsequent queries from these end systems, and any other types of harm |
Project Goal: Answer this in Study 2 |
(4) possible courses of action that might mitigate harm |
Project Goal: Answer this in Study 2, plus additional work TBD |
(5) factors that affect potential success of the courses of actions to mitigate harm |
Project Goal: TBD |
(6) potential residual risks of delegating Collision Strings even after taking actions to mitigate harm |
Project Goal: Answer in Study 2, plus additional work TBD |
(7) suggested criteria for determining whether an undelegated string should be considered a string that manifest name collisions, (i.e.) placed in the category of a Collision String |
Project Goal: produce a report on the results of Study 2 |
(8) suggested criteria for determining whether a Collision String should not be delegated, and suggested criteria for determining how remove an undelegated string from the list of Collision Strings |
Project Goal: TBD |
(9) measures to protect against intentional or unintentional creation of situations, such as queries for undelegated strings, which might cause such strings to be placed in a Collision String category, and research into risk of possible negative effects, if any, of creation of such a collision string list |
Project Goal: TBD |
