GNS does not guarantee that all copies of entries in the naming database are up-to-date. How are clients of GNS likely to become aware that they have been given an out-of-date entry? Under what circumstances might it be harmful?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Clients will become aware of the use of an out-of-date entry if a name that they have obtain is no longer a valid communication identifier (such as for example when a user’s email address has changed and no forwarding address exists). This is not normally harmful, since the client can recover gracefully by making a delayed request to GNS. However, it may be harmful if the communication identifier obtained from GNS provides access to some protected resource, and the name used to obtain it should no longer be bound to that resource. For example, when a user ceases to be a member of the organisation, GNS may continue to supply information about his or her organisational role, leading users or applications to accord privileges to the user.