[arin-discuss] Question about legacy IPv4 and RADB

[Robert E. Seastrom]

Scott Leibrand <scottleibrand at gmail.com> writes:

> As I understand it, any paying RADB customer can register route objects for
> any route they like, as long as no one else has already done so.  So I don't
> think RADB tells you much about the proper holder of a block whose original
> registrant is now defunct.

There is no "nobody else has already done so" constraint, except to
the extent that if your maintainer has already put in a prefix for
X.X.X.X/Y and you send in an object for the same prefix, it will be
treated as an update not a new object.  Nor is there anything keeping
one from putting identical information in other IRR components.  I
recently had a big cleanup of stuff that people had decided to
proxy-register on my behalf over the years.

Basically, registration in the IRR (RADB and sister registries) can be
used to adjust route filters on the fly, but in the case of any kind
of conflict RIR (ARIN) data should be treated as authoritative.

You are right to be suspicious.  I smell a rat.

-r