Top-Level Domains That Are Already Dotless
RFC 7085

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Independent Submission                                         J. Levine
Request for Comments: 7085                          Taughannock Networks
Category: Informational                                       P. Hoffman
ISSN: 2070-1721                                Cybersecurity Association
                                                           December 2013

               Top-Level Domains That Are Already Dotless

Abstract

   Recent statements from the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the
   Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Security
   and Stability Advisory Committee have focused on the problems that
   the DNS is likely to experience with top-level domains (TLDs) that
   contain address records (so-called "dotless domains").  In order to
   help researchers determine the extent of the issues with dotless
   domains, this document lists the current dotless TLDs and gives a
   script for finding them.  This document lists data about dotless TLDs
   but does not address the policy and technology issues other than to
   point to the statements of others.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
   RFC stream.  The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
   its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
   implementation or deployment.  Documents approved for publication by
   the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7085.

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RFC 7085                  Already Dotless TLDs             December 2013

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Current Dotless Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  TLDs with A Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  TLDs with AAAA Records  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.3.  TLDs with MX Records  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Appendix A.  Script for Finding Dotless Domains . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   In the past few years, well-respected groups have issued documents
   about top-level domains in the DNS that contain address records
   (so-called "dotless domains").  The Security and Stability Advisory
   Committee (SSAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
   Numbers (ICANN) issued a report called "Report on Dotless Domains"
   [SAC053] in February 2012.  The Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
   issued a statement called "Dotless Domains Considered Harmful"
   [IAB-DOTLESS] in July 2013.  The New gTLD Program Committee of the
   ICANN Board of Directors (NGPC) approved a resolution on dotless
   domains [NGPC-DOTLESS] in August 2013.  (The authors of this document
   note that they are not on the SSAC, the IAB, or the ICANN Board.)

   All of these documents consider the effects of dotless domains
   without describing the extent of their current deployment.  In order
   to help researchers determine the extent of the problems with dotless
   domains, this document lists the known dotless domains at the time of
   publication and shows how researchers can find them in the future.
   In this document, we consider any TLD with an A, AAAA, and/or MX
   record at the apex to be dotless.  This document is meant to provide
   current data to the Internet community but does not give advice.

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RFC 7085                  Already Dotless TLDs             December 2013

   Many people have expressed a belief that ICANN prohibits all TLDs
   from being dotless.  That belief is not true; ICANN's policies apply
   only to their contracted TLDs.  This document shows the extent to
   which dotless domains exist today.

2.  Current Dotless Domains

   This section shows the dotless domains we found on September 3, 2013,