Insecure Internet

The internet is insecure. I don’t mean that the servers on the internet are vulnerable to hacking, or that we need to move to https:// (we do), but rather that the mechanics of the internet are not designed to be secure. End-to-end encryption is not mandated at the IP level. The routing information used to get packets can be faked. Ownership of IP addresses depends on documentation and not cryptography. Rogue DHCP servers are possible. Fake certificates and fake certificate authorities exist. DNSSEC is an improvement but if you want to check yourself, you have to manually fetch the root DNSSEC keys.

All this should just work.

DHCP is from an naive era where criminals didn’t run amok and the world would be better if it were retired in favor of something that behaves more like WiFi: to connected to a wired IP network would required selecting the server by SSID and entering a pre-shared key. Allow DNSSEC information and NTP server information to be provided automatically along with DNS server information, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and gateway addresses.

IP address ownership should be provable with a cryptographic certificate. Routers should announce the directly adjacent routers by public key when announcing routes.