[e2e] probing and laws (where can i find an ip or host address list?)

[David G. Andersen]

On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 10:18:26PM +0200, Marc Herbert scribed:
> 
> I don't really see the point of having a "social behaviour" today when
> I have a look at the log of any DSL line. I think we will be dead
> before most zombie-PCs or their owners (who usually have a much more
> interesting real life than applying security patches) adopt a "social
> behaviour".  Hopefully some enforcement _technique_ (and not only some
> hand-waving law) will help solve this issue much before that.

  As someone who runs a moderately large network testbed, 
I beg my users to exercise exactly that social behavior, because
unrestrained probing generates a fairly large volume of complaints
that I and the people who (generously and without compensation other
than the occasional free beer) host my machines have to deal with.

  Idiot With Firewall syndrome is well known, and best avoided,
if only to save yourself a lot of hassle.  Just ask the planetlab
folks how many machines have been shut down by well-intentioned
admins.

  Even on a smaller testbed with very careful users, I get
a complaint or two per month, and typically have a machine
switched off a few times per year because someone saw a
traceroute and decided it was a port scan with malicious intent.
So please, exercise care when probing -- not because you're
intruding on other people's networks, but because it'll save
you and your admins a lot of pain.

  -Dave

-- 
work: dga at lcs.mit.edu                          me:  dga at pobox.com
      MIT Laboratory for Computer Science           http://www.angio.net/