Dan Kaminsky
The Man Who Patched DNS
The 2008 DNS cache-poisoning flaw
Rating
95Impact score
Domains
DNSProtocol researchCoordinated disclosure
Scouting report
Found a flaw that let an attacker poison DNS caches and quietly redirect any name on the internet. Instead of publishing, he organized a secret multi-vendor patch effort and got the whole internet fixed on one coordinated day in July 2008. Died in 2021 at 42, and the industry has not stopped talking about him since.
Curator’s note
Proof that the biggest bug of your career is a responsibility, not a trophy.
Sources
- 01Dan Kaminsky en.wikipedia.org
- 02CERT/CC VU#800113 — DNS cache poisoning kb.cert.org
- 03Wired, 2008 — how Kaminsky found the flaw wired.com