SORBS on autopilot?

Jed Smith jed at jedsmith.org
Tue Jan 12 18:31:06 UTC 2010


Steven, take it easy please.

Given the first few replies I received, allow me to clarify, now that I've
successfully hijacked the thread and apparently angered the anti-spam crowd:

I am quite aware of the problem and do not disagree that there needs to be a way
to identify what IP endpoints are residential CPE.  I simply have some problems
with /this/ current incarnation of a best practice, and I was querying whether
it had applicability outside of the SORBS/Trend Micro world.

Honestly, I feel that PTRs are the least reliable way to make such a decision.
Depending on the chain of delegation, a server operator may not have access to
modify his PTR record and might not be able to change it.  Several operators
have annoyingly odd delegation patterns.  PTRs are just bad news for any kind of
useful decision on, other than "PTR-matches-A".  Given the amount of IRC abuse
PTRs have seen, the consequential abuse of IPv4 allocation to support exotic
PTRs, and the resulting limitation of PTR alteration that many providers
practice I just don't like PTRs overall for anything meaningful.

I also disagree with space being assumed dynamic unless it is declared static --
helpfully, I have been reminded that consumer CPE equipment is a large number of
IPv4 endpoints, but I still think space should be assumed static unless
declared dynamic.  The burden really should be upon the providers of dynamic
services to inform us that their allocations are a dynamic pool; good luck with
this, however.

Getting a standards-track solution that is reliable, cost-effective for home
Internet providers to get on board with, and that has very little wiggle-room
for discretion (this current incarnation has quite a bit) is necessary for me to
be on board with such classification techniques.  That said, I am not the guru
that others on this list are and I am unprepared to present an alternative; I am
simply pointing out that I'd like to see an alternative.

Let me reiterate: I'm not disputing the challenges that network operators face
with network abuse, I am simply disagreeing with this draft, its authorship, the
sour taste you get from reading it because it's so far past expiration, and its
motives in current practice.  It's akin to me disagreeing with daylight savings
time because it tries to fix energy consumption from lighting.

JS





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