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posted by martyb on Sunday September 08 2019, @10:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the Who-do-YOU-trust? dept.

Firefox is enabling DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) for some users starting this month, and it will use Cloudflare by default:

DoH (IETF RFC8484) allows Firefox to send DNS requests as normal-looking HTTPS traffic to special DoH-compatible DNS servers (called DoH resolvers). Basically, it hides DNS requests inside the normal deluge of HTTPS data. [DoH doesn't encrypt DNS requests. That's a different protocol, namely DNS-over-TLS, aka DoT].

By default, Firefox ships with support for relaying encrypted DoH requests via Cloudflare's DoH resolver, but users can change it to any DoH resolver they want [see here].

When DoH support is enabled in Firefox, the browser will ignore DNS settings set in the operating system, and use the browser-set DoH resolver. By moving DNS server settings from the OS to the browser level, and by encrypting the DNS traffic, DoH effectively hides DNS traffic from internet service providers (ISPs), local parental control software, antivirus software, enterprise firewalls and traffic filters, and about any other third-party that tries to intercept and sniff a user's traffic.

Firefox Plans Controversial New Encryption Setting For Millions, And Update Starts This Month

A presentation from BT on the "Potential ISP Challenges with DNS over HTTPS" earlier this year warned that DoH will reduce the ability to derive cybersecurity intelligence from malware activity and DNS insight, open new attack opportunities to hackers, and result in an inability to [fulfill] government mandated regulation or court orders as potential concerns. And so the change will foster serious debate. [...] The U.S. is first, but the rest of the world will follow. A spokesperson for the U.K. Internet Services Providers' Association told me that "the debate on DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is evidently a topic that polarizes opinion. However, our position is clear. ISPA believes that bringing in DoH by default would be harmful for online safety, cyber security and consumer choice."

DNS-over-HTTPS is the next default protection coming to Firefox

Mozilla will be rolling out DoH in what it calls "fallback mode" later this month. This means that if domain name look-ups using DoH fail, Firefox will revert back to using the default operating system DNS. Similarly, if Firefox detects that parental controls or enterprise policies are in effect, Firefox will disable DoH.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @08:13AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @08:13AM (#891583)

    Cloudflare has already started to delist domains it doesn't like. Some of them are truly terrible

    Like 8chan, which has more censorship than here?

    it's not the job of a dns provider to make those value judgements

    In 2019, it's the job of every part of the infrastructure to deny a platform to evviiiiiillll.

  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday September 09 2019, @04:17PM (2 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Monday September 09 2019, @04:17PM (#891735)

    Like 8chan, which has more censorship than here?

    LOL. More than zero censorship?!? No way!

    Downmodding someone is not censoring them, because you can still see all the comments. Censorship would be removing the posts in question.

    Your fingers aren't broken. Just click the "expand" link.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @11:24PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @11:24PM (#891933)

      You don't get it. 4chan, 8chan, etc remove posts. SoylentNews doesn't.

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 10 2019, @03:50PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 10 2019, @03:50PM (#892249)

        I don't see why you're bringing Soylent into this conversation at all. It's like saying people who own over 7 guns per capita commit more shooting crimes than people who own 0 guns. I mean, sure, but...duh?

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"