Example domain names...

Christopher Wagner chrisw at pacaids.com
Wed Feb 5 14:07:13 PST 2003


I just ran across an interesting tid bit of information that I thought
others might find educational.  Some are probably already aware of this,
some may not be...

I was reading the SecurityFocus Incidents list and Meritt James (in msg
titled 'ZOMBIES_HTTP_GET') mentioned that his domain (somewhere.com) was
being used as an example domain name in many programs and trojans.  Many
people, myself included, use www.whatever.com or www.somewhere.com, etc.. to
give examples of a domain name.  There is an RFC which clarifies reserved
domain names and TLDs for such things.  Apparently it's the responsible
thing to use www.example.com/net/org to signify a example domain name.

Now I doubt many people on this list are writing trojans/worms/etc..  But I
know we have a few programmers here that probably deal with situations like
this and I know I've written documentation that gives example domain names.
I'm going to be aware of this in the future, not only to be more compliant
with RFCs, but also to not accidentally have a free website plug in my
documentation where it is not appropriate.

Anyway, I hope that was useful, or at least informational. :)

- Christopher Wagner
chrisw at pacaids.com

Packaging Aids Corporation - Information Systems
P.O. Box 9144
San Rafael, CA 94912-9144
http://www.pacaids.com/
(415) 454-4868 x116
 



More information about the talk mailing list