Traceroutes

Bad Horse traceroute

A traceroute to bad.horse spells lyrics through reverse-DNS names; signed.bad.horse adds a separate Easter egg in its TLS certificate chain.

traceroutemusicbad.horseTLS certificates

Date updated:

Screenshot used in the talk for Bad Horse traceroute
Screenshot used in the original talk.

The bad.horse route turns reverse DNS into the lyrics of Bad Horse’s message from Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

The zone also became known for signed.bad.horse, a certificate-chain variation on the same idea. The route is a compact example of DNS names used as a narrative surface.