back to article 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 …

  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    sounds like a start

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

    1. HaroldR

      Re: sounds like a start

      BGP authentication has been around since 1998.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    "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...

    1. 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?

  3. Dakaix
    Coat

    Pedant Alert

    "The four roles in question are:"

    *lists five items*

    1. 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.

  4. thegroucho
    Facepalm

    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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      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.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    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?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      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.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Unhappy

        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.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    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/

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