ICANN 'glitch' let gTLD rivals see user details

Internet domain name regulator ICANN has revealed that the software 'glitch' behind last week's shutdown of its generic top level domain (gTLD) application system let rivals view each others’ user details. 

“We have learned of a possible glitch in the TLD application system software that has allowed a limited number of users to view some other users' file names and user names in certain scenarios,” ICANN’s chief operating officer Akram Atallah said in a statement late Thursday. 

The shutdown occurred on the date of the official deadline for big brand companies to apply for generic TLD names such as “.pepsi”. 

ICANN pushed out the deadline to April 20 and said the system should be back online by April 17.

However, on Saturday, Atallah said ICANN won’t know until midnight April 16 whether it can meet that timeframe. 

Atallah also clarified that the first incident in which one applicant could view another applicant’s details was March 19, early on in the process. 

“[W]e are sifting through the thousands of customer service inquiries received since the opening of the application submission period,” said Atallah.

“This preliminary review has identified a user report on March 19 that appears to be the first report related to this technical issue.”

It appears that ICANN was already aware of the problem and thought it had resolved the issue.  

“Although we believed the issues identified in the initial and subsequent reports had been addressed, on April 12 we confirmed that there was a continuing unresolved issue and we shut down the system,” said Atallah.

“We are still aggressively looking into the issue, and we will publish additional information as soon as it can be confirmed.”