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Martians & Traditional Bogon Concepts

Martians & Traditional Bogon Concepts

Kerry Cordero
Routing & Switching
2 min read

The terminologies Martians and bogons apply to certain IP addresses that should not be public. Martians refer to private and reserved addresses as defined by RFCs, while bogons are the prefixes unallocated to any regional Internet registry (RIR) by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Comprehensive Bogons

These include traditional bogon prefixes as well as the IP space assigned to the RIRs but not yet allocated by them to Local Internet Registries (LIRs) for both IPv4 and IPv6.

IPv4 Martians

Below are the known IPv4 Martians:

  • 0.0.0.0/8 # RFC 791 & RFC 1122
  • 10.0.0.0/8 # RFC 1918 Private-Use
  • 100.64.0.0/10 # RFC 6598 Shared Ad. Space
  • 127.0.0.0/8 # RFC 1122 Loopback
  • 169.254.0.0/16 # RFC 3927 Link Local
  • 172.16.0.0/12 # RFC 1918 Private-Use
  • 192.0.2.0/24 # RFC 5737 (TEST-NET-1)
  • 192.88.99.0/24 # RFC 7526
  • 192.168.0.0/16 # RFC 1918 Private-Use
  • 198.18.0.0/15 # RFC 2544 Benchmarking
  • 198.51.100.0/24 # RFC 5737 (TEST-NET-2)
  • 203.0.113.0/24 # RFC 5737 (TEST-NET-3)
  • 240.0.0.0/4 # RFC 1112 Reserved References: [NLNOG, IANA_v4]

IPv6 Martians

Here are the established IPv6 Martians:

  • ::/8 # RFC 3513 and RFC 4291
  • 0100::/64 # RFC 6666 Discard-Only
  • 2001:2::/48 # RFC 5180 BMWG
  • 2001:10::/28 # RFC 4843 ORCHID
  • 2001:db8::/32 # RFC 3849 documentation
  • 2002::/16 # RFC 7526 6to4 anycast relay
  • ffe::/16 # RFC 3701 old 6bone
  • fc00::/7 # RFC 4193 unique local unicast
  • fe80::/10 # RFC 4291 link local unicast
  • fec0::/10 # RFC 3879 old site local unicast
  • ff00::/8 # RFC 4291 multicast References: [NLNOG, IANA_v6]

Bogon Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs)

An ASN is considered as a bogon under the following circumstances:

  • It is reserved for special use by an RFC.
  • It does not fall under the block assigned to an RIR by IANA.
  • It is unassigned to an LIR by any RIR.

Reserved & Unassigned ASNs

These are the known reserved and unassigned ASNs:

  • 0 # RFC 7607
  • 23456 # RFC 6793 AS_TRANS
  • 64496 - 65551 # RFCs 6996, 7300 & 5398
  • 65552 - 131071 # IANA reserved ASNs
  • 213404 - 262143 # Unallocated
  • 273821 - 327679 # Unallocated
  • 329728 - 393215 #Unallocated
  • 151866 - 196607 #Unallocated
  • 401309 - 4199999999 #Unallocated
  • 4200000000 - 4294967294 # RFC 6996
  • 4294967295 # RFC 7300 Last 32 bit ASN

The Importance of Understanding Bogons

Bogons often originate from configuration errors, and are associated with different types of misconduct.

Misconduct Involving Bogons

These include:

  • Source addresses of DDoS attacks
  • BGP security incidents such as hijacks and route leaks
  • Other nefarious Internet activities

Final Remarks

The comprehension of Martians and bogons is critical for anyone working with IP addresses. This knowledge helps in identifying potential misuse and thus, protecting your network from harmful actions.

 

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