The routing error affected the largest IT companies.
On March 11, 2024, as a result of a technical failure when configuring the MTS network equipment, Internet traffic routes were leaked, which led to disruptions in network operations not only in Asia, but also in a number of international Internet services.
The key point of the problem was an incorrect configuration of the direction of Internet traffic, which led to its leakage through the Hong Kong traffic exchange HKIX, an important node to which many major players are connected, including giants such as Google and Amazon.
According to the Qrator monitoring service.Radar, MTS incorrectly announced BGP prefixes, which affected 329 autonomous systems in 28 countries. AS8359 (MTS) redirected 4,065 prefixes to the American operator Level3, causing conflicts in Asian and other prefixes, which was especially acutely felt by users of the social network X in Asia.
Qrator Post
HKIX has 349 participants, including major technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Bytedance, Zoom, and local telecom operators, as well as the DDoS-Guard service and Rostelecom, MTS, and Vimpelcom. Rostelecom and DDoS-Guard said there were no problems, while Vimpelcom declined to comment.
Affected networks
Experts from Qrator Labs noted that although such leaks can potentially lead to serious consequences, including data interception or complete loss, the current analysis of the situation does not allow us to determine exactly how deep the consequences were for end users. However, MTS assured the public that the incident did not significantly affect the global network infrastructure or the availability of Internet resources, emphasizing that the volume of incorrectly routed traffic did not exceed 1% of the total MTS traffic.
On March 11, 2024, as a result of a technical failure when configuring the MTS network equipment, Internet traffic routes were leaked, which led to disruptions in network operations not only in Asia, but also in a number of international Internet services.
The key point of the problem was an incorrect configuration of the direction of Internet traffic, which led to its leakage through the Hong Kong traffic exchange HKIX, an important node to which many major players are connected, including giants such as Google and Amazon.
According to the Qrator monitoring service.Radar, MTS incorrectly announced BGP prefixes, which affected 329 autonomous systems in 28 countries. AS8359 (MTS) redirected 4,065 prefixes to the American operator Level3, causing conflicts in Asian and other prefixes, which was especially acutely felt by users of the social network X in Asia.
Qrator Post
HKIX has 349 participants, including major technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Bytedance, Zoom, and local telecom operators, as well as the DDoS-Guard service and Rostelecom, MTS, and Vimpelcom. Rostelecom and DDoS-Guard said there were no problems, while Vimpelcom declined to comment.
Affected networks
Experts from Qrator Labs noted that although such leaks can potentially lead to serious consequences, including data interception or complete loss, the current analysis of the situation does not allow us to determine exactly how deep the consequences were for end users. However, MTS assured the public that the incident did not significantly affect the global network infrastructure or the availability of Internet resources, emphasizing that the volume of incorrectly routed traffic did not exceed 1% of the total MTS traffic.
