Network Working Group R. Bush Internet-Draft IIJ Research & Arrcus Intended status: Standards Track 21 October 2024 Expires: 24 April 2025 Generalized RPSL External Reference draft-ymbk-opsawg-rpsl-extref-01 Abstract RPSL, which has operationally evolved since it was standardized in 1999, has recently added a geofeed: attribute to the innet[6]num: class to reference data external to RPSL. There is now a proposal add another attribute referencing external data, prefixlen:. This document describes a more general and extensible mechanism for external references. Status of This Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 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Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Generalized RPSL External Reference October 2024 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Existing External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. inetnum: Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. Introduction The Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL), which has operationally evolved since standardization in [RFC2622], has recently added a geofeed: attribute [RFC9632] to the inetnum: [INETNUM] and inet6num: [INET6NUM] classes to reference data external to RPSL. There is now a proposal add another attribute, prefixlen: [I-D.gasser-opsawg-prefix-lengths] referencing exterbal data. This document describes a more general and extensible mechanism for external references to augment the RPSL inetnum: class [INETNUM] to refer to external data. In all places inetnum:, [INETNUM], is used, inet6num:, [INET6NUM], should also be assumed. 1.1. Requirements Language The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here. 2. Existing External References RPSL, [RFC2622], as used by the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), has been augmented with the inetnum: [INETNUM] and the inet6num: [INET6NUM] classes; each of which describes an IP address range and its attributes. Ongoing work has added and/or proposes to add multiple attributes to RPSL to reference objects external to RPSL. Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Generalized RPSL External Reference October 2024 [RFC9632] descrbes how to reference geofeed files ([RFC8805]) from an RPSL inetnum: class. It is widely deployed. [I-D.gasser-opsawg-prefix-lengths] proposes to refrence prefixlen files from an RPSL inetnum: class. This way lies chaos. Where there are two, there will be more. This will cause continuing problems for work such as [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-geofeed]. 3. inetnum: Class This document describes a generalized mechanism for external references. RPSL would be augmented to define a new RPSL extref: attribute in the inetnum: class. For example, given the two sub- types described above: inetnum: 192.0.2.0/24 # example extref: Geofeed https://example.com/geofeed extref: Prefixlen https://example.com/prefixlen Any particular inetnum: class MAY have at most one extref: of a particular sub-type. inetnum: classes form a hierarchy, see [INETNUM] Section 4.2.4.1, Hierarchy of INETNUM Objects. extref references SHOULD be at the lowest applicable inetnum: class. When fetching, the most specific inetnum: class with an extref reference of a particular sub-type MUST be used. When extref: references are provided by multiple inetnum: classes which have identical address ranges, then the extref: reference on the inetnum: with the most recent last-modified: attribute SHOULD be preferred. 4. Operational Considerations To create the needed inetnum: classes, an operator wishing to register extref: attributes needs to coordinate with their RIR/NIR and/or any provider LIR which has assigned prefixes to them. RIRs/ NIRs provide means for assignees to create and maintain inetnum: classes. They also provide means of [sub-]assigning IP address resources and allowing the assignee to create whois data, including inetnum: classes, and thereby using extref: attributes. For a particular sub-type, the RFC defining it SHOULD specify the transport over which the reference SHOULD or MUST be fetched. Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Generalized RPSL External Reference October 2024 Multiple inetnum: classes MAY refer to the same external resource. 5. Security Considerations It would be generally prudent for a consumer of extref data to also use other sources to cross-validate the data. All of the Security Considerations of the RFC defining a sub-type apply here as well. Many RPSL repositories have weak if any authentication. This would allow spoofing of inetnum: classes pointing to malicious extref files. If an inetnum: for a wide prefix (e.g. a /16) points to an external file, a customer or attacker could publish an equal or narrower (e.g. a /24) inetnum: in a whois registry which has weak authorization. The RPSL providers have had to throttle fetching from their servers due to too-frequent queries. Usually they throttle by the querying IP address or block. Similar defenses will likely need to be deployed by extref file servers. Directing users and programs to external data has legal and technical risk exposure. Hence adding to the IANA SubTypee registry requires an RFC. One should still be cautious following links to or using external data. 6. IANA Considerations The IANA is requested to create an "rpsl-extref-subtype: registry as follows: SubType Reference ------- ---------------- Geofeed RFC9632 Registration of new SubTypes is by RFC per [RFC8126] Section 4. 7. Acknowledgements Thanks to the authors of [RFC8805], [RFC9092], and [RFC9632] and the folk they acknowledge from whom ideas and text have been liberally expropriated. 8. References 8.1. Normative References Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Generalized RPSL External Reference October 2024 [I-D.gasser-opsawg-prefix-lengths] Gasser, O., Bush, R., Candela, M., and R. Housley, "Publishing End-Site Prefix Lengths", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-gasser-opsawg-prefix-lengths-01, 16 October 2024, . [INET6NUM] RIPE, "Description of the INET6NUM Object", . [INETNUM] RIPE, "Description of the INETNUM Object", . [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, . [RFC2622] Alaettinoglu, C., Villamizar, C., Gerich, E., Kessens, D., Meyer, D., Bates, T., Karrenberg, D., and M. Terpstra, "Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL)", RFC 2622, DOI 10.17487/RFC2622, June 1999, . [RFC8126] Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017, . [RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, May 2017, . 8.2. Informative References [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-geofeed] Singh, J. and T. Harrison, "An RDAP Extension for Geofeed Data", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf- regext-rdap-geofeed-07, 6 August 2024, . [RFC8805] Kline, E., Duleba, K., Szamonek, Z., Moser, S., and W. Kumari, "A Format for Self-Published IP Geolocation Feeds", RFC 8805, DOI 10.17487/RFC8805, August 2020, . Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Generalized RPSL External Reference October 2024 [RFC9092] Bush, R., Candela, M., Kumari, W., and R. Housley, "Finding and Using Geofeed Data", RFC 9092, DOI 10.17487/RFC9092, July 2021, . [RFC9632] Bush, R., Candela, M., Kumari, W., and R. Housley, "Finding and Using Geofeed Data", RFC 9632, DOI 10.17487/RFC9632, August 2024, . Author's Address Randy Bush IIJ Research & Arrcus 5147 Crystal Springs Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110 United States of America Email: randy@psg.com Bush Expires 24 April 2025 [Page 6]