[HN Gopher] Possible BGP hijack
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       Possible BGP hijack
        
       Author : caaqil
       Score  : 312 points
       Date   : 2022-03-04 22:34 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (bgpstream.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (bgpstream.com)
        
       | cjbprime wrote:
       | ELI5 "in Paw Patrol terms" from Stamos:
       | https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1499873636500475904
       | 
       | It might be a false positive:
       | https://twitter.com/mdhardeman/status/1499877247167209480
        
         | randomhodler84 wrote:
         | Wtf is mayor goodway? And why is he in this confusing analogy?
        
           | umvi wrote:
           | Mayor Goodway is the mayor of fake-San-Francisco ("Adventure
           | Bay") in the kids' show "Paw Patrol". Also, she is a woman,
           | so I'm not sure why Mayor Goodway is referred to as "he"
        
             | pelasaco wrote:
             | Are you assuming Mayor Gooday's gender? /s
        
             | fintler wrote:
             | They probably meant Mayor Humdinger instead.
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | It's a joke; somebody asked for a Paw Patrol analogy. It's
           | not actually an explainer, and wasn't intended to be taken as
           | such.
        
             | secalex wrote:
             | "Paw Patrol Explainers Considered Harmful"
             | 
             | In this thread, I will deconstruct... (1/49)
        
               | randomhodler84 wrote:
        
               | gerdesj wrote:
               | It may surprise you that I have a different view on the
               | world despite speaking the same language as you and
               | hanging out in the same place as you.
               | 
               | I have no idea what a paw patrol is (actually I do,
               | because I take the trouble to look to things from other
               | people's perspective and engage).
               | 
               | Broaden your mind please. Or fuck off. Your choice.
        
               | randomhodler84 wrote:
        
               | ineedasername wrote:
               | The issue isn't the particular show or analogy. It's the
               | implication of your comment that everyone should,
               | unrealistically, try to be an expert in everything and
               | thereby never seek a more concise "intuition" when a few
               | hundred hours of research and self-study could be had.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | If you don't know what Paw Patrol is then a Paw Patrol
               | explanation can't be lowest-common-denominator.
        
               | ehPReth wrote:
               | You were new at one point too.
        
               | serf wrote:
               | I see validity on both sides of the table.
               | 
               | Yeah, someone new and experienced should have all the
               | effort possible put into them by others trying to catch
               | them up..
               | 
               | on the other hand the whole 'ELI5' phenomenon really has
               | no place in niches that really have no point to be
               | generalized for the average population.
               | 
               | 'ELI5' breaks down when comprehension of multiple topics
               | is required for elucidation; i.e.: a layman's explanation
               | of quantum chromodynamics requires many other base level
               | comprehensions before it can be tidily explained.
               | 
               | The 'ELI5' thing is cute, and it has a place -- but it
               | shouldn't be generalized to all education across the
               | board.
        
               | Cottages wrote:
               | I feel this way whenever I have to explain that, no, sex
               | is not a binary related to XX or XY, there's lots of
               | genetic variations (many of which don't fall neatly into
               | male or female).
               | 
               | There's lots of stuff like that across a wide range of
               | disciplines -- computer science, biology, sociology,
               | physics, economics, etc.
        
               | randomhodler84 wrote:
               | For sure. Life is beautiful and nuanced. Anything
               | significant is complex, and quantizing a spectrum, or at
               | worst, making it monochromatic, takes something from its
               | beauty.
        
           | lbotos wrote:
           | Pretty sure this is paw patrol but agreed, from the outside,
           | it's incomprehensible. (I'm on the outside with you)
        
           | ineedasername wrote:
           | I think I have a Voltron analogy somewhere that can explain
           | the Paw Patrol one...
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | jsizzle wrote:
         | It's VERY likely a false positive. It's the same ISP
        
         | dsl wrote:
         | It is a false positive. Both the originating and "hijacking" AS
         | are the same Ukrainian ISP (Netgroup).
        
           | secalex wrote:
           | The advertising ASN does not share any upstream peers. So it
           | might not be a hijack, but it is an interesting event and
           | could be related to the conflict.
           | 
           | Untangling ISPs that have operated in both countries or with
           | subsidiaries is going to get messy while infrastructure is
           | also getting destroyed.
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | drglitch wrote:
       | It is quite plausible that Russia would try to take down parts of
       | Ukraine internet given everything going on.
       | 
       | Alternatively, could simply be someone fat-fingering things,
       | given the insane numbers of blocks that RosKomNadzon has been
       | putting in today (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | I read an article (in Russian, will link later) outlining a
         | plan to copy current BGP tables, update them so that the
         | Russian internal internet space is encircled with government-
         | controlled ASes, and filter or block any outside access, while
         | making the BGP inside Russia look synchronized with the rest of
         | the world. Of course this applies to all BGP announcements from
         | outside the perimeter.
         | 
         | Not exactly a great firewall with packet inspection, but still
         | something to prevent any possibility to access any resources
         | except whitelisted ones, or to run a VPN to the outside.
         | 
         | Update: the article in question, Google-translated:
         | https://whatisyournameinsider-com.translate.goog/politika/24...
        
           | stadium wrote:
           | If Russia is preparing to up its information warfare game
           | does this give them better defenses against inbound attacks?
           | While letting FSB selectively allow outbound attacks?
        
       | thamer wrote:
       | This says the prefix being announced by two ASNs is only a /24,
       | which is kind of narrow for a hijack? Considering the countries
       | involved, reporting this as a hijack will inevitably lead to
       | people assuming it is related to the current conflict.
        
         | motohagiography wrote:
         | A /24 wouldn't propagate much farther than the nearest IX and
         | immediate peers, as presumably peers have learned to aggregate
         | and filter in the last 20 years. At face value, it really seems
         | like a shift to backup routes. Also, state level attacker view,
         | hijacking a route from another ASN is a bit 3rd world, as if
         | you were a superpower, you'd have already hacked the routers in
         | question and would just loop traffic through and MPLS tunnel to
         | your analysis centre.
        
           | jlgaddis wrote:
           | > _A /24 wouldn't propagate much farther than the nearest IX
           | and immediate peers, as presumably peers have learned to
           | aggregate and filter in the last 20 years._
           | 
           | ... and yet the global BGP table is absolutely full of /24s.
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | AS212463 only announces 2 /24 prefixes in total so it being
         | only 1 isn't a big sway one way or the other. The company being
         | the same just across the 2 countries makes it less likely to be
         | something militarily malicious but doesn't necessarily mean
         | it's unrelated to the current conflict.
        
       | mmaunder wrote:
       | Prefix 31.148.149.0/24 is normally announced by AS212463 HE shows
       | belongs to https://dataline.ua/en/ which is a Ukrainian company.
       | https://bgp.he.net/AS35297
       | 
       | Is now being announced by AS35004 which HE shows is Ukrainian
       | hosting provider https://netgroup.ua/
       | 
       | But the "Country of origin" of the AS is listed as Russian, which
       | is perhaps where the confusion comes from.
       | https://bgp.he.net/AS35004
       | 
       | About 95% of new AS35004's traffic goes through this peer: (which
       | is Ukrainian) https://bgp.he.net/AS13249
       | 
       | And this peer: (which is Ukrainian) https://bgp.he.net/AS3326
       | 
       | Both of which Peer with Cogent.
       | 
       | What is interesting is that Cogent today decided to cut service
       | to Russia. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-firm-cogent-
       | cutting-in...
       | 
       | If I was an ISP had networks from UA and RU and my Cogent peering
       | was removed from Russia, I might move some of my traffic through
       | my partner in Ukraine, who does have a peering arrangement with
       | Cogent. I haven't confirmed that is what happened, but you would
       | see this kind of shift I think if they did that.
       | 
       | I'm a security guy and not a CCIE so perhaps a Cisco engineer
       | here can weigh in.
        
         | jlgaddis wrote:
         | What's interesting (to me, at least) is that there's an
         | (signed) ROA for 31.148.149/24 and AS212463 is listed (IRR) as
         | a valid origin AS -- AS35004 isn't.
         | 
         | All things considered, though, I'd find an explanation of
         | "yeah, didn't have time to update the route objects yet" to be
         | completely acceptable.
         | 
         | Same situation with 95.47.59/24, by the way.
         | 
         | (I let my Cisco certs lapse a decade or so ago, although I've
         | certainly originated a prefix or two over the years.)
        
         | lmarcos wrote:
         | I didn't understand a thing of what you said. Any recommended
         | readings to know a bit more about this topic?
        
           | 0x0000000 wrote:
           | I highly recommend Kurose/Ross' Computer Networking book for
           | a place to start. As the title suggests, it's a "top down
           | approach" starting at the application layer, so if you're
           | familiar with application network programming (and especially
           | HTTP) you can probably skip the early parts of the book. It
           | then details routing protocols, of which there are 2 major
           | kinds: interior routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, iBGP, et
           | al) and exterior routing protocols (eBGP). The former is for
           | routing within your "autonomous system", the latter is for
           | routing between autonomous systems.
        
           | mmaunder wrote:
           | This is known as the BGP book:
           | https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Routing-Architectures-2nd-
           | Ha...
           | 
           | It goes into detail. If you're just starting out, get a
           | Network+, Security+ or any other systems administration,
           | security or networking certification that covers the basics
           | of networking and internetworking.
        
         | theginger wrote:
         | In simple terms you are saying this is probably not a hijack?
        
           | corford wrote:
           | If I've understood it correctly it's not a hijack but rather
           | a circumvention of Cogents RU peering block.
        
         | 0x0000000 wrote:
         | 10 year CCIE and ex-Cisco engineer here: I think you nailed it.
        
       | throwaway984393 wrote:
       | Gentle reminder: You can still generate valid TLS certificates
       | for arbitrary domains with BGP hijack. Hide yo logins, hide yo
       | passwords, and hide yo persistent sessions too, they hijackin'
       | errrbudy up in here
        
         | randomhodler84 wrote:
         | Check the CT logs for bandits!
        
           | jart wrote:
           | How exactly would one do that? CT logs don't have
           | traceroutes. They don't even have IP addresses.
           | https://crt.sh/?q=ycombinator.com
        
             | randomhodler84 wrote:
             | check CT logs vs your own issuance records, and look for
             | discrepancies. Look for issuance during the hijack period.
             | Etc
        
         | trooop wrote:
         | wait how? CA workflows should still work and be able to break
         | this?
        
           | midasuni wrote:
           | If you can hijack the traffic you can respond to http
           | challenges from CAs and they will give you a valid
           | certificate. In theory the certificate owner should spot this
           | via CT, but it's not automatic.
        
             | obert wrote:
             | aren't root CAs installed inside browsers and OSes so that
             | they can't be hijacked without physical access to the
             | target victim device?
        
               | mindwok wrote:
               | The attack (I think) would work like this:
               | 
               | - You own the domain trust.org pointing to IP address
               | 2.3.4.5.
               | 
               | - Someone performs a BGP hijack on 2.3.4.5 and now hosts
               | their own server on 2.3.4.5.
               | 
               | - They then ask Letsencrypt for a certificate to prove
               | they are trust.org. Letsencrypt provides them a token to
               | host on their website to prove they control it.
               | 
               | - Letsencrypt does a DNS lookup, sees trust.org resolves
               | to 2.3.4.5, and performs a http request to that website
               | to check for a token which the hijacker has duly placed
               | on their server at 2.3.4.5.
               | 
               | - Letsencrypt issues a certificate for trust.org, which
               | is now valid and controlled by the hijacker.
               | 
               | None of this requires access to CAs installed on anyones
               | machine, because Letsencrypt is widely trusted and they
               | are the ones issuing the cert.
        
               | kadoban wrote:
               | When the CA is giving you, supposedly the owner of
               | someguy.example, a new certificate, how do they verify
               | that you're you first?
               | 
               | One common way is they tell you a magic, unique string
               | and you serve it under someguy.example/.well-
               | known/whatever and they connect to you and verify it's
               | there and matches. But if BGP is being hijacked, when
               | they connect to you, they could really be connecting to
               | some scammer. How would they know? So now some scammer
               | has proved they're you and they'll be given a valid cert
               | for someguy.example.
               | 
               | The other common verification methods have similar holes.
        
           | aaomidi wrote:
           | CAs currently run on the assumption that the underlying
           | internet is....somewhat fine.
           | 
           | FWIW let's encrypt does multi perspective validation, but it
           | is not a requirement currently.
           | 
           | The best thing to do as a site owner is to regularly check CT
           | logs or use a service that does that for you.
        
             | throwaway984393 wrote:
             | I'm not sure CT logs would help in practice. Assuming a
             | site owner religiously monitors CT logs (who actually does
             | that?), notices a cert they didn't mean to issue, and then
             | issues a CRL or OCSP change (do most people even know how
             | to do that?), the client application has to download the
             | lists and respect it, and many (most?) clients do not.
             | 
             | The site owner may know about the compromised cert, but the
             | users/clients will be blissfully ignorant and unable to do
             | anything about it.
        
               | aaomidi wrote:
               | There are initiatives to make certificate revocation
               | better.
               | 
               | As of now, the world's most popular browser does not
               | support OCSP. So revoking a cert kinda has no impact on
               | chrome.
               | 
               | As we go forward, crlite is going to be required by Apple
               | around October of this year. It's probably our current
               | best option for browsers to use.
               | 
               | But yeah, you're not wrong. At the very least it would
               | give you an idea that you were targeted and give you an
               | idea that you need to plan for DR.
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | CA's verify the person that the domain is pointing to. If the
           | domain is pointing to a malicious server (due to bgp making
           | IP addresses belong to an evil person), then the CA will
           | verify the malicious server instead.
        
         | ushakov wrote:
         | love the hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband
         | reference!
        
         | advisedwang wrote:
         | I assume the mechanism here is to hijack the DNS servers? Does
         | DNSSEC protect against this?
        
           | throwaway984393 wrote:
           | E-mail, DNS, and HTTP validation are all vulnerable (so, all
           | the methods besides ACME). As for DNS validation, DNSSEC is
           | opt-in; if one of the 350 different Certificate Authorities
           | doesn't do mandatory stub validation, then the hijack still
           | works on them.
           | 
           | There's actually multiple attacks using BGP. You can either
           | hijack the DNS or E-mail server's IP and spoof records, or
           | you can hijack the IP of the target host and spoof an HTTP
           | response. Or you could try all 3 to maximize your chances.
        
           | fulafel wrote:
           | DNSSEC could be used to protect against it, if TLS cert
           | issuing policies were tightened by folks who mandate the
           | minimum verification requirements for CAs, but this is not
           | currently done. (eg Let's Encrypt supports DNS verification
           | as one mechanism currently, but it also supports plaintext
           | HTTP which is vulnerable to BGP hijack)
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | There are non dns mechanisms as well - you can directly
           | hijack the websites ip address instead of their dns server.
           | 
           | In theory i think https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Pu
           | blic_Key_Infrastr... is the thing that's meant to stop this
           | attack if everyone adopted it.
        
           | jart wrote:
           | Chrome doesn't support DNSSEC sadly.
           | https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=50874
        
             | astrange wrote:
             | Doesn't seem to matter:
             | https://twitter.com/colmmacc/status/1494047770428149761
        
               | silisili wrote:
               | DNSSEC is, unsurprisingly, designed to secure DNS only.
               | It only tells you that the answer you received is
               | authentic. DNSSEC would prevent a DNS server being
               | hijacked via BGP being evil in that it couldn't give bad
               | answers.
               | 
               | It however doesn't typically help in a BGP hijack. The
               | DNS answer is authentic, but the server at the answer
               | given isn't.
        
               | jart wrote:
               | That's like saying the lock on the front door did not
               | prevent intrusion because the burglar went in through the
               | window.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | As tptacek will tell you, there's never any situation
               | where DNSSEC would help. For instance, it doesn't mean
               | your own DNS lookups to 1.1.1.1 are secure, but it does
               | mean Libya is a CA for bit.ly.
               | 
               | Although trying to turn it on did take Slack and HBO down
               | in the past, so someone out there cares.
        
               | teddyh wrote:
               | DNSSEC worked mostly fine for Slack, except that their
               | DNS provider, Route 53, initially had a bug where
               | wildcard records on DNSSEC would not get correctly
               | signed. It was when Slack panicked and tried to turn
               | _off_ DNSSEC when they completely bungled it and borked
               | their whole setup.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | This is the funniest apology for DNSSEC I've ever read.
               | It's fine, as long as you never try to turn it off! Or
               | use Route53! Don't do that, or _your whole site will fall
               | off the Internet for a day_. Got it!
        
               | teddyh wrote:
               | As a well-known person on HN, that amount of snark is
               | unbecoming of you. FWIW, you can bork your own system
               | just as much, if not even more so, with HSTS headers. And
               | also with DNS in general; how many people have mucked up
               | a DNS setting and then have no recourse but to wait it
               | out? The issue was not DNSSEC, but Slack who panicked and
               | pulled the plug on themselves.
        
               | jart wrote:
               | It's not snark if you're mocking the person you're
               | talking to. That's just disrespect. Maybe he's had bad
               | experiences in the past with DNSSEC that are causing him
               | to forget himself. I feel like he's been talking down to
               | me too.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | Read it again. I'm not "mocking the person I'm talking
               | to". I don't even know the person I'm talking to. I'm
               | mocking the statement they made, that DNSSEC is fine, and
               | when it blows your whole site off the Internet because
               | you dared turn it off after it immediately caused
               | problems the moment it was turned on, well, you were just
               | holding it wrong. It really is funny! Read _their_
               | comment again, too!
               | 
               | I suppose I could be less snarky, but my snark here is
               | substantive, and I'm comfortable with what it says about
               | my seriousness. You're going to have to do better than
               | trying to work the refs here.
        
               | pvg wrote:
               | DNSSEC is continuing to have a bad experience with
               | tptacek, really. The Rorschach of DNSSEC, if you will.
        
               | jart wrote:
               | Never helps. Causes outages. Route all your DNS through
               | 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 instead. Sheesh. In Ancient Rome,
               | weren't dictators expected to vacate office once their
               | task had been accomplished and decentralized solutions
               | were ready to once again take hold? Why is it that I
               | always feel the heat whenever I voice words of support
               | for DNSSEC?
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | Because DNSSEC is a bad protocol that nobody serious
               | uses, with an inexplicably committed cheering section.
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | Is Raleigh Mann not still the canon state of truth on BGP?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jokoon wrote:
       | I noticed reddit and other big websites were somewhat slower at
       | one point those couples of days... I live in Europe and I
       | wonder...
        
         | midasuni wrote:
         | Did you do a traceroute?
        
         | ushakov wrote:
         | me too, Russian sites don't load at all
        
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