Technology Forum

A computer security company inadvertently published details of a major DNS flaw several weeks before they were due to be disclosed. The flaw was discovered several months ago by IOActive researcher Dan Kaminsky, who worked through the early part of this year with vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco and the Internet Systems Consortium to patch the issue. The companies released a fix for the bug two weeks ago and encouraged corporate users and Internet service providers to patch their DNS systems as soon as possible. Although the problem could affect some home users, it is not considered to be a major issue for consumers, according to Kaminsky. At the time he announced the flaw, Kaminsky asked members of the security research community to hold off on public speculation about its precise nature in order to give users time to patch their systems. Kaminsky had planned to disclose details of the flaw during a presentation at the Black Hat security conference set for 6 August. Some researchers took the request as a personal challenge to find the flaw before Kaminsky's talk. Others complained at being kept in the dark about the technical details of his finding. http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...&NewsID=102199