AT&T: still more bad news

Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Michael Sinatra (michael@rancid.berkeley.edu)
Date: Wed Dec 12 2001 - 13:51:40 PST


As if all the other AT&T problems weren't enough...

Sometime yesterday, AT&T pretty seriously screwed up their DNS for
ATTBI.COM. Specifically, the reverse and forward hostname to address
mappings don't match. For example:

[tcsh-->]michael@header[41]: host 12.233.173.120
120.173.233.12.IN-ADDR.ARPA domain name pointer 12-233-173-120.client.attbi.com

[tcsh-->]michael@header[42]: host 12-233-173-120.client.attbi.com
Host not found.

Although this is one example, the problem extends to many, many hosts that
use the ATTBI (former @home) cable modem service. The problem is that
many hosts that run TCP_WRAPPERS with the "PARANOID" mode compiled in,
will reject connections from such hosts, as a forward/reverse DNS mismatch
can be an indication of DNS spoofing. Many hosts on campus run this
version of TCP_WRAPPERS (because it's a GOOD THING security-wise), and I
am hearing of many campus hosts that are rejecting connections from ATTBI
clients.

A few campus admins have already attempted to notify AT&T; I will be doing
so soon. I wanted to let everyone know that the problem exists.

michael

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:

For information about Micronet, its meetings and events, and its
mailing list, including information on subscribing and unsubscribing,
see the Micronet Web site at <http://wss.berkeley.edu/micronet/>.


Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Dec 12 2001 - 13:54:15 PST