Hell, we used to not have to bother notifying customers of anything, we just fixed the problem. Reminds me a of a story I've probably shared on the past.
1995, IETF in Dallas. The "big ISP" I worked for at the time got tripped up on a 24-day IS-IS timer bug (maybe all of them at the time did, I don't recall) where all adjacencies reset at once. That's like, entire network down. Working with our engineering team in the *terminal* lab mind you, and Ravi Chandra (then at Cisco) we reloaded the entire network of routers with new code from Cisco once they'd fixed the bug. I seem to remember this being my first exposure to Tony Li's infamous line, "... Confidence Level: boots in the lab." Good times. -b On Feb 6, 2013, at 5:41 PM, Brandt, Ralph wrote: > David. I am on an evening shift and am just now reading this thread. > > I was almost tempted to write an explanation that would have had > identical content with yours based simply on Level3 doing something and > keeping the information close. > > Responsible Vendors do not try to hide what is being done unless it is > an Op Sec issue and I have never seen Level3 act with less than > responsibility so it had to be Op Sec. > > When it is that, it is best if the remainder of us sit quietly on the > sidelines. > > Ralph Brandt > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Siegel, David [mailto:david.sie...@level3.com] > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 12:01 PM > To: 'Ray Wong'; nanog@nanog.org > Subject: RE: Level3 worldwide emergency upgrade? > > Hi Ray, > > This topic reminds me of yesterday's discussion in the conference around > getting some BCOP's drafted. it would be useful to confirm my own view > of the BCOP around communicating security issues. My understanding for > the best practice is to limit knowledge distribution of security related > problems both before and after the patches are deployed. You limit > knowledge before the patch is deployed to prevent yourself from being > exploited, but you also limit knowledge afterwards in order to limit > potential damage to others (customers, competitors...the Internet at > large). You also do not want to announce that you will be deploying a > security patch until you have a fix in hand and know when you will > deploy it (typically, next available maintenance window unless the cat > is out of the bag and danger is real and imminent). > > As a service provider, you should stay on top of security alerts from > your vendors so that you can make your own decision about what action is > required. I would not recommend relying on service provider maintenance > bulletins or public operations mailing lists for obtaining this type of > information. There is some information that can cause more harm than > good if it is distributed in the wrong way and information relating to > security vulnerabilities definitely falls into that category. > > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ray Wong [mailto:r...@rayw.net] > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 9:16 AM > To: nanog@nanog.org > Subject: Re: Level3 worldwide emergency upgrade? > >> > > OK, having had that first cup of coffee, I can say perhaps the main > reason I was wondering is I've gotten used to Level3 always being on top > of things (and admittedly, rarely communicating). They've reached the > top by often being a black box of reliability, so it's (perhaps > unrealistically) surprising to see them caught by surprise. Anything > that pushes them into scramble mode causes me to lose a little sleep > anyway. The alternative to what they did seems likely for at least a few > providers who'll NOT manage to fix things in time, so I may well be > looking at longer outages from other providers, and need to issue > guidance to others on what to do if/when other links go down for periods > long enough that all the cost-bounding monitoring alarms start to scream > even louder. > > I was also grumpy at myself for having not noticed advance > communication, which I still don't seem to have, though since I > outsourced my email to bigG, I've noticed I'm more likely to miss > things. Perhaps giving up maintaining that massive set of procmail rules > has cost me a bit more edge. > > Related, of course, just because you design/run your network to tolerate > some issues doesn't mean you can also budget to be in support contract > as well. :) Knowing more about the exploit/fix might mean trying to find > a way to get free upgrades to some kit to prevent more localized attacks > to other types of gear, as well, though in this case it's all about > Juniper PR839412 then, so vendor specific, it seems? > > There are probably more reasons to wish for more info, too. There's > still more of them (exploiters/attackers) than there are those of us > trying to keep things running smoothly and transparently, so anything > that smells of "OMG new exploit found!" also triggers my desire to share > information. The network bad guys share information far more quickly and > effectively than we do, it often seems. > > -R> > > >
