How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline

machadinha · Feb 26th, 2008, 17:21

(btw Kindly note how it's the wider technical ramifications that prompted me to post this, not the potential for another round of bashing a certain country.):

How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline (and how to make sure it never happens again)

CNet, February 25, Declan McCullagh

Quote:

A high-profile incident this weekend in which Pakistan's state-owned telecommunications company managed to cut YouTube off the global Web highlights a long-standing security weakness in the way the Internet is managed.

After receiving a censorship order from the telecommunications ministry directing that YouTube.com be blocked, Pakistan Telecom went even further. By accident or design, the company broadcast instructions worldwide claiming to be the legitimate destination for anyone trying to reach YouTube's range of Internet addresses.

The security weakness lies in why those false instructions, which took YouTube offline for two hours on Sunday, were believed by routers around the globe. That's because Hong Kong-based PCCW, which provides the Internet link to Pakistan Telecom, did not stop the misleading broadcast--which is what most large providers in the United States and Europe do.

This is not a new problem. A network provider in Turkey once pretended to be the entire Internet, snarling traffic and making many Web sites unreachable. Con Edison accidentally hijacked the Internet addresses for Panix customers including Martha Stuart Living Omnimedia and the New York Daily News. Problems with errant broadcasts go back as far as 1997.

It's also not an infrequent problem. An automatically-updated list of suspicious broadcasts created by Josh Karlin of the University of New Mexico shows apparent mischief--in the form of dubious claims to be the true destination for certain Internet addresses--taking place on an hourly basis.

So why hasn't anyone done something about it? False broadcasts can amount to a denial-of-service attack and, if done with malicious intent, can send unsuspecting users to a fake bank, merchant, or credit card site.

To understand why this is both a serious Internet vulnerability and also difficult to fix requires delving into the technical details a little.

... Read on at http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-987...?tag=nefd.lede .

Indojingai · Feb 26th, 2008, 17:54

The idea (Pakistan's) was to stop some content (from Denmark I guess) from being viewable within Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecom used what Google/youtube calls "erroneous internet protocols" to stop it themselves thereby causing alomost a global youtube outage.

nycank · Mar 5th, 2008, 23:51

Here is the analysis of what happened - It is kind of techincal

http://www.ripe.net/news/study-youtube-hijacking.html

Nick-H · Mar 6th, 2008, 09:29

From what I remember from a slightly less technical article I read...

Routers on the internet talk to each other, constantly, telling each other about what routes to use.

--- The Pakistan authorities implemented the ban by progamming their 'border' routers to route you-tube into a black hole.

--- Unfortunately, those routers advertised that route to other routers around the world, which started doing the same.

It is a known weakness of the router protocol, but only happens in certain circumstances which occur rarely, but regularly. When it does, it is usually detected and dealt with quickly by those pale, semi-transparent techie beings that, world-wide, monitor and configure these things.

The full explanation goes beyond my limited understanding.

rick22 · Mar 15th, 2008, 17:03

hey thi9s is great ..... google too has weaknesses ... i didnt knew that !!!

Scandojazzbuff · Mar 15th, 2008, 21:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by machadinha

(btw Kindly note how it's the wider technical ramifications that prompted me to post this, not the potential for another round of bashing a certain country.):

How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline (and how to make sure it never happens again)

CNet, February 25, Declan McCullagh

... Read on at http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-987...?tag=nefd.lede .

As a side note, last year, the Thai government blacked out Youtube for several months after an incident of someone posting an insulting video of the king. The irony here is that Thailand is supposed to run on democratic principles and is a very relaxed place in general.

Feb 26th, 2008, 17:54	#2
Indojingai One in a billion member. Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 980	The idea (Pakistan's) was to stop some content (from Denmark I guess) from being viewable within Pakistan. Pakistan Telecom used what Google/youtube calls "erroneous internet protocols" to stop it themselves thereby causing alomost a global youtube outage. __________________ I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.

Mar 5th, 2008, 23:51	#3
nycank Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: NYC Posts: 269	Root Cause Analysis Here is the analysis of what happened - It is kind of techincal http://www.ripe.net/news/study-youtube-hijacking.html

Mar 6th, 2008, 09:29	#4
Nick-H Loud-mouthed, Noisy Bird Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chennai, India Posts: 25,300	From what I remember from a slightly less technical article I read... Routers on the internet talk to each other, constantly, telling each other about what routes to use. --- The Pakistan authorities implemented the ban by progamming their 'border' routers to route you-tube into a black hole. --- Unfortunately, those routers advertised that route to other routers around the world, which started doing the same. It is a known weakness of the router protocol, but only happens in certain circumstances which occur rarely, but regularly. When it does, it is usually detected and dealt with quickly by those pale, semi-transparent techie beings that, world-wide, monitor and configure these things. The full explanation goes beyond my limited understanding. __________________ . Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

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Mar 15th, 2008, 17:03	#5
rick22 Account Closed Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Austria Posts: 14	hey thi9s is great ..... google too has weaknesses ... i didnt knew that !!!

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