April 2024 - db-wg - mailman.ripe.net

Phone number requirement for person objects
by Cynthia Revström 06 Aug '24

06 Aug '24

Hi, In the DB-WG interim session I mentioned that there's currently a discrepancy between person objects and role objects with regards to contact information. More specifically, person objects currently require a phone number while role objects require an email address. I think we should try to bring person objects more in line with role objects by removing the phone number requirement. Ideally I would want it to be mandatory to have either a phone number or an email address in order to not lose any flexibility but I'm not sure if that is possible. During the session I asked if anyone was opposed to the idea and no one said they were so I would assume that this is relatively uncontroversial but please let me know what you think. -Cynthia

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Proposal to allow non-ASCII characters in "org-name:", "person:" and "role:" attributes
by Edward Shryane 28 May '24

28 May '24

Dear colleagues, Currently the RIPE database only allows a subset of ASCII characters in the "org-name:", "person:" and "role:" attributes, for a few reasons including: * These attributes are also a look-up key and the Whois protocol does not allow specifying character sets in queries. * RPSL names are ASCII according to RFC2622 * Using a normalised name makes the object easier to query * Reading a normalised name is easier to interpret However there are some drawbacks to forcing names to only use a subset of ASCII characters: * Organisations, roles and persons cannot use their actual name if it includes characters outside this subset. * Normalisation is not standard, but is an interpretation done by each maintainer, e.g. characters could be excluded or converted in different ways. Since we support the Latin-1 character set in the RIPE database, I propose we also allow non-ASCII Latin-1 characters in these attributes. Querying for a name can be done either using the latin-1 characters (proposed) or a normalised, ASCII representation (currently). The normalised version will be generated by Whois and stored in a database index for querying. The primary key will also be generated from the normalised version. Please let me know your feedback. Regards Ed Shryane RIPE NCC --- Whois attribute verbose description (copied from the help text). org-name -------- Specifies the name of the organisation that this organisation object represents in the RIPE Database. This is an ASCII-only text attribute. The restriction is because this attribute is a look-up key and the whois protocol does not allow specifying character sets in queries. The user can put the name of the organisation in non-ASCII character sets in the "descr:" attribute if required. A list of 1 to 30 words separated by white space. A word is made up of ASCII alphanumeric characters and additionally: ][)(._"*@,&:!'`+/- A word may have up to 64 characters and is not case sensitive. Each word can have any combination of the above characters with no restriction on the start or end of a word. person ------ Specifies the full name of an administrative, technical or zone contact person for other objects in the database. It should contain 2 to 10 words. A word is made up of ASCII alphanumeric characters and additionally: .`'_- The first word should begin with a letter. At least one other word should also begin with a letter. Max 64 characters can be used in each word. role ---- Specifies the full name of a role entity, e.g. RIPE DBM. A list of 1 to 30 words separated by white space. A word is made up of ASCII alphanumeric characters and additionally: ][)(._"*@,&:!'`+/- A word may have up to 64 characters and is not case sensitive. Each word can have any combination of the above characters with no restriction on the start or end of a word.

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Preferred names in the database
by Harry Cross 22 May '24

22 May '24

Dear all (copying this to both the Diversity list and the Database list), I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend and recovering from Rome. I’d like to begin thinking about a proposal for preferred names in the database/on resources. Some may have noticed this week (and for a bit prior), I have begun going by Harri instead of Harry. At the moment there is no correct way for me to represent this in the database, as an LIR the details have to match my legal name. I may think about going through the legal processes to change this soon (albeit in the UK this is easier than a lot of places). I know a few people hold their resources under a shell company for this purpose, (e.g I could incorporate Harri Cross Limited to hold the resources and be in the database). This applies to end users who hold PI or ASNs alongside LIRs. It would be good for us to think about a way for these preferred names (and pronouns?) to be shown in the database alongside the process for changing the name of an end user. I know the preferred way a lot of people in this situation would like this to be handled is to totally mask the legal name in the database. The NCC could still validate legal names to know who they are working with - and we will need some compromise here I suspect. A complete lack of verification is of course a bad thing. I have experienced talking to the NCC when handling end users in these situations who have legally name changed and the process seems to be incredibly hard with the lack of understanding on documentation for name changes. Responses from the Registry have included “How can we be sure that <oldName> and <newName> are not identical twins?” (Which in my mind, is rather disrespectful). I also have another name change in process that is being stonewalled by a lack of understanding of documents in different jurisdictions for this. Kind Regards, Harri Sent from Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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Update to RIPE Database Terms & Conditions
by denis walker 16 May '24

16 May '24

Colleagues In the Impact Analysis (IA) for 2023-04, the RIPE NCC legal team expressed rules for entering personal data into the RIPE Database that are quite different to our previous understanding. This legal IA was relied on heavily by the proposers of 2023-04 and constantly referred to by them during the policy discussions. Based on the discussions and the IA, the chairs of the AP-WG have now approved the proposal 2023-04. We MUST now update the RIPE Database Terms and Conditions to reflect this new understanding on personal data. In the IA the legal team said this: "Inserting any personal data in the RIPE Database must be in compliance with the RIPE Database Terms and Conditions, even when it relates to the contact details of the member’s own contact person(s). In particular, before anyone updates the RIPE Database with personal data, they must obtain the contact person’s informed and expressed consent and ensure this data is kept accurate and up-to-date." Article 6.3 of the RIPE Database Terms and Conditions currently says: "The Maintainer who enters personal data into the RIPE Database has a responsibility to inform the individual to whom the data pertains and to obtain their explicit consent for the entry in the public RIPE Database if required by law." This article does not accurately reflect the statement in the IA by the legal team. The text "if required by law." must be removed. This suggests that some personal data may not need the 'contact person’s informed and expressed consent'. The IA makes it clear that all personal data entered into the RIPE Database must have the 'contact person’s informed and expressed consent'. There are no exceptions or caveats to this consent. Also the responsibility must not be restricted to the 'Maintainer'. ANYONE has the capability to enter personal data into the RIPE Database. This personal data can then be referenced by a Maintainer of resource data. I would suggest Article 6.3 says something like this: "Anyone who updates the RIPE Database with personal data must obtain the contact person’s informed and expressed consent to enter their personal details into a global, freely accessible, public database. This consent cannot be subject to any conditions. If the consent is withdrawn, the personal data must be removed from the RIPE Database in a reasonable time frame. The personal data must be kept accurate and up-to-date. The right to use some Internet resources requires a consenting contact. If no such contact person is available, the right to use some Internet resources may be revoked." This is a clear and honest statement that fully reflects the IA understanding of the use of personal data in the RIPE Database. I would like to ask the RIPE NCC legal team to make arrangements for this update to the Terms and Conditions. cheers denis co-chair DB-WG ======================================================== DISCLAIMER Everything I said above is my personal, professional opinion. It is what I believe to be honest and true to the best of my knowledge. No one in this industry pays me anything. I have nothing to gain or lose by any decision. I push for what I believe is for the good of the Internet, in some small way. Nothing I say is ever intended to be offensive or a personal attack. Even if I strongly disagree with you or question your motives. Politicians question each other's motives all the time. RIPE discussion is often as much about politics and self interest as it is technical. I have a style of writing that some may not be familiar with, others sometimes use it against me. I also have OCD. It makes me see the world slightly differently to others. It drives my mind's obsessive need for detail. I can not change the way I express my detailed opinions. People may choose how to interpret them. ========================================================

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Re: [db-wg] Complying with Mail Provider Requirements When Sending Mail from Whois
by Lutz Donnerhacke 13 May '24

13 May '24

* Denis Walker wrote: > But looking through lots of email notifications about changes that you > already know about, because you did them, and maybe in the middle is a > notification of an attempted security breach that failed on > authentication (that you may miss), doesn't that also eat up brain > cycles? Please do not assume that LIR activities are single handed everywhere. Several LIRs do have an automation (i.e. netbox) to update the RIPE DB. Others might have multiple independent people working with RIPE on their own behalf. So notifications, especially the notify: attribute are currently in use. > So how about a compromise. A full audit trail of all details of all > changes to all your data available by default to designated people > through your portal account. Plus a daily email summarising all the > changes also sent to people whose email addresses are set up in the > portal account. So still no notif email addresses needed all across > the database. This could even be done per maintainer. How about using the notify: attribute for notifications?

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Proceeding with NWI-4
by David Tatlisu 02 May '24

02 May '24

Hi everyone, Following recent discussions the working group chairs have determined the new "status" option for NWI-4 garnered the most support. The working group chairs would like to ask the NCC to proceed with the implementation. Your feedback and engagement have been invaluable throughout this process, and we appreciate your continued involvement as we move forward with NWI-4. Kind regards, Denis, William, and David

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Overly specific inet6num objects by Hetzner
by Semisol 27 Apr '24

27 Apr '24

Hetzner apparently creates an `inet6num` object per dedicated server allocation (enough to get my IP blocked for 1 day trying to query them all), and it took several seconds to execute the query. > whois -r -- "-i mnt-by HOS-GUN -T inet6num" (warning: this will get your IP blocked) Some questions: 1. Is there any policy about "too specific" objects? 2. Is there any plans to restrict how many objects a single query can get at once?

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Re: [db-wg] Call for Volunteers for RIPE Database Working Group Co-Chair
by David Tatlisu 24 Apr '24

24 Apr '24

Dear colleagues, Peter Hessler volunteered for the working group co-chair position. He wrote: I've been active for the last few years as a member, and I would like to contribute more by helping to guide the working group. I did not receive any other emails from volunteers. Please keep in mind that the official selection will take place during the DB WG session at RIPE 88. Furthermore, I would like to thank Peter in my personal capacity for volunteering and for his many contributions to the working group. Kind regards, David RIPE DB WG co-chair

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creating a second route object
by Aleksi Suhonen 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

Hi, When migrating a route from one ASN to another, the best practice is to create a second route(6) object for it with the new origin. The creation of the new object is dependent on the "mnt-routes:" field of the enclosing inetnum(6) object. Am I correct thus far? Because I'm running into an issue. When trying to create a new route object using the LIR portal, I'm getting an error that the route is not authenticated by the maintainer of _the other_ route object. Am I missing something obvious, or have I found a bug/regression? BR, -- Aleksi Suhonen () ascii ribbon campaign /\ support plain text e-mail

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Whois Inverse Query by "sponsoring-org:" Attribute
by Edward Shryane 08 Apr '24

08 Apr '24

Dear colleagues, Currently, Whois query does not support the "sponsoring-org:" attribute in an inverse query, i.e. to find all resources sponsored by an organisation. The "sponsoring-org:' attribute was added to the RIPE database in these policies, but there's no mention of support for inverse queries: 2012-08: https://www.ripe.net/membership/policies/proposals/2012-08/ 2014-06: https://www.ripe.net/membership/policies/proposals/2014-06/ If there is no objection, I propose for consistency to also add "sponsoring-org:" to the list of inverse query attributes. Regards Ed Shryane RIPE NCC

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