AS29073, 196.16.0.0/14, Level3: Why does anyone peer with these schmucks?

Mon Aug 14 19:49:54 UTC 2017

Sorry for the re-post, but it has been brought to my attention that
my inclusion, in my prior posting, of various unsavory FQDNs resolving
to various IPv4 addresses on AS29073 has triggered some people's
spam filters.  (Can't imagine why. :-)  So I am re-posting this message
now, with just a link to where those shady FQDNs and their current
forward resolutions may be found.  (I also took the opportunity to
clean up some minor typos.)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I think that this is primarily Level3's problem to fix.  But you be
the judge.  Please, read on.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_

Over the weekend, I stumbled upon an interesting blog calld "Bad Packets",
where a fellow named Troy has written about various unsavory goings on
involving various newtorks.  One network that he called out in particular
was AS29073, formerly called "Ecatel".  on his blog, this fellow Troy has
noted at length some break-in attempts originating from AS29073 and his
inability to get anyone, in particular RIPE NCC, to give a damn.

    https://badpackets.net/the-master-needler-80-82-65-66/
    https://badpackets.net/a-conversation-with-ripe-ncc-regarding-quasi-networks-ltd/
    https://badpackets.net/quasi-networks-responds-as-we-witness-the-death-of-the-master-needler-80-82-65-66-for-now/

The fact that RIPE NCC declined to accept the role of The Internet Police
didn't surprise me at all... they never have and probably never will.
But I decided to have a quick look at what this newtork was routing, at
present, which can be easily see here:

    http://bgp.he.net/AS29073#_prefixes

So I was looking through the announced routes for AS29073, and it all
looked pretty normal... a /24 block, check, a /24 block, check, a /21
block check... another /24 block, and then ... WAIT A SECOND!  HOLY
MOTHER OF GOD!  WHAT'S THIS???  196.16.0.0/14 !!!

So how does a little two-bit network with a rather dubious reputation
and a grand total of only about a /19 to its name suddenly come to
be routing an entire /14 block??

And of course, its a legacy (abandoned) Afrinic block.

And of course, there's no reverse DNS for any of it, because there is
no valid delegation for the reverse DNS for any of it... usually a good
sign that whoever is routing the block right now -does not- have legit
rights to do so.  (If they did, then they would have presented their
LOAs or whatever to Afrinic and thus gotten the reverse DNS properly
delegated to their own name servers.)

I've seen this movie before.  You all have.  This gives every indication
of being just another sad chapter in the ongoing mass pillaging of
unused Afrinic legacy IPv4 space, by various actors with evil intent.
I've already documented this hightly unfortunate fad right here on
multiple occasions:

    https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2016-November/089232.html
    https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2017-August/091821.html

This incident is a bit different from the others however, in that it
-does not- appear that the 196.16.0.0/14 block has been filed to the
brim with snowshoe spammers.  Well, not yet anyway.

But if in fact the stories are correct, and if AS29073 does indeed have
a history of hosting outbound hacking activities, then the mind reels
when thinking about how much mischief such bad actors could get into
if given an entire /14 to play with.  (And by the way, this is a new
world's record I think, for largest single-route deliberate hijack.
I've seen plenty of /16s go walkabout before, and even a whole /15.
But an entire /14?!?! That is uniquely brazen.)

In addition to the above, and the points raised within the Bad Packets
blog (see links above) I found, via passive DNS, a number of other
causes for concern about AS29073, to wit:

    Shady FQDNs (incl possible child porn ones) on AS29073 moved here:
    https://pastebin.com/raw/f4M09UKL

(In addition to the above, I've also found plenty more domain names
associated with AS29073 which incorporate the names "Apple" "AirBnB",
"Facebook", and "Groupon", as well as dozens of other legitimate companies
and organizations.)

I confess that I have not had the time to look at any of the web sites that
may or may not be associated with any of the above FQDNs, but the domain names
themselves are certainly strongly suggestive of (a) the possible hosting of
child porn and also and separately (b) the possible hosting of phishing sites.

So, given the history of this network (as is well documented on the Bad
Packets blog) and given all of the above, and given what would appear to
be the unauthorized "liberation" of the entire 196.16.0.0/14 block by
AS29073, one cannot help but wonder: Why does anybody still even peer
with these jerks?

The always helpful and informative web site bgp.he.net indicates that very
nearly 50% of the connectivity currently enjoyed by AS29073 is being provided
to them by Level3.  I would thus like to ask Level3 to reconsider that peering
arrangement in light of the above facts, and especially in light of what
would appear to be the unauthorized routing of the 196.16.0.0/14 block by
AS29073.

Surprisingly, given its history, AS29073 apparently has a total of 99 different
peers, at present, and I would likewise ask all of them to reconsider their
current peering arrangements with this network.  I am listing all 99 peers
below.

Before I get to that however, I'd like to also note that there currently
exists, within the RIPE Routing Registry, the following route object:

route:          196.16.0.0/14
origin:         AS29073
mnt-by:         QUASINETWORKS-MNT
mnt-by:         EC42500-MNT
mnt-routes:     EC42500-MNT
mnt-routes:     M247-EU-MNT
created:        2017-03-28T21:47:03Z
last-modified:  2017-08-11T19:58:39Z
source:         RIPE

I confess that I am not 100% sure of the exact semantics of the "mnt-routes"
tag, but it would appear from the above that the UK's M247 network (AS9009)...
which itself is not even peering with AS29073... appears to have, in effect
countersigned the above RIPE route object, vouching for its correctness and
authenticity as they did so.  Why they would have done that, especially given
that they themselves are not even peering with AS29073, is, I confess, beyond
me.  But I would love to have them explain it, or even try to explain it.
It's enigmatic, to say the least.

Anyway, the "created" date in the above record seems to be consistant with
that actual start of the announcement of 196.16.0.0/14 by AS29073, which
the RIPE Routing History tool says occured sometime in March of this year.

One additional (and rather bizzare) footnote to this whole story about
the 196.16.0.0/14 block has to do with the entity that allegedly -is-
the current rightful owner of the block (as far as Afrinic is concerned).
That entity is designated by the Afrinic handle ORG-IA41-AFRINIC and
that in turn has an admin-c and tech-c of NAIT1-AFRINIC.  The record
for that handle is as follows:

-------------------------------------------------------
person:         Network and Information Technology Administrator
address:        Unit 117, Orion Mall, Palm Street
address:        Victoria, Mahe
address:        Seychelles (SC)
phone:          +972-54-2203545
e-mail:         info at networkandinformationtechnology.com
nic-hdl:        NAIT1-AFRINIC
mnt-by:         MNT-NETWORKANDINFORMATIONTECHNOLOGY
changed:        info at networkandinformationtechnology.com 20150725
source:         AFRINIC
-------------------------------------------------------

Upon fetching the current WHOIS record for networkandinformationtechnology.com
I found it more than passing strange that all of the contact details
therein are associated *not* with anything in Africa, nor even anything
in the home country of AS29073 (Netherlands) but rather, the address
and phone numbers therein all appear to be ones associated with a
relatively well known Internet attorney in Santa Monica, Califiornia
by the name of Bennet Kelly.

As it happens, in the distant past (about 10 years ago) I personally
crossed swords with this particular fellow.  He may be a lot of things,
but it never seemed to me that stupid was one of them.  And indeed
the domain name networkandinformationtechnology.com and all of its
connections to the 196.16.0.0/14 block appear to date from 2015...
long before AS29073 started routing this block (which only started
in March of this year).

So, my best guess about this whole confusing mess is that the -original-
legitimate owners of the 196.16.0.0/14 block most probably sold it on,
in a legitimate transaction, to some other party in 2015, where that
other party was/is represented by Mr. Bennet Kelly, Esq.  And my guess
is that neither he nor the new owners, who he represents, even know
that their expensive /14 has gone walkabout, as of March of this year.
I will be trying to make contact with Mr. Kelley today to discuss this
with him and will post a follow-up if any new and interesting information
arises from that conversation.

Regards,
rfg

Peers of AS29073:
================================================================================
1 	Level 3 Communications, Inc.
United States
		AS3356
2 	REBA Communications BV
Netherlands
		AS56611
3 	Hurricane Electric, Inc.
United States
		AS6939
4 	Core-Backbone GmbH
Germany
		AS33891
5 	Init7 (Switzerland) Ltd.
Switzerland
		AS13030
6 	RETN Limited
Ukraine
		AS9002
7 	COLT Technology Services Group Limited
United Kingdom
		AS8220
8 	State Institute of Information Technologies and Telecommunications (SIIT&T "Informika")
Russian Federation
		AS3267
9 	GlobeNet Cabos Submarinos Colombia, S.A.S.
Colombia
		AS52320
10 	Digital Telecommunication Services S.r.l.
Italy
		AS49605
11 	IT.Gate S.p.A.
Italy
		AS12779
12 	green.ch AG
Switzerland
		AS1836
13 	UNIDATA S.p.A.
Italy
		AS5394
14 	GEANT Limited
European Union
		AS20965
15 	IP-Max SA
Switzerland
		AS25091
16 	Lost Oasis SARL
France
		AS29075
17 	nexellent ag
Switzerland
		AS31424
18 	SEACOM Limited
Mauritius
		AS37100
19 	Angola Cables
Angola
		AS37468
20 	ENTANET International Limited
United Kingdom
		AS8468
21 	Blix Solutions AS
Norway
		AS50304
22 	POST Luxembourg
Luxembourg
		AS6661
23 	Zayo France SAS
France
		AS8218
24 	Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA
Italy
		AS1267
25 	Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd
Switzerland
		AS3303
26 	Pacnet Global Ltd
Hong Kong
		AS10026
27 	SURFnet bv
Netherlands
		AS1103
28 	SEEWEB s.r.l.
Italy
		AS12637
29 	BIT BV
Netherlands
		AS12859
30 	euNetworks Managed Services GmbH
Germany
		AS13237
31 	CAIW Diensten B.V.
Netherlands
		AS15435
32 	netplus.ch SA
Switzerland
		AS15547
33 	DOKOM Gesellschaft fuer Telekommunikation mbH
Germany
		AS15763
34 	ADISTA SAS
France
		AS16347
35 	Viewqwest Pte Ltd
Singapore
		AS18106
36 	Digital Ocean, Inc.
European Union
		AS200130
37 	Digital Ocean, Inc.
Netherlands
		AS202018
38 	Open Peering B.V.
Netherlands
		AS20562
39 	Services Industriels de Geneve
Switzerland
		AS20932
40 	Cemig Telecomunicaes SA
Brazil
		AS23106
41 	SG.GS
Singapore
		AS24482
42 	Vorboss Limited
United Kingdom
		AS25160
43 	equada network GmbH
Germany
		AS25220
44 	Avantel, Close Joint Stock Company
Russian Federation
		AS25227
45 	Gyron Internet Ltd
United Kingdom
		AS29017
46 	IPROUTE SRL
Italy
		AS49289
47 	LLC "TRC FIORD"
Russian Federation
		AS28917
48 	Hostserver GmbH
Germany
		AS29140
49 	Telekommunikation Mittleres Ruhrgebiet GmbH
Germany
		AS12329
50 	Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
United States
		AS30132
51 	Liquid Telecommunications Ltd
United Kingdom
		AS30844
52 	Paulus M. Hoogsteder trading as Meanie
Netherlands
		AS31019
53 	Digiweb ltd
Ireland
		AS31122
54 	Fiberax Networking&Cloud Ltd.
United Kingdom
		AS3252
55 	Hivane
France
		AS34019
56 	CELESTE SAS
France
		AS34177
57 	Kantonsschule Zug
Switzerland
		AS34288
58 	Citycable
Switzerland
		AS34781
59 	SoftLayer Technologies Inc.
United States
		AS36351
60 	Network Platforms (PTY) LTD
South Africa
		AS37497
61 	Micron21 Datacentre Pty Ltd
Australia
		AS38880
62 	Convergenze S.p.A.
Italy
		AS39120
63 	Fiberby ApS
Denmark
		AS42541
64 	IP ServerOne Solutions Sdn Bhd,
Malaysia
		AS45352
65 	Easynet Global Services
European Union
		AS4589
66 	IP-Only Networks AB
Sweden
		AS12552
67 	Tango S.A.
Luxembourg
		AS48526
68 	Les Nouveaux Constructeurs SA
France
		AS49463
69 	CustodianDC Limited
United Kingdom
		AS50300
70 	MCKAYCOM LTD
United Kingdom
		AS50763
71 	Daisy Communications Ltd
United Kingdom
		AS5413
72 	MC-IX Matrix Internet Exchange RS-1
Indonesia
		AS55818
73 	NetIX Communications Ltd.
Bulgaria
		AS57463
74 	Anycast Global Backbone
Australia
		AS58511
75 	LUXNETWORK S.A.
Luxembourg
		AS29467
76 	oja.at GmbH
Austria
		AS39912
77 	Elisa Oyj
Finland
		AS6667
78 	A1 Telekom Austria AG
Austria
		AS8447
79 	Fusix Networks B.V.
Netherlands
		AS57866
80 	ClaraNET LTD
United Kingdom
		AS8426
81 	"OBIT" Ltd.
Russian Federation
		AS8492
82 	Console Network Solutions Ltd
United Kingdom
		AS43531
83 	NetCologne GmbH
Germany
		AS8422
84 	Tesonet Ltd
Lithuania
		AS201341
85 	Linx Telecommunications B.V.
Estonia
		AS3327
86 	Strato AG
Germany
		AS6724
87 	CJSC RASCOM
Russian Federation
		AS20764
88 	Sunrise Communications AG
Switzerland
		AS6730
89 	KPN B.V.
Netherlands
		AS1136
90 	MTN SA
South Africa
		AS16637
91 	Portlane AB
Sweden
		AS42708
92 	TM Net, Internet Service Provider
Malaysia
		AS4788
93 	Network Dedicated SAS
Switzerland
		AS62355
94 	Next Layer Telekommunikationsdienstleistungs- und Beratungs GmbH
Austria
		AS1764
95 	Telkom SA Ltd.
South Africa
		AS5713
96 	ShockSRV Internet Services Private Limited
Netherlands
		AS60115
97 	JUPITER 25 LIMITED
Netherlands
		AS64484
98 	M-net Telekommunikations GmbH
Germany
		AS8767
99 	Neterra Ltd.
Bulgaria
		AS34224