RE: Does VeriSign's SiteFinder service violate the ECPA?

[Kaplan Michael N NPRI <KaplanMN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

                "By this logic, all webservers which unintentionally accept 
traffic 
                without somehow verifying that a typo did not take place 
violate the 
                ECPA. Thats ridiculous. Do you really want a precedent where, 
if someone 
                  accidentally POSTs bank information to your site instead of 
the URL 
                they meant to type, you are somehow liable? If I accidentally 
call you 
                instead of my friend and tell you all sorts of juicy gossip, is 
it 
                really your fault?"

                They aren't unintentionally accepting traffic, they are 
willfully redirecting traffic specifically not intended for them.  If someone 
"accidentally" POSTed information to my site due to a typo then I wouldn't 
expect to be held accountable.  But if rather I set up a domain similar to the 
banks so that all typos ended up being redirected to my site enabling me to 
collect data not intended for my use, then it would become intentional, as is 
the case with VeriSign.  All accidents lead to VeriSign.

                -----Original Message-----
                From:   N407ER [mailto:n407er@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
                Sent:   23 September, 2003 10:43 AM
                To:     Richard M. Smith
                Cc:     BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS. COM
                Subject:        Re: Does VeriSign's SiteFinder service violate 
the ECPA?

                Richard M. Smith wrote:
                > Hi,
                > 
                > Here's a question for the lawyers.  In certain situations, 
does the
                > VeriSign SiteFinder service violate the Electronic 
Communications
                > Privacy Act (AKA, ECPA)?
                > 
                > Here's the actual text of the ECPA:
                >       
                >    http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/pIch119.html
                > 
                > With my packet sniffer, I noticed that the VeriSign 
SiteFinder Web
                > server happily accepts POST form data which is intended for 
another Web
                > server.  This situation will occur if the domain name is 
misspelled in
                > the action URL of a form.
                > 
                > Without SiteFinder in the picture, the HTTP POST operation is 
never done
                > since the DNS lookup fails.


                I'm bothered by the VeriSign thing, too. But you've been 
posting a lot 
                of stuff about how it breaks certain services, breaks certain 
mail 
                clients, and may be illegal. What it does to mail clients and 
services 
                is annoying, though easily fixed. But you should hardly wish 
for it to 
                be deemed illegal. That's not the sort of precedent I want to 
worry about.

                Ta for now.