On Feb 21, 2014, at 11:40 AM, Harlan Stenn <st...@ntp.org> wrote:

> As a reality check, with this filtering in place does "ntptrace" still work?

No, it will not.

In order to minimize overblocking of this nature, filtering of this nature 
should be used with the highest possible degree of granularity, and the minimal 
necessary scope.  One way to accomplish this is to divert traffic towards 
destinations in question into a mitigation/center sinkhole, applying this 
filtering on the coreward interfaces of the mitigation center/sinkhole gateway 
(some re-injection mechanism such as GRE, VRF, selective filtering of the 
diversion route announcements coupled w/PBR, etc. must be used to re-inject 
non-matching traffic towards the destinations in question) or via other 
mitigation mechanisms.

In emergencies, the concept of partial service recovery may dictate temporary 
filtering of coarser granularity in order to preserve overall network 
availability; we've run into situations in the past week-and-a-half where 
networks were experiencing severe strain due to the sheer volume of ntp 
reflection/amplification attack traffic, and it was necessary to start out with 
more general filtering, then work towards more specific filtering once the 
network was stabilized.

But you raise a very important point which should be re-emphasized - general 
filtering of traffic is to be avoided whenever possible in order to avoid 
breaking applications/services.  

However, the converse notion that emergency situations sometimes entail 
necessary restrictions should also be taken into account.  Operators should use 
their best judgement as to the scope of any filtering, and should always pilot 
any proposed mitigation methodologies prior to wider deployment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Roland Dobbins <rdobb...@arbor.net> // <http://www.arbornetworks.com>

          Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

                       -- John Milton


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