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Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

The SSAC is a volunteer group of specialists in the technical security field that provides advice and insight to the ICANN community and the Board.

SAC113 | Executive Summary for SSAC Advisory on Private-Use TLDs

[PDF, 469.27KB]

This advisory describes the use of private-use TLDs (Top-Level Domains), such as .corp and .home, along with other forms of names intended for resolution within an internal system. Despite organizations commonly using internal-use on an ad-hoc basis, there are significant known problems with this practice, with the potential for harm via leaking into the public DNS. 

To address the need for private-use TLDs and minimize potential harm caused by their use, the SSAC proposes reserving a name that will not be delegated to the root zone of the global DNS for the purposes of private, internal use. Within its proposal, the SSAC also defines four criteria for the selection of such a string.

Recommendations

  • Recommendation 1: The SSAC recommends that the ICANN Board ensure a string is identified using the criteria specified in Section 4.1 and reserved at the top level for private use. This particular string must never be delegated.