RIPE Database News

[25 march 2004] We have recently installed an updated version of the Whois software and Database update software. As well as some bug fixes there are three new features in the Database software.

X.509

This is now fully implemented. You are able to create the new X.509 KEY-CERT objects and reference these in the "auth:" lines of a maintainer. You can now use X.509 authentication with all our update methods: mail, syncupdates and webupdates.

For documentation please refer to: http://www.ripe.net/db/x509.html

You may also wish to check some other updated documents on security of objects:

• http://www.ripe.net/db/security.html
• http://www.ripe.net/db/Maintainer_Creation_Procedure.html
• http://www.ripe.net/db/pgp.html

CIDR notation for inetnum creation.

We now allow the use of CIDR notation when creating INETNUM objects. The CIDR string is replaced by the expanded range notation before the object is processed. This feature is ONLY permitted when creating an object.

For example if the following object is submitted to the RIPE Database:

    inetnum: 1.2.0.0/16

before any further processing is done it will be converted to:

    inetnum: 1.2.0.0 - 1.2.255.255

A warning message will be added to the acknowledgement reply. It is now standard policy to add a warning if any changes are made to the submitted data.

Prefix range lists for "mnt-routes:"

The "mnt-routes:" attribute's syntax has been extended to allow prefix range lists. This will enable people to specify which maintainer has to authorise the creation of the specific routes.

As an example:

    mnt-routes: MY-MNT { 20.34.0.0/1617-18, 20.34.0.0/16^- }
    mnt-routes: NOT-MY-MNT { ANY }

Support for the previous syntax is unchanged.

The extended syntax complies with RFC2725 which can be found at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/rfc/rfc2725.txt

For questions and comments please contact <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>.