ICANN gTLD system still down after two weeks

Global domain name overseer ICANN remains unsure when it can restore its generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) application system after taking down it down on April 12. 

Last week ICANN said the mysterious ‘glitch’ which forced it to take down the TAS application system should be back online by April 17.

Now the organisation has called off any restoration date, instead promising a further progress update “no later” than April 27. 

To access ICANN’s gTLD TAS system, which was meant to take applications for generic domains such as “.coke” or “.shoes”, potential applicants used a Citrix XenApp Remote Desktop virtual Windows instance.

Users first had to log into the Citrix virtual desktop and then proceed to open the TAS application  in a controlled environment. ICANN provides double log-in instructions to applicants here.  

Applicants, who were required to front up with a US$5000 registration fee and a further US$180,000 “evaluation fee” have been forced to wait over two weeks for ICANN to remediate the problem, however the organisation has yet to explain exactly what the problem is. 

“Under certain circumstances, users that had previously deleted a file could end up seeing the filing of another user who had uploaded a file,” ICANN chief security officer Jeff Moss said. 

“It means that certain details were being revealed to users who were not seeking the data would just show up on their screen.”

Moss did not say whether the problem stemmed from ICANN’s TLD application or the Citrix virtual desktop gateway for remote users of the system.

ICANN spokesman Andrew Robertson told iTNews it was unable to say how many Australian applicants have been affected by the glitch, nor exactly where the glitch occurred. 

Moss said the flaw affected a “minority of instances”, adding that ICANN was “in the process of winnowing that down even more to be able to tell you with much more specificity how many people.”

The downtime has forced the organisation to delay the planned April 30 unveiling of successful applicants, which numbered over 800.