Re:Improving DNS Privacy with Oblivious DoH
by acdha on Tuesday December 08, 2020 @06:57PM
(#25353389)
In this case the client isn't sending traffic on port 53 at all — they already have the IP for the target server and so they just open a connection to it on port 443.
This is not hypothetical: it's how DoH works now but it's also how various things have worked for decades. Malware liked it for hiding command-and-control name queries from the few people who monitor DNS but it was also an option for anyone who had problems with buggy or malicious local DNS servers to add public resolvers like 8.8.8.8 or their own infrastructure into the search list so they didn't get support calls due to some ISP breaking their own DNS server.
The key part is remembering that this was always possible. DoH just meant that more people became aware of the gap they'd always had in their network management.
This is not hypothetical: it's how DoH works now but it's also how various things have worked for decades. Malware liked it for hiding command-and-control name queries from the few people who monitor DNS but it was also an option for anyone who had problems with buggy or malicious local DNS servers to add public resolvers like 8.8.8.8 or their own infrastructure into the search list so they didn't get support calls due to some ISP breaking their own DNS server.
The key part is remembering that this was always possible. DoH just meant that more people became aware of the gap they'd always had in their network management.