Wildcard DNS (pros and cons)

[Edward Buck]

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Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote:
| EB> IMO, dns entries should not be ambiguous.
|
| There's nothing inherently *ambiguous* about wildcards or the resource
| record sets that are synthesized from them.  Wildcards are just one form
| of server-side aliases.  (They alias together all of the
| not-otherwise-explicitly specified labels.)  That doesn't cause
| ambiguity, per se.

I agree that there's nothing inherently ambiguous about wildcard
entries.  But when the wildcard entry is abused and it becomes unclear
whether the subdomain in question is valid or not, intended or not, then
there is ambiguity.  I pick on wildcards here but it's not just about
dns wildcards.  The smtp protocol is full of ambiguity, precipitating
the need for sender verification protocols like SPF or DomainKeys.

If spammers do have an affinity for wildcarded domains, then I suspect
it will drive people to stop using wildcards whether they are convenient
or not.  Nobody wants to invite spammers to send more traffic to their
network.

Ed
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