Re: [idn] upstream and downstream

["Adam M. Costello" <idn.amc+0@nicemice.net.RemoveThisWord>]

Erik van der Poel <erik@vanderpoel.org> wrote:

> But then, in the current climate, where phishing is becoming a larger
> problem and identity theft is growing fast, would you say that it is
> safe to use Unicode in *DNS*, one of the most important underpinnings,
> security-wise, of the Internet?

Doug Ewell <dewell@adelphia.net> wrote:

> If you need a wider repertoire, you can use Unicode and you can
> *still* implement a subset.  The problem, as always, is in determining
> what the subset should be.

I'm with you both.  I wanted the IDN working group to define a subset,
but ultimately I was persuaded that it was not feasible for the IETF to
reach consensus on such a subset, and that subsetting could and should
be done on a per-registry basis, inside the registry rather than the
applications.  But the slash-homograph attack now makes that approach
(in its pure form) appear hopeless.

AMC