Session Date/Time: 09 Nov 2023 16:00

irtfopen

Summary

The IRTF Open Meeting at IETF 118 in Prague included updates on IRTF activities, new research groups, recently published RFCs, the IRTF-specific code of conduct draft, and the Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP). The meeting featured three presentations from ANRP winners covering automated DNS testing, IPFS design and evaluation, and methods for locating censorship devices.

Key Discussion Points

IRTF Specific Code of Conduct: Discussion of a draft code of conduct tailored for a research organization, seeking community feedback.
Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP): Announcements of awardees and a call for nominations. The ANRP recognizes significant contributions to applied networking.
DNS Testing: Presentation on "Scale," a tool for automatically finding RFC compliance bugs in DNS name servers. Discussion focused on model coverage, implementation bugs vs. RFC faults, and challenges in modeling vague RFCs.
IPFS Design and Evaluation: Presentation on the design and evaluation of IPFS, a storage layer for the decentralized web. Discussion centered on content addressing, discoverability, privacy implications, and performance improvements.
Locating Censorship Devices: Presentation on methods for locating and examining censorship devices. Discussion covered censorship fingerprints, TLS and HTTP fuzzing techniques, policy gaps, and the potential for dual-use of commercial firewalls.
Privacy and Censorship: Concerns were raised about privacy issues in content addressing systems like IPFS, especially regarding tracking content access. Ideas like private set intersection were discussed as potential solutions. The need for transparent and auditable blocking mechanisms in firewalls was emphasized.

Decisions and Action Items

Action Item: Read and provide feedback on the draft IRTF Code of Conduct to the IRSG. (Deadline: Before next IETF meeting)
Action Item: Submit nominations for the Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP). (Deadline: End of next week)
Decision: The call for travel grants for the Risbon meeting will open shortly after this meeting.

Next Steps

Update and publish the IRTF Code of Conduct.
Prepare for the Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW) 2024 in Vancouver.
Continue monitoring and measuring the IPFS network (stats.itfs.network).
Integrate censorship detection techniques into censorship measurement platforms.
Encourage more transparency and standardization of error messages in censorship implementations.