nanog mailing list archives

Re: "Defensive" BGP hijacking?


From: Doug Montgomery <dougm.work () gmail com>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2016 15:09:57 -0400

If only there were a global system, with consistent and verifiable security
properties, to permit address holders to declare the set of AS's authorized
to announce their prefixes, and routers anywhere on the Internet to
independently verify the corresponding validity of received announcements.

*cough      https://www.nanog.org/meetings/abstract?id=2846     cough*

I now return us to our discussion of network police, questionnaires for
network security, and the use of beer as a motivating force.

dougm

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 2:51 PM, Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org> wrote:

Blake,

I concur that these are key questions. Probably _the_ key questions. The
fabric of the Internet is today based on trust, and BGP's integrity is the
core of that trust.

I realize that BGP hijacking is not uncommon. However, this is the first
time I've seen in it used defensively. I don't see a way to ever bless this
kind of defensive use without compromising that core trust. If Internet
reachability depends on individual providers believing that they are
justified in violating that trust when they are attacked, how can the
Internet stand?

In addition to the question posed to Bryant about whether he would take
this action again, I would like to add: what about the innocent parties
impacted by your actions? Or do you take the position there were no
innocent parties in the hijacked prefixes?

-mel via cell

On Sep 13, 2016, at 11:40 AM, Blake Hudson <blake () ispn net> wrote:



Bryant Townsend wrote on 9/13/2016 2:22 AM:
This was the point where I decided
I needed to go on the offensive to protect myself, my partner, visiting
family, and my employees. The actions proved to be extremely effective,
as
all forms of harassment and threats from the attackers immediately
stopped.


Bryant, what actions, exactly, did you take? This topic seems
intentionally glossed over while you spend a much larger amount of time
explaining the back story and your motivations rather than your actions.

Questions I was left with:

1. What prefixes have you announced without permission (not just this
  event)?
2. How did you identify these prefixes?
3. Did you attempt to contact the owner of these prefixes?
4. Did you attempt to contact the origin or transit AS of these prefixes?
5. What was the process to get your upstream AS to accept these prefix
  announcements?
6. Was your upstream AS complicit in allowing you to announce prefixes
  you did not have authorization to announce?





-- 
DougM at Work


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