July 2005 - NANOG - lists.nanog.org

Completewhois New Features - RBL Lookup and Search Utilities
by william(at)elan.net 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Hello everyone, Over the past month several new features and utilities have been added that are likely to be of interest here. In this post I'll focus on RBL lookup related utilities which have to do with rbl data from about 30 lists (with one or two exceptions, pretty much covers 25 most used free lists) that we're collecting and aggregating in the database (updates once per day) for analysis and allow users to check on based on individual queries and ip ranges. I. First of there is now direct whois lookup facility to check if ip address or domain is in one of those lists - you can simply do whois -h rbl.completewhois.com ip-address/domain OR (to show all lists that were checked) whois -h rbl.completewhois.com RBL_INCLUDENOMATCH=ON ip-address/domain OR (to include RBL data with normal whois lookup) whois -h whois.completewhois.com RBL ip-address/domain The queries are completed in average 1/2 second, so results are always fast. Note that no ip ranges are accepted (or going to be) on the whois interface. II. The web interface and light documentation for RBL Lookup (individual queries interface to our system) is available at http://www.completewhois.com/rbl_lookup.htm The website utility has two types of output display - one user-friendly (now default) table showing lists that matched and did not as red and green and including links to the list pages (good for less RBL-familiar users who want to know what to do) and simple format based on whois (can be easy to cut-paste from) and which is used when you want to also combine query with whois and dns data. The website lookup CGI can also be refernced directly (already is and used quite heavily) from other places and applications, do it as in this example: http://www.completewhois.com/cgi-bin/rbl_lookup.cgi?query=62.139.100.213 There is also real-time RBL check utility for 200 lists (not using our database and so quite slow) available on the bottom of the page and you even have a choice there to use several dns libraries (ADNS, FireDNS, BIND resolver) and compare how fast/slow they work... III. Another utility on the website allows to do IP range searches and is intended to be used primarily by ISPs and network operators to check on the listings that cover their own ip blocks (this is to help make operators aware of the extent of possible abuse coming from their network). The interface to this is available at: http://www.completewhois.com/rbl_search.htm The search utility is restricted to maximum /24 range as allowing more then that could in my opinion (and others I consulted) facilitate abuse rather then help stop it. To be able to do more then /24 lookup on your ip block(s), you will need to register and get username and password in our system (its still all free - registration is just making sure only ISP who is assigned the ip block can do query on entire block). Also note that use of this utility is covered by separate AUP. The results from ip range search also come in several formats, including simple list on the website, comprehensive webtable format as well as an option to produce CSV file for export to spreadsheet. The queries and searches are typically done in 1-2 seconds for /24 and about 4-8 seconds for /16 (with 1000 matches from various RBLs).Webtable adds additional couple seconds for large (500+) matches. In the future if there is an interest, further work will be done on the search interface ISP features to allow not only one-time lookups but reports that can be generated and sent automatically. Options will also include ability to do query based on specified time range (i.e. only new RBL entries that appeared in last 7 days). You will need to tell me what you want and how its to be presented, if you expect new features and note that any further work on this will be done end August or later when I come back from IETF conference. P.S. For those who like statistics, there are currently 1.8 million individual RBL entries which as an aggregate cover about 2 /8s (not all fair comparison because spews level2 covers large ip ranges where as many other lists are more specific). About 100 thousand (varies, very low on weekend but can be lot more some days) get updated every day and most active as far as updates is Spamhaus XBL. --- William Leibzon Elan Networks william(a)elan.net

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Another article on stealing your CC data from stores with wireless..
by Nicole 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Main Street in the Cross Hairs By ERIC DASH The nation's 5 million retail stores are proving to be an easy target for data thieves. full text at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/business/26card.html?th&emc=th Along a crowded stretch of highway just south of Miami's downtown is a shopping area that might be called the data theft capital of the United States. In the wireless hacker equivalent of a drive-by shooting wave, criminals obtained the cardholder information of tens of thousands of customers at four major stores there, including a DSW Shoes retail outlet that appears to have been the initial source of a chainwide data breach. Recent investigations reveal that the thieves singled out stores with strong wireless signals and weakly protected data. While their exact methods are not known, they could have parked a car outside a store or set up in the local Starbucks , using a laptop computer outfitted with an off-the-shelf wireless receiver. They may have even received help from Web sites listing the geographic coordinates of easy-to-target stores. >From there, it would be easy to pick up signals being broadcast around the store and use them to gain access to its computer systems. For more than a month, the hackers "robbed" the same shops again and again of premium card account numbers stored in their databases...... ....

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NANOG 2005 Elections Complete
by Betty Burke 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

All: The 2005 NANOG Steering Committee Elections are now complete. The election results are posted at: http://www.nanog.org/results05.html The NANOG-Elections and NANOG-Trouble email lists have also been removed. Thank you to all the candidates, voters, and those who have supported the NANOG Evolution process! Sincerely, Merit Network Inc.

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RE: Switch advice please -Folowup- posting responses
by Nicole 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Hi All Some people wanted to know about the responses to my request for advice on switches.. so I collected them all and put them into a basic web page.. They are at http://www.webweaver.net/temp/ There are no names, so I hope its ok that I posted these. If anyone wants theirs removed, please let me know. Nicole

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ISP filter policies
by Arnold Nipper 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

On http://www.nanog.org/filter.html there is a small list of ISP filter policies. Does anyone know a more comprehensive and up-to-date list? Especially: are all ISP filtering according to the minimum allocation? Thanks and best regards, Arnold -- Arnold Nipper, AN45

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Where is Looking Glass source code?
by Joe McGuckin 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Nitrous doesn't seem to exist anymore. Can someone point me to a copy somewhere? Thanks, Joe -- Joe McGuckin ViaNet Communications 994 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 Phone: 650-213-1302 Cell: 650-207-0372 Fax: 650-969-2124

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VSNL to acquire teleglobe
by Suresh Ramasubramanian 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

They already have tyco, which has a rather decent submarine cable network. Now they've bought out Teleglobe for what looks like a song ($178 million) .. teleglobe is one of VSNL's main transit providers by the way. -- Suresh Ramasubramanian (ops.lists(a)gmail.com) http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8BILFRO1.htm?campaign_id=apn_… JUL. 25 5:21 P.M. ET India's leading provider of international calls and Internet services Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., or VSNL, on Monday said it has offered to buy global voice and data service provider Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. of Canada in a deal valued at $178 million. [...] Teleglobe, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, has more than 1,400 wholesale customers and carries over 13 billion minutes of voice traffic globally. [...] VSNL is part of the $17 billion Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate. Earlier this month, it completed the acquisition of TGN, a 60,000-kilometer (37,280-mile) undersea cable network spanning North America, Europe and Asia. TGN was previously owned and operated by Tyco International Ltd. The Teleglobe buyout would enable VSNL to access more than 200 direct and bilateral agreements with leading voice carriers, many of which are the incumbent carriers within their countries or large international wireless service providers.

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Re: open source tools help (contract) in DC area?
by Fergie (Paul Ferguson) 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Don't sweat it, Howard -- some people would rather slam you for what you post to the list than help out. Shame, that. - ferg -- "Howard C. Berkowitz" <hcb(a)gettcomm.com> wrote: At 8:27 PM +0200 7/25/05, Brad Knowles wrote: > I'm not convinced that this is an appropriate on-topic >posting for NANOG. It seems to me that you would be much better off >going through SANS or SAGE to find local groups in the area that >could be helpful to you. Actually, the interest is in open-source ISP tools. -- "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson Engineering Architecture for the Internet fergdawg(a)netzero.net or fergdawg(a)sbcglobal.net ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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Spyware 'calling home' volumes soar
by Fergie (Paul Ferguson) 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

8% counts for a lot of traffic... John Leyden writes in The Register: [snip] Outbound spyware transmissions from infested machines accounted for up to eight per cent of total outbound web traffic in pilot tests of a new managed spyware screening service. UK web security firm ScanSafe said the volume of traffic observed during a 10 week pilot test of its Spyware Screening service showed that spyware applications are becoming more and more stealthy in their ability to hide their outbound 'covert' channels among normal web traffic. That's bad news because data sent when spyware "calls-home" can include confidential and even privileged information. Spyware now accounts for around 20 per cent of web-based threats, which includes other malware such as worms and Trojans, and is still on the increase, according to ScanSafe. The firm said malware such as CoolWebSearch, which hides on an infected client using newly developed root-kit architecture, often evades detection. [snip] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/spyware_screening/ - ferg -- "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson Engineering Architecture for the Internet fergdawg(a)netzero.net or fergdawg(a)sbcglobal.net ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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Transit politics (Telus blocking sites it does not like)
by Mike Tancsa 25 Jul '05

25 Jul '05

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/07/24/1145417-sun.html As the slashdot headline quotes, Canadian telephone company and ISP "Telus" has admitted that they are <http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/07/24/1145417-sun.html>blocking all attempts to access a website set up by the employee's union (who is currently "on-strike" or "locked-out", depending on your point of view). Currently no customers of the Telco's ADSL service (or any other ADSL service provider who leases lines) can access the <http://www.voices-for-change.com/>union's webpage. Is it reasonable for an ISP to censor webpages they don't agree with during contract negotiations?" As Telus is one of my transit providers, they are still advertising the path to me, but are blackholing the /32s in question. Kind of sets a bad precedent for a common carrier argument :( I like BGP blackholing to protect internet infrastructure, but what exactly is this protecting ? ---Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Tancsa, tel +1 519 651 3400 Sentex Communications, mike(a)sentex.net Providing Internet since 1994 www.sentex.net Cambridge, Ontario Canada www.sentex.net/mike

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