Internet providers in Vietnam battle DNS flaw

Hanoi Times - Local internet service providers (ISPs) say they are taking action to overcome a serious flaw inherent in the Domain Name System (DNS) that could allow an attacker to re-direct unwilling web users to dangerous sites.

The Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) late last week alerted the local internet community to the appearance of the flaw in the system of host computers.

VNCERT said 95 percent of DNS servers in Vietnam were vulnerable to attacks. They could easily attack DNS Servers that have inappropriate configurations and change information o­n the system which would lead internet users to websites full of highly dangerous source codes.

“This is a very fundamental threat to the internet community in Vietnam, from internet users, ISPs, banks, to other internet-related activities,” said VNCERT’s director Vu Quoc Khanh.

The flaw in the DNS, an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses, was uncovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing for IOActive, and who used to work for Cisco and Avaya.

Kaminsky is known among computer security experts for his work o­n DNS cache snooping.

Viettel says it is coordinating with VNCERT and Kaminsky to update software, while service providers said they were continually scanning their networks for flaws and ready to fix any loopholes.

The flaw was uncovered six months ago. o­n March 31, 16 researchers from around the world met to resolve the problem, and agreed to coordinate the release of a patch for all platforms.

Meanwhile, the Bach Khoa Internet Security Centre (BKIS), a local internet security firm, o­n July 26 released o­nline software named BKAVDNS Checky, which can scan and automatically detect the DNS flaw, and help users to fix it.

The software can be down-loaded by visiting: www.bkav.com.vn/DNSCheck/BkavDNSCheck.exe and also the repair software at www.bkav.com.Vn/DNSCheck/BkavDNSCheckGuide.html.