Internet boffins take aim at BGP route leaks

One of the most persistent bugs in internet infrastructure, route leaks in the border gateway protocol (BGP), is in the sights of a group of 'net boffins with their new Internet-Draft. BGP's one of the internet's persistent trouble-spots: ineradicable because it's ubiquitous, it's vulnerable because it's ancient, a relic of a …

[John Smith 19]

sounds like a start

Provided the sender can be verified as being what it actually is.

[HaroldR]

Re: sounds like a start

BGP authentication has been around since 1998.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Qrator Labs", "Arrcus"

Many fat-fingered people naming companies, it looks.

Anyway, anybody typing and using thumbs for anything but the space key, should be re-trained at it...

[Alister]

Re: "Qrator Labs", "Arrcus"

Anyway, anybody typing and using thumbs for anything but the space key, should be re-trained at it...

On a mobile or phablet?

[Dakaix]

Pedant Alert

"The four roles in question are:"

*lists five items*

[Alister]

Re: Pedant Alert

"The four roles in question are:"

*lists five items*

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, and surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[thegroucho]

And then ...

... every net admin will list the role as 'complex', defeating the objective.

Seen customers trying to send us full routing table great many number of times.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: And then ...

yes, therein lies the rub. Personally, I'd force a signing requirement ala secure DNS, but that'd require upgrades worldwide sooo... non-starter there. And such a requirement wouldn't be much of a speed-bump to state actors that are the real threat, IMNSHO.

[John Smith 19]

I guess a key question is how many of these things there are so how many to update

Not really sure

10s of 1000? 10s of millions?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I guess a key question is how many of these things there are so how many to update

I don't know but I *can* use Google 8)

http://www.cidr-report.org/as2.0/ - answer: lots.

[John Smith 19]

Re: I guess a key question is how many of these things there are so how many to update

"I don't know but I *can* use Google 8)"

Bully for you.

So about 700 000 units would need have their software updated, not their routing tables.

Sounds like a fairly major task to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are other views of the solution space being discussed in the IETF as well.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-idr-route-leak-detection-mitigation/