Doom entirely from DNS records
github.com

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104 points

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Venn1

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3 days ago

28 comments

ktpsns ・ 2 hours ago

To clarify, a good title would be "Loading Doom entirely from DNS records"

Neither one plays Doom over DNS nor is the first paragraph in the README correct, because DNS is only abused for storage, not for computing/processing/executing instructions:

> At some point, a reasonable person asked "DNS resolves names to IP addresses, what else can it do?" The answer, apparently, is run DOOM.

  • drob518 ・ 2 hours ago

    Yup. A better title might be “Author discovers data can be stored in DNS TXT records which were created to store data.”

  • b112 ・ 2 hours ago

    You make me wonder if it is possible. All you need to do is to programmatically change bits, and you have compute. Some cache monkeying or somethong.

    Of course, I imagine it would be incredibly slow.

    • testaccount28 ・ an hour ago

      > All you need to do is to programmatically change bits, and you have compute.

      all you need is to rapidly push off one foot and land on the other, and you have running.

kgeist ・ 26 minutes ago

I once had this silly idea to create distributed storage of arbitrary data by exploiting a range of completely unrelated sites. Say, when you want to upload your file to the System, it may store one encrypted chunk as an image on a free image hosting site, another chunk as an encoded blog post on a random forum about farming (or in the user profile?), another chunk as a youtube video, etc. Imagine having something like hundreds or thousands of such "backends". Every chunk would be stored in 3 places for high durability of course. Free storage, hidden in plain sight :) Although, I didn't think through how to store the index reliably, and, because a moderator on a random farmers' site may delete our record(s), there needs to be a system which continously validates the integrity and reuploads the chunks.

Maybe such a silly project already exists?

thestackfox ・ 40 minutes ago

Respect. But also ... WHY????

Now let's do

(1) A DNS file drop: Split small files into TXT records and rebuild them client-side. Useless for big files, perfect for config blobs, tiny payloads, and cursed demos. Also someone can write an S3-compatible client.

(2) Redis DNS:

- GET foo.cache.example.com -> TXT record returns value chunks

- TTL is the eviction policy

- Cache invalidation becomes even more of a hate crime.

kaitari ・ 2 hours ago

I never stop being impressed by these "<something-crazy> running Doom" posts. AFAIC, whenever we get to Mars, we won't truly have arrived until someone is playing Doom on Mars, and without wasting valuable resources by doing so. Running Doom, the canonical measurement of truly mastering a thing's capabilities.

tombert ・ 2 hours ago

Gotta admit that it didn't occur to me that "can it run DOOM?" would stretch all the way to DNS.

At this point I am wondering if people will somehow port DOOM over to the MONIAC.

nullbyte808 ・ an hour ago

Malware could still use DNS records for storage and access to bootstrapped payloads correct?

  • thesuitonym ・ an hour ago

    Yes, but it's not a problem, any more than downloading any arbitrary text is. You'd still have to have something execute the binary.

lxgr ・ an hour ago

A database storing data? Now I’ve seen everything!

hun3 ・ an hour ago

Finally, a DOOM download that bypasses captive portals

cat-turner ・ 2 hours ago

Super cool. Never thought of this. Would this be useful for seeding LLMs?

  • FartyMcFarter ・ 2 hours ago

    This is a data storage system, so I guess yes, data is useful to train LLMs?

    Why does everything get turned into an LLM discussion?

ethin ・ 20 minutes ago

I read this title, did a double-take, then had to go look at the git hub because it still didn't click for me. Because this sounds absolutely amazing, and absurd, and weird, all at the same time. Like..... Wow? Talk about turning protocols into pretzels...