ICANN: Name Collision Analysis Project Study 1

Brief Overview

Purpose: This Public Comment proceeding seeks input on the draft Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 1 report produced by the Office of the CTO.

Current Status:

The report presents the findings for Study 1 of the Name Collision
Analysis Project (NCAP). The purpose and scope of Study 1 were defined
in a July 2019 Request for Proposal (RFP). This draft of the report addresses the first two goals of Study 1, as stated in the RFP:

1. “Production of a summary report on the topic of name collision that
   brings forth important knowledge from prior work in the area. The
   report will be a primer for those new to the subject. The report will be
   based on an examination of all relevant prior work on the issue of name
   collisions.”
2. “Creation of a list of datasets used in past name collision
   studies; an identification of gaps, if any; and creation of a list of
   additional data sets that would be required to successfully complete
   Studies 2 and 3.”

This draft of the report contains the following sections addressing tasks from the RFP:

• a name collision primer (task 2a)
• a review of pertinent previous work (tasks 1 and 2c)
• evidence of harm caused by name collisions (task 2b)
• mitigation techniques and their technical impact (task 2d)
• an initial list of data sets that would be needed for Studies 2 and 3 (tasks 3 and 4)

Next Steps:

After the input of the community, this report will be finalized and presented to the ICANN Board.

Section I: Description and Explanation

Name Collision refers to the situation where a name that is defined
and used in one namespace may also appear in another. Users and
applications intending to use a name in one namespace may actually use
it in a different one, and unexpected behavior may result where the
intended use of the name is not the same in both namespaces. The
circumstances that lead to a name collision could be accidental or
malicious.

The ICANN Board asked the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) to study the impact of name collisions and advise the Board on their effects and possible mitigation. In response, SSAC
started the NCAP effort and designed Study 1, the first of three name
collision studies intended to address the Board’s request.

The scope of NCAP Study 1 is larger than usual work undertaken by SSAC, so the ICANN organization’s Office of the CTO (OCTO) is facilitating the work and has engaged a contractor to perform Study 1.

The result of Study 1 is a report that the ICANN organization is seeking community input on.

Section II: Background

Study 1 concerns name collisions in the context of top-level domains (TLDs), where the conflicting namespaces are:

• the global Internet Domain Name System (DNS) namespace reflected in the root zone overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Function; and
• any other namespace, regardless of whether that other namespace is intended for use with the DNS or any other protocol.

On 2 November 2017, the ICANN Board passed resolutions (2017.11.02.29 &dnash; 2017.11.02.31) requesting the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) to conduct studies to present data, analysis, and points of view, and provide advice to the Board.

ICANN Board resolutions (2017.11.02.29 &dnash; 2017.11.02.31): https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/resolutions-2019-03-14-en#2.h.1