STANDARDS FOR MAJOR INTERNET DISRUPTORS: BLOCKCHAIN, INTENTS, AND RELATED PARADIGM

Blockchain Based DNS and PKI Solutions

Enis Karaarslan and Eylul Adiguzel

Abstract on these signatures to get a secure connection

during the HTTPS process, for the confidentiality
Domain name systems and certificate authority of the web traffic. HTTPS relies on the SSL/TLS
systems may have security and trust problems in and X.509 technologies for its security. TLS relies
their implementation. This article summarizes how on certificates, which are encrypted by X.509 PKI
these systems work and what the implementation for authentication. Digital certificates keep cryp-
problems may be. There are blockchain-based tographic signatures to prove the authenticity,
decentralized solutions that claim to overcome and contain a public key and information.
those problems. We provide a brief explana- DNS and PKI run as hierarchical systems and
tion on how blockchain systems work, and their the users trust on their working right. These sys-
strengths are explained. DNS security challenges tems are vulnerable to several attacks, such as
are given. Blockchain-based DNS solutions are denial of service/distributed denial of service
classified and described in detail according to (DoS/DDoS) attacks, DNS spoofing, and DNS
their services. The advantages and feasibility of cache poisoning. The DNS or CA servers can be
these implementations are discussed. Last but not compromised by attackers or used by govern-
least, the possibility of the decentralized Internet ments to intercept the sessions of their citizens.
is questioned. For instance, Comodo CA was attacked, and nine
fraudulent SSL certificates to seven web domains
Introduction (google.com, yahoo.com, skype.com, etc.) were
Internet users rely on the domain name system generated in 2011 [1]. The Dutch CA DigiNo-
(DNS) and public key infrastructure (PKI) to con- tar was compromised in 2011, and the attacker
nect to a network service, mainly the web. These gained control of all certificate-issuing servers. The
systems are centralized, but blockchain-based attack is said to have lasted four months, and the
decentralized solutions are also possible. attacker probably issued some rogue certificates
DNS infrastructure is summarized in Fig. 1. [2]. Governments, such as the Taiwanese gov-
The centralized version is shown on the left side ernment who intended to block Google’s public
of the figure. The user resolves a domain name DNS service recently, may also want to prevent
to an IP address by asking the configured (local) their citizens from reaching some global DNS
DNS server. If the local server already knows servers.
the address (authoritative server or cached), it There are solutions like DNS certification
will answer directly to the user. Otherwise, the authority authorization (CAA) and DNSSEC to
server will ask the DNS root servers and top-level overcome some of the attacks but there are not
domain (TLD) servers to locate the authoritative enough for the misuse by the governments. Dis-
server for that domain name. The local DNS serv- tributed solutions can also be possible as a solu-
er will then ask that server to learn the IP address tion to availability and integrity problems. These
and then inform the user. systems run on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Decentralized DNS usage is shown as the Trust Blockchain technology can be used, which is a
Zone in Fig. 1. The user will ask the decentralized new paradigm that aims to eliminate centralized
DNS node for the specific domains (.bit, .id, etc.) control. Decentralized solutions are possible with
it serves. This node will answer the user directly, these technologies.
as it keeps all the records for these domains. All In the next section, DNS standards and the
blockchain-based DNS nodes are connected to blockchain are discussed. DNS security challeng-
the peer-to-peer (P2P) network and synchronize es are given in the following section. Then block-
the records in between. chain-based DNS and DPKI implementations and
The anatomy of a web connection is given in practical experiences are discussed. In the last
Fig. 2. The user initially learns the IP address to section, our conclusion is given, and possible
connect to the web server. The trustworthiness future work is discussed.
of the domain name that is used along with this
IP address should also be controlled. Digital cer- DNS and PKI Standards
tificates are used to certify the ownership of a The DNS’s working scheme is stable, well known,
domain name and are also used in the encryp- and described by many requests for comments
tion of the web traffic. These certificates are dis- (RFCs). The Internet name servers store the DNS
tributed by the certificate authorities (CAs). CA records for their authorized domain. The root
servers issue digital certificates for identification servers keep a record of the authoritative servers.
of websites. The authenticity of a public key can The Internet name servers are configured with the
be ensured via its digital certificate. Users rely list of the root servers.
Digital Object Identifier:
10.1109/MCOMSTD.2018.1800023 The authors are with Mugla Sitki Kocman University.

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 DNS root 2 P2P network
servers 6 3
7

TLD servers .com TLD servers .edu 1

5 4 8
Local DNS server End user Local decentralized
DNS
T rust Zone sync
TLD blockchain .bit TLD blockchain .id
DNS authoritative
servers
DNS core infrastructure Decentralized infrastructure

FIGURe 1. Centralized vs. decentralized DNS infrastructure.

The preferred DNS server (the resolver) usually

keeps a cache of the previously asked records. If
it does not know the answer to the query, it starts
the resolution process with a query to one of the
root servers. The root servers respond with a refer-
ral to the authoritative servers in the hierarchy. The DNS root servers Certificate authority
resolver asks the referred servers iteratively until
an authoritative answer is received. This iterative 2
approach is described in RFC 1034 [3]. 3
23.39.167.44
The DNS namespace works in a hierarchical 2
manner because of the design of the DNS. RFC DNS server Web server
2826 [4] states the importance of a single and
globally unique root and warns that inconsisten-
cies may occur at the instance of different roots.
This also requires a unique naming authority. DNS authoritive servers
1 4
There are other DNS mechanisms, which are DNS query https://www.ieee.org
also called alternative DNS, that run their own
Client
DNSs. The blockchain-based DNSs do not oper-
ate in a hierarchical manner. The nodes of the FIGURe 2. Anatomy of a web connection.
network are connected to the P2P network,
and each keeps all of the records. The block-
chain-based ones are: users. The user identity first has to pass through
• Blockstack: provides top-level domain (.id) a registration process in the CA servers. The
• Emercoin: provides top-level domain (.coin, user’s identity has to be verified, a distinguished
.emc, .lib, .bazar) name (DN) is assigned, and their public keys
• Ethereum Name Services (.eth) are recorded along with their DN. The records
• Namecoin: provides top-level domain (.bit) also include an expiration date, as well as an
The use of cryptography is needed for the indication of the key’s purpose (encrypting data
confidentiality of the data transferred in the net- or verifying a signature). The task of the CA is
work. Both sides of the communication need to sign the public keys with the CA’s private
cryptographic keys. Asymmetric (public) key keys and submit them to the third parties. The
cryptography was developed to solve the key dis- public key of the CA is well known and trust-
tribution problem of the symmetric encryption. ed. The user shares the public key with the CA,
Public key infrastructure (PKI) provides authenti- and the CA checks the user’s identity and then
cation and public key distribution with asymmetric signs the public key. After this process, the user
encryption. The system maintains a database of will use the CA signed public key during the
identity and public key pairs. There are two main communication. The other party of the commu-
approaches to serve this purpose: centralized PKI nication can check if the public key is properly
and decentralized PKI. signed by the CA.
Centralized PKI is the X.509 standard, which Decentralized PKI (DPKI) is a decentralized
has been used for PKI since 1988. HTTPS uses trust model that provides integrity and security. It
TLS/SSL based on X.509 certificates. The X.509 is an alternative to the centralized trust model of
certificate is formed of a public key and the the PKI, which generally depends on a CA. This is
identity. It is mostly signed by a CA to be trust- also called P2P certification, and is often referred
ed. X.509 also defines certificate revocation lists to as the web of trust. The web of trust is a con-
(CRLs), which are used to provide a trust chain cept that is used in pretty good privacy (PGP) and
[5]. The CA is the foundation for delivering and alike systems to establish the authenticity of the
managing digital certificates for the network of connection between a public key and its owner.

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 Blockchain technology is DNS/CA based attacks/challenges Legacy solutions Blockchain-based solutions
not feasible for all prob- Difficulty: hard. Immune
DDoS attacks against DNS/CA servers
lems. It is appropriate to Increased number of servers, DDoS mechanisms ... Service: availability

use this technology for a Server damage caused by ransomware/

None.
destroyware derived cyber attack, Immune
solution in environments, shutdown of the DNS/CA servers by the
User has to change the DNS address manually to
Service: availability
overcome.
where it is necessary to authorities or disasters
provide trust between
Difficulty: moderate.
multiple parties and Altering specific DNS/CA records on the Server and DNS security measures and monitoring Immune
share data [10]. There server process, which depend on the capabilities of the system Service: integrity
admin or the security professional
is a potential for using it
in identity management, Difficulty: moderate.
Attack on the client to alter the DNS Immune
transaction records, doc- address during session
End-to-end-deployment of DNSSEC protocol to sign the
Service: integrity, authentication
address info
umentation of resources,
Table 1. DNS/CA challenges and security solutions.
food traceability, voting
systems and similar
record management
Users can nominate others as trustworthy by sign- Blockchain-Based
ing their public keys.
activities. Legacy DNS implementations do not specify DNS and DPKI
the associated CA servers, but a new paradigm The blockchain system is formed as a P2P net-
aims to change that. DNS records can be config- work of nodes running the same protocol. Each
ured to specify the CA servers, which are autho- transaction should be recorded. These records are
rized to issue certificates for that domain. This kept in a chain of blocks called a ledger. The sys-
is specified in RFC 6844, which is currently an tem is durable to tampering by design. The blocks
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Proposed in the ledger are linked and secured using cryp-
Standard [6]. The CA authorization (CAA) DNS tographic hash functions like the SHA algorithm.
resource record is proposed to enable additional Each block usually contains transaction data, a
controls by a public CA. According to the current timestamp, and a hash, which is a pointer to the
Qualys report [7], the usage of CAA records is previous block. The nodes of the system make a
only 3.4 percent among the 150,000 most popu- joint decision by using the consensus protocols
lar websites. running on each node. To verify new blocks or
change them, all peers have to communicate and
DNS and CA agree on it. Proof-of-work (PoW) protocol is used
widely, which depends on the mining process.
Security Challenges However, different consensus protocols such as
There can be serious security problems in the proof of stake (PoS) are possible [8].
DNS and CA implementations which are given Blockchain is secure, transparent, and distribut-
in Table 1. These attacks are against the following ed by design. Blockchain systems are widely used
security services: for cryptocurrency today. The identity verification
• Availability: The DNS and CA servers are (authentication) is mostly done by asymmetric
targets of DDOS attacks and physical shut- cryptology. The public wallet address is the public
down conditions. Users will have problems key, and the private key is formed by implement-
getting service during such cases. ing cryptographic functions. These keys are used
• Integrity and authentication: DNS and CA for the key distribution of the session key, which
records can be altered. Fortunately, security will be used to encrypt the communication (pro-
measures like DNS CAA and DNSSEC are viding confidentiality) and to sign the transactions
usable for DNS attacks. Changing the CA (providing integrity and authenticity) [9].
records is harder to detect by users. The cer- However, blockchain technology is not feasi-
tificate only shows that it is obtained from a ble for all problems. It is appropriate to use this
CA, but it does not show whether the certif- technology for a solution in environments where
icate is legitimate or not. The attacker might it is necessary to provide trust between multiple
obtain a similar name from another CA. The parties and share data [10]. There is potential
user can be directed to the attacker’s web- for using it in identity management, transaction
site, which is called the man in the middle records, documentation of resources, food trace-
(MITM) attack. ability, voting systems, and similar record manage-
As can be seen in Table 1, blockchain-based ment activities.
solutions are immune to most attacks because of There can be scalability problems as the sys-
the following characteristics: tem can slow down under heavy traffic. New
• The records are immutable. Records can only solutions, such as Lightning and Plasma, are pro-
be changed with the consensus of all of the posed to mitigate the scalability issues. Trans-
nodes. actions will not need a consensus process in
• All the nodes have the full database. The the Lightning network when the parties of the
database should be consistent. transaction trust each other. This will speed up
• The strength of the infrastructure will be high- the transaction process; also, transactions will
er as the number of nodes increase. not be written on the chain. Some decentralized

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 Identity management
enables P2P sharing of
personal identities and
related information. It
Global DNS provides greater control
OpenNIC
over personal data and
PKI Mr. Ritchie reduces risks. Identity
verification and a digital ID
can be merged to provide
4
a.b.c.d the functionality of a digi-
2 tal watermark. Blockstack,
Blockchain nodes Web server for example, provides a
P2P network
PKI decentralized public key
distribution system, and
registry for apps and user
1 identities.
3
DNS query https://www.sample.eth
Mrs. Hamilton
FIGURe 3. Blockchain based DNS and DPKI.

applications (dApps) may generate too many tion of subdomains. The legacy DNS system only
transactions on the blockchain, so solutions like allows domain names to be rented for a period of
Plasma propose that each dApp operates on its time. Users will keep their domain names forever
own separate blockchain. with blockchain technology. The users need to
A blockchain-based DNS and DPKI usage sce- deploy a blockchain-based name resolution reg-
nario is given in Fig. 3. There is no need for a CA, istry, implementing a registrar representing a con-
as the public keys are kept in the blockchain as a tract that controls a node. DNSResolver should
DPKI infrastructure. These keys will be used for be set as the domain name resolver with the ser-
the cryptographic functions between the users, vice functions. A user’s NS records can be updat-
Mrs. Hamilton and Mr. Ritchie. Mrs. Hamilton will ed with the user’s registrar.
obtain the digital identity (public key and personal Namecoin was the first blockchain-based
details) of Mr. Ritchie from the P2P network. DNS, which was forked from Bitcoin. Most of
The blockchain-based solutions do not provide the following solutions were derivatives of
the standard domains, so they cannot be thought Namecoin. Namecoin does not seem to be func-
of as a replacement for the legacy system. They tional [11]. KeyId and NXT are more experimen-
are hosting-specific domains like .bit and .eth. The tal naming services, which are more theoretical
domain name database is kept in the ledger, and and not very reliable. Blockstack has its own
all the nodes of that system have the same data- Blockchain Name System. Ethereum Name Ser-
base. Blockchain-based solutions have peering vice is the most valid and functioning system at
agreements with OpenNIC, which aims to be a the moment.
non-national democratic alternative to the tradi- The decentralized namespace should be care-
tional domain registries. OpenNIC provides global fully designed, and it would be a good idea to
DNS namespace and also the blockchain-host- have a hybrid model, where there are also central-
ed domains. OpenNIC servers (https://servers. ized services [11]. As these domains are mostly
opennicproject.org/) are available for public use. used for web browsing, browser add-ons should
The OpenNIC server works in a centralized way, be deployed to reach this decentralized name-
so the system represents a hybrid model, where space.
decentralized blockchains work along with the
centralized solution. Identity ManageMent
The main blockchain-based solutions are clas- Identity management enables P2P sharing of per-
sified in Table 2. Most blockchain-based DNS sonal identities and related information. It pro-
solutions focus on the name resolution. Ethereum vides greater control over personal data and
does have an ID management system, but “Ethe- reduces risks. Identity verification and a digital
reum Name Services” does not. Blockstack and ID can be merged to provide the functionality
DNSchain also provide other services to form a of a digital watermark. Blockstack, for example,
complete solution. The services they provide are provides a decentralized public key distribution
presented in the following sections. system, and a registry for apps and user identities.
The Blockstack application programming inter-
NaMe Resolution face (API) can handle identity and authentication.
The name resolution service is the basic DNS ser- Applications can request permissions from the
vice. Blockchain-based name services provide the users and then gain read-and-write access to the
owner of a domain full control over the distribu- user resources.

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 Identity
tion; it ensures the security with the MITM-proof
Name
management
Distributed Distributed RESTful API.
resolution storage applications
(PKI) Decentralized Internet
Ethereum Name The Internet should be liberated and decentralized
Yes X X X
Services in theory. Violation of net neutrality, censorship,
privacy problems, and disruption of the services
Namecoin Yes Yes X X with DOS attacks are some of the problems we
face today. The standards are not evolving as fast
EmcDNS Emercoin NVC Yes. EMCSSH Yes Yes as they should. DNS records can be censored at
some of the DNS servers, which will cause the
Blockstack Yes. BNS Yes Yes. Gaia Yes domains to be unreachable. DNS is managed as
Yes. Uses Yes. Uses Yes. Yes. Uses
a single and globally unique root. Even though it
DNSChain
Namecoin Namecoin Customizable Blockstack
is managed in a so-called democratic way, being a
centralized solution can be a problem, especially
Table 2. Classification of the blockchain-based solutions. during DDoS attacks.
Decentralized systems can be a robust alter-
native, and can especially replace the central
Distributed Storage systems that need trust. There are several solu-
A decentralized cloud storage (DSN) network tions for the decentralized name resolution ser-
allows sharing and storage of data without hav- vices. Blockchain systems can also be used as a
ing to trust any third parties. This is significant for PKI. Digital certificates and public keys can be
privacy, security, and data control. It also reduc- stored in the ledger. Such a system will not need
es the rate of data failures and outages. DSN is central CAs. The cloud can be used for storage
different from traditional cloud networks with back-ends by implementing the trust issues in a
its client-side encryption, which is more secure decentralized way. Blockstack and Emercoin can
against threats. Proof of retrievability ensures the be given as candidate implementations of such
integrity and availability of the data. The main systems. Cloud security is implemented by proper
advantage of the DSN is flexibility. Speed and selection and careful implementation of the cryp-
low cost advantages can be reached via prop- tographic protocols. The data is written encrypted
er implementation. The biggest concern about on the cloud and then signed.
decentralized storage is the storage capacity. Blockstack proposes a decentralized DNS, PKI,
Keeping the whole ledger in every single node and storage. The authors of Blockstack represent
looks like an illogical solution, especially in it as “the new Internet, where users don’t need to
Internet of Things (IoT) type lightweight devic- trust remote servers” [13]. The implementation of
es. Maintaining the current state of the regis- Blockstack is flexible in such a way that any num-
tered domains and keys is a better idea. There ber of blockchains can be used as communica-
is still need for storage space that is linear with tion channels, and any public cloud can be used
the number of registered domains. It will only for storage. Blockstack also provides a full stack to
require a constant time for checking the integrity build applications for the developers. The system
of the blockchain whenever a new domain is is formed of three components [13]:
registered [12]. • Blockchain: Virtualchain is used to bind infor-
The Gaia storage system is used by Blockstack. mation to public keys and provide trust.
It stores data on behalf of a user after the user • Peer network: The Atlas network is used to
logs into the application. Gaia is used to reuse the provide a scalable index for global data.
existing cloud infrastructure, but writes the data in • Storage system: Gaia is used.
encrypted or signed form [13]. Storj works as a The Emercoin system uses EmcDNS, a PKI ser-
P2P cloud storage network. vice called EmerSSH, and storage. EmcDNS is a
decentralized domain name service, which sup-
Decentralized Applications ports a full range of DNS records of any kind in
name-value format. Emercoin preserves an agree-
DApps are a concept wherein anyone can publish ment with the DNS provider OpenNIC. Users
their apps. Unlike today’s apps, it does not need can reach the domains that are registered with
a third party to gain access to the user’s informa- EmcDNS through the OpenNIC DNS servers. The
tion. The app will remain in its original form as the following can be mentioned as differences from
ledger is immutable. This makes DApps unstop- Blockstack:
pable and resistant to censorship. DApps can be • Emergate.net: This is an experimental work,
developed for money management, e-voting, gov- which will serve as a public gateway to all
ernance systems, and more [14]. The main con- EmcDNS zones by using the URL addresses.
cerns about DApps are [15]: • Emercoin wallet: DNS records can easily be
• The security risks of running anonymous or retrieved from any Emercoin wallet using the
incomplete code three types of user interface, or by the stan-
• Scalability problems dard RFC1034 DNS protocol, which is built
• Resiliency of the application platform in on every Emercoin wallet.
Two DNS DApps examples are Blockstack
and DNSChain. Blockstack is a decentralized Practical Experience
web application, which is in a modular, layered We tried existing tools and applications in our
structure that enables the modules to be con- lab. The Blockstack browser is installed on local
figured with different software. The DNSChain machines for creating (name.id) and managing
system provides simple and secure key distribu- the personal profile associated with it. These

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 identities are then registered on the blockchain. much electricity resources. However, there are
Typical implementations show that this system is other consensus protocols, such as PoS, which The decentralized
used mostly for identity management. Name.id require less resources, and these protocols can be Internet is not a dream.
is associated with the user’s public key, which is enhanced to reach acceptable security at lower Decentralized Infrastruc-
a cryptocurrency wallet address. The profile data cost. The decentralized Internet is not a dream.
is mostly kept in the cloud environments. Social Decentralized infrastructure-related research ture-related research
media addresses are also linked to the profiles. should be more in focus, but there are new work- should be more on the
Personal profiles are expected to be used ing groups like IETF’s Decentralized Internet Infra-
widely when the usage of DApps increases. structure Research Group (DINRG) addressing focus, yet there are new
Blockstack also sponsors an “Ecosystem-Wide, this subject. This area should be studied in depth, working groups like IETF
Universal” Dapp Store (https://app.co/) where and implementations should be enhanced contin- decentralized Internet
several apps are listed. They also created a criteria uously.
list for DApps such as identity, data encryption, infrastructure research
data storage, and software licences. References group (DINRG) on this
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html/rfc1034, 1987.
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} tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6844, 2013.
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service and host-specific extensions like .bit Network,” 2014.
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like OpenNIC. The hybrid solutions are not fully White Paper, 2017.
decentralized, but they are still important and [14] V. Buterin, “A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decen-
tralized Application Platform,” White Paper, 2014.
serve their purpose. The importance of such a [15] A. Castano, “Why I’m Betting on Blockstack to Save the
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distributed public key infrastructure. The existence
of many nodes on the P2P network serving the Biographies
namespace will serve availability during DDoS Enis Karaarslan ([email protected]) is an assistant pro-
fessor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Mugla
attacks. Sitki Kocman University. He received his Ph.D. in computer
Blockchain-based DNS and PKI implementa- engineering (2008) from Ege University. He was a post-doctoral
tions are not mature enough yet, but the services researcher at EC JRC-IPSC, Italy (2011–2012). He is the head of
they can deliver are promising. There are chal- the MSKU Blockchain Research Group. His research areas are
computer networks, security, privacy, and blockchain. He has
lenges to be solved, such as scalability and energy over 40 papers to his name.
consumption. New solutions, including the Light-
ning network and Plasma, have been proposed E ylul A dıguzel ([email protected]) is an MSKU
for the scalability issues. The blockchain should Blockchain Research Group member who is eager to learn the
fundamentals and technical barriers of this technology. She has
only be used for keeping records; the data should worked on using blockchain effectively for e-voting systems for
be kept in the cloud. Most blockchain implemen- her finishing thesis. She received her B.S. in computer engineer-
tations use PoW consensus protocols and too ing in 2018.

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