[cdjk]

The sibling poster does a good job explaining SNI. The shorter version is that without SNI all you know when establishing the secure connection is the IP address, so you can't do name based virtual hosts.

I'm not an expert on DNSSEC, but the idea is that there is a chain of trust going back to the domain registrar. If a receive a signed DNS response, and everything verifies, then I know that it comes from the person who registered the domain. I can't add a signed entry for example.com, so if I received a signed DNS response for example.com, I know it ultimately originated (with possible caching like normal DNS) from whomever registered example.com.

You can then add what is essentially a TXT record to the DNS entries for a domain that is the fingerprint of an SSL cert. If you receive that as a valid dnssec response, you know it can be trusted.

Essentially the dnssec infrastructure replaces the CA infrastructure.

You can do the same thing with ssh key fingerprints too.

[lifeisstillgood]

aha - I shall have to go read up on dnssec.

edit: cdjk - thank you - I have to edit-reply as there appears to be an increased time delay on replies. Maybe its me. Bought it.

[cdjk]

I recommend DNSSEC Mastery, by Michael Lucas:

http://blather.michaelwlucas.com/archives/1640

It's not out yet, but an nearly-complete draft is available on leanpub (with updates once he finishes copy editing):

https://leanpub.com/dnssecmastery

edit reply: I think the thread is nesting to far...