[db-wg] Route objects for space administered by other RIRs

Hi Ronald

Interesting that you have tried to build a tool to get the correct
whois data on a resource from any RIR. The RIPE Database already does
this for you. The RIPE NCC mirrors all the other RIR resource
databases and some independent IRR databases in a Global Resource
Service (GRS) If you include the flag '--resource' in your query to
the RIPE Database you will get a response from all sources.

whois -r --resource 62.61.192.0/18

inetnum: 62.61.192.0 - 62.61.255.255
netname: SRR-DYN-DSL
descr: Societe Reunionnaise du Radiotelephone
country: RE
org: ORG-SRdR1-AFRINIC
admin-c: DUMY-RIPE
tech-c: DUMY-RIPE
status: ALLOCATED PA
notify: ***@gaoland.net
notify: ***@srr.fr
notify: ***@sfr.com
notify: ***@neufcegetel.fr
notify: ***@srr.fr
mnt-by: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower: SRR-mnt
source: AFRINIC-GRS
remarks: ****************************
remarks: * THIS OBJECT IS MODIFIED
remarks: * Please note that all data that is generally regarded as personal
remarks: * data has been removed from this object.
remarks: * To view the original object, please query the AFRINIC Database at:
remarks: * http://www.afrinic.net/
remarks: ****************************

as well as the two different ROUTE objects from RIPE and RADB Databases.

As for when this resource was transferred, IANA shows that 62/8 was
allocated to the RIPE NCC. According to the RIPE NCC web page listing
all 'valid' transfers, there have not been any transfers from RIPE to
AFRINIC.

https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/resource-transfers-and-mergers/transfer-statistics/inter-rir/inter-rir-ipv4-transfer-statistics

(Maybe I am missing something...)

cheers
denis
co-chair DB-WG

On Wed, 12 May 2021 at 21:59, Ronald F. Guilmette via db-wg
<db-wg at ripe.net> wrote:
>
> In message <77E5D90B-6733-4CF8-8E15-3D984E4FBFFE at ripe.net>,
> Edward Shryane <eshryane at ripe.net> wrote:
>
> >The RIPE-NONAUTH database contains all out of region route(6) objects
> >(referencing prefixes not allocated to RIPE).
> >
> >This database was created by NWI-5:
> >https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2016-May/005245.html
> >
> >The proposed cleanup is to only remove route(6) objects from
> >RIPE-NONAUTH which are not registered in *any* region:
> >https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2021-March/006876.html
> >
> >The cleanup will not delete the 62.61.192.0/18AS49902 route, as the
> >prefix is registered to AFRINIC.
>
> Thank you for the clear answer.
>
> It is difficult me to tell, based only upon looking at the current
> relevant AFRINIC allocation WHOIS records, when, exactly, the
> 62.61.192.0/18 was transferred from RIPE to AFRINIC, so let's
> just set that point aside for a moment.
>
> I'd like to ask a more general question anyway, which is just this:
> When the authority for some IP number resource is transferred from,
> say, RIPE, to some other RIR, is there any good reason why any
> associated route objects should not likewise travel to the new RIR
> along with the IP block allocation itself?  And if there is no such
> good reason, then could we please have a rule that says that a
> transfer of an IP address block out of the RIPE region will be
> followed also by a deletion, in short order, from the RIPE data base
> of any directly relevant route object(s)?
>
> More broadly, it is parhaps a result of my overly-fastidious nature,
> but I personally would be in favor of simply deleting all of the
> remaining RIPE-NONAUTH route objects from the RIPE data base.  Is
> there any clear need for any of these?  If the relevant IP blocks
> have been entirely deallocated, then maintaining the route objects
> would seem to be a Bad Idea on the face of it.  On the other hand,
> if a given IP block has been transferred to some other region, why
> doesn't it not make perfect sense for any relevant route objects to
> also and likewise be created in the WHOIS data bases of those other
> regions?
>
> It seems that we are now in the era of RPKI and that everyone is being
> generally encouraged to take routing security rather more seriously
> these days, which is a profoundly Good Thing.  Yet it appears that
> when it comes to these RIPE-NONAUTH route records, RIPE is still, in
> effect catering not just to the last generation of route registration
> protocols, but also and even to the generation before that.  At what
> point in time does will all of this stuff be seen to be what it is,
> i.e. antiquated and counterproductive?
>
>
> Regards,
> rfg
>
>
> P.S.  In response to Frank Habicht's question about the IANA WHOIS
> referral server, let me just say that due to the work I have done to
> try to build a single tool capable of getting the correct WHOIS record
> for any arbitrary IP address from whichever RIR it needs to come from.
> I can say definitively and without hesitation that if one were to try
> to rely exclusively on whois.iana.org for proper referrals then one
> would actually get the Wrong Answer (i.e. one would get pointed to the
> Wrong RIR) a really substantial percentage of the time.
>
> I have asked IANA to "fix this" and they have responded clearly that they
> have absolutely no intention of doing so.  Thus, for my own tool, I have
> been forced to resort to building my own quite lengthy table of exceptions
> so that my tool will just ignore what whois.iana.org says in all of the
> numerous cases where I have learned that what it says is just plain wrong.
>
>