Updating the PSL

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elsif gaming

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Feb 11, 2025, 9:55:33 AMFeb 11
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I am an operator of a ccTLD.

Federal government has a delegated subdomain (gov.ccTLD).  This subdomain has ended up on the PSL, causing said government issues with renewing SSL certificates.

Federal government is asking to be removed from the PSL, and as ccTLD operators, this is apparently something within our responsibility (despite never being asked what subdomains should be on this PSL.)

Need to advise federal government on the full ramifications of staying on and/or being removed from the PSL.

Please help.

Simon Friedberger

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:18:06 PMFeb 11
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The executive summary is: Being on the PSL means that `.gov.ccTLD` is treated like `.com`. This is important because, for example, otherwise officeA.gov.ccTLD and officeB.gov.ccTLD will be considered the same site and that means, for example, that password autofill behaves strangely and session cookies leak to the other site and maybe get overwritten

Paul Hoffman

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:28:31 PMFeb 11
to Simon Friedberger, psl-discuss
So, is this saying that if a zone owner such as the one who started this thread wants to change a long-standing listing in the PSL due to changes in their zone and in the way that CAs deal with they PSL, they can't? I can see both sides of the argument, but hope that a change in the landscape would allow changes to the entries in the PSL.

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Simon Friedberger

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:35:14 PMFeb 11
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I'm not sure I follow your train of thought here.

You can always add and remove domains from the PSL if they are your domains.
It is unknown, when people update their browsers (or other PSL consumers) and see this change.

dnsguru

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:37:26 PMFeb 11
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Paul-

The ccTLD administrator can absolutely add or remove their given substring within their delegated zone(s), and are encouraged to.  They just need to demonstrate administrative authority by placing a record into their zone for the given string so that the volunteers can validate their nexus to the administration of the zone.

This would serve to confirm both that administrator's intentionality and administration of said string.

That said, the PSL is simply a catalog.  What developers, applications, service providers, certificate authorities etc do beyond that is outside scope or control of the PSL maintaining volunteers.  

We do that in exchange for the grief we receive for our time and effort ;)

-Jothan

Paul Hoffman

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:39:15 PMFeb 11
to Simon Friedberger, psl-discuss
Ah, good, I'm glad I misunderstood your earlier reply. The original poster asked how they could get a domain removed, so a pointer to https://publicsuffix.org/submit/ would be the best place for them to start. 

dnsguru

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:44:00 PMFeb 11
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Hi-

Simon has replied about the implications of having a listing on the PSL.  Making a change is possible, but it requires that the requestor place entries in the relevant DNS zone in order to provide proof of administration and intention, as well as serving as demonstration of some technical competence in order to reasonably indicate understanding of the presence or absence of an entry and those implications.

We, as maintainers of this catalog, do not have control of what happens with the PSL with respect to browsers, certificate authorities, applications etc or the rate of update that those entities might make when changes happen.  We encourage requesting parties to engage with those down-line parties for specific requests or questions.

-Jothan

Simon Friedberger

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Feb 11, 2025, 12:44:04 PMFeb 11
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Thanks for clarifying! I was indeed too focused on the part: "Need to advise federal government on the full ramifications of staying on and/or being removed from the PSL."
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