Special-Use Domain Names Registry
draft-hoffman-rfc6761bis-00

Network Working Group                                         P. Hoffman
Internet-Draft                                                     ICANN
Obsoletes: 6761 (if approved)                             19 August 2022
Updates: 1918, 2606 (if approved)                                       
Intended status: Standards Track                                        
Expires: 20 February 2023

                   Special-Use Domain Names Registry
                      draft-hoffman-rfc6761bis-00

Abstract

   This document obsoletes RFC 6761 that created the Special-Use Domain
   Names registry at IANA for domain names that are reserved for special
   use.  The registry has proved to be useful.  RFC 6761 also has a
   description for when reserving such a name is appropriate, and the
   procedure for doing so; those descriptions have turned out to cause
   many problems in the IETF.  Because of those problems, this document
   obsoletes RFC 6761 while retaining the registry and greatly reducing
   the rest of the discussion and requirements in RFC 6761.  It places
   the responsibility for accepting Special-Use Domain Names entries
   with the IESG.

   [ A repository for this draft can be found at https://github.com/
   paulehoffman/6761bis (https://github.com/paulehoffman/6761bis). ]

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 20 February 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Hoffman                 Expires 20 February 2023                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft      Special-Use Domain Names Registry        August 2022

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Requirements for the Special-Use Domain Names Registry  . . .   3
   3.  History of the Special-Use Domain Names Registry  . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5

1.  Introduction

   There is a long history of RFCs that reserve some domain names for
   private use.  [RFC2606] reserved ".test", ".example", ".invalid",
   ".localhost", "example.com", "example.net", and "example.org", as
   well as all names below those names.  It also created a registry at
   IANA called "special-use domain names" at
   https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-names
   (https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-names) for those
   names and for future names assigned by the IETF.

   This document obsoletes [RFC6761].  It keeps the IANA registry and
   all its contents, but removes some of the requirements from RFC 6761
   that were sometimes ignored after RFC 6761 was published.  It also
   has a brief discussion of what has happened since RFC 6761 was
   published.  The intentions for these changes to RFC 6761 are to make
   it easier for the IESG to analyze proposals for inclusion in the
   registry, and to make the requirements match what the IESG is already
   doing.

   In this document, "domain name" means a name in the global DNS as
   defined in [RFC8499].

Hoffman                 Expires 20 February 2023                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft      Special-Use Domain Names Registry        August 2022

2.  Requirements for the Special-Use Domain Names Registry

   In order to be added to the Special-Use Domain Names registry, a
   domain name needs to be specified in an IETF "Standards Action" RFC
   or an "IESG Approval" specification.  These terms are defined in
   [RFC5226].  A specification does not need to be an RFC.  Both types
   of documents require IESG approval.

   RFC 6761 said that its process applied when a name required special
   handling in order to implement some desired new functionality.  This
   document drops that requirement and the associated requirements for
   documenting all the types of special handling required.

   Of course, the IESG should require that all use case assumptions and
   requirements for the names added to the registry be wholly contained
   in the RFC or specification defining that name.  However, the level
   of that requirement is controlled by the IESG, not this document.  It
   is the IESG that decide whether to add new names that are top-level
   names (such as ".example"), or names at the second level of existing
   Special Domains (such as "example.arpa").

3.  History of the Special-Use Domain Names Registry

   RFC 6761 contained the initial entries for the registry.  Those were
   the names from [RFC2606] as well as "in-addr.arpa" names for the
   private IPv4 addresses in [RFC1918]: 10/8, 172.16/12, and 192.168/16.

   Immediately after RFC 6761 was published, [RFC6762] was published and
   contained entries for "254.169.in-addr.arpa", "8.e.f.ip6.arpa",
   "9.e.f.ip6.arpa", "a.e.f.ip6.arpa", and "b.e.f.ip6.arpa".  It also
   contained the registration for ".local".  All of these were placed in
   the Special-Use Domain Names registry.

   After that, the registry became contentious, with many parties asking
   to have top-level names that were related to their protocols added to
   the registry.  In September 2014, the IAB issued a liaison statment,
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/1351/
   (https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/1351/), to ICANN concerning the
   registry.  That statement said in part:

   Under its current charter, the DNSOP working group in the IETF is
   responsible to review and clarify the overlap between (among other
   things) the special names registry from RFC 6761 and the public DNS
   root.  This could include consideration of the problem of existing
   name collisions, provision of additional guidelines, or further
   modification to the process in RFC 6761 to reduce the potential for
   collisions in the future.

Hoffman                 Expires 20 February 2023                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft      Special-Use Domain Names Registry        August 2022

   In that period, only one name, ".onion" [RFC7686] from October 2015,
   was added to the registry.  Just before that, the IETF published a
   blog post, https://www.ietf.org/blog/onion/
   (https://www.ietf.org/blog/onion/), It says in part:

   ...the IESG believes RFC 6761 needs action, and substantial community
   input.  It needs to be open for review and modification because the
   current process is unscalable.

   However, after a great deal of effort, the DNSOP Working Group could
   not reach consensus on how to move forward with any names other than
   ".onion".  The DNSOP WG and IESG can consider amending the DNSOP
   Working Group charter to remove the responsibility for special-use
   domain names from the charter.

   After that, the only names added to the registry were six names under
   ".arpa".  Of those, only one RFC specifying those names followed the
   requirements in RFC 6761 for documenting all the types of special
   handling required.

4.  IANA Considerations

   All entries in the Special-Use Domain Names registry that refer to
   RFC 6761 are updated to point to this document.

   Names can be added to this registry by the IETF after being specified
   in an IETF "Standards Action" RFC or an "IESG Approval"
   specification.

   The requirement from RFC 6761 that the specification must contain
   "Domain Name Reservation Considerations" is no longer required.  It
   has not been consistently enforced by the IETF and IANA since 2015.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document has the same security considerations as those expressed
   in RFC 6761:

   This document outlines the circumstances in which reserving a domain
   name for special use is appropriate, and the procedure for having
   that Special-Use Domain Name recorded by IANA.  Any document
   requesting such a Special-Use Domain Name needs to contain an
   appropriate "Security Considerations" section which describes any
   security issues relevant to that special use.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

Hoffman                 Expires 20 February 2023                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft      Special-Use Domain Names Registry        August 2022

   [RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", RFC 5226,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5226, May 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5226>.

   [RFC6761]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "Special-Use Domain Names",
              RFC 6761, DOI 10.17487/RFC6761, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6761>.

   [RFC8499]  Hoffman, P., Sullivan, A., and K. Fujiwara, "DNS
              Terminology", BCP 219, RFC 8499, DOI 10.17487/RFC8499,
              January 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8499>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [RFC1918]  Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, B., Karrenberg, D., de Groot, G.
              J., and E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private
              Internets", BCP 5, RFC 1918, DOI 10.17487/RFC1918,
              February 1996, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1918>.

   [RFC2606]  Eastlake 3rd, D. and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS
              Names", BCP 32, RFC 2606, DOI 10.17487/RFC2606, June 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2606>.

   [RFC6762]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "Multicast DNS", RFC 6762,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6762, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6762>.

   [RFC7686]  Appelbaum, J. and A. Muffett, "The ".onion" Special-Use
              Domain Name", RFC 7686, DOI 10.17487/RFC7686, October
              2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7686>.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   This document lifts many ideas from RFC 6761.  Stuart Cheshire and
   Marc Krochmal deserve acknowledgement for the writing and the hard
   work that went into getting RFC 6761 through the IETF process.  The
   members of the DNSOP Working Group who participated in the follow-up
   work on the registry also deserve acknowledgement.

Author's Address

   Paul Hoffman
   ICANN
   Email: paul.hoffman@icann.org

Hoffman                 Expires 20 February 2023                [Page 5]