A vulnerability recently discovered and patched in Windows operating systems allowed attackers to inject any code they wanted in order to infiltrate a system’s ability to process DNS requests, giving hackers the ability to control how domain name resolution worked in their victims’ computers.
This kind of attack would yield results similar to those that MyEtherWallet users suffered when hackers compromised a backbone of the internet to redirect people away from their wallets to a Russian copycat site that siphoned their Ether from them.
Now that the DNS system is showing vulnerabilities, there is talk about reforming its implementation to prevent more attacks like these from showing up in headlines around the world.
NKB Group—a blockchain investment bank—believes that the solution is somewhere in blockchain technology.
“Yes, we are talking about blockchain again, and while it is still riding that wave of hype and its proponents claim it will heal seemingly just about any problem of the world, this one actually can be fixed by a decentralized ledger. It has been done already, and blockchain could well be a basis for DNS. This is not just an abstract idea; companies such as Blockstack, Nebulis, or Namecoin have proposed and largely developed the solution,” wrote Miro Pikus, CTO of NKB Group.
Looking into Namecoin’s implementation, we see a blockchain that acts as a parallel registrar in which domains are registered by using special 0.01-NMC transactions.
As we explore its blockchain, we find transactions that contain a special “opcode” called “OP_NAME_NEW” and one called “OP_NAME_UPDATE.” In one particular transaction, we saw the “breadofgod” DNAME registration updated to add a number of subdomains for its name servers.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
