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Using the BGP module

thrones BGP module has some handy things that it can do. It can get RIR information for a specified AS# or IP/prefix, and it can check BGP looking glasses around the globe so you can see if the path that's being taken for a IP or prefix.

[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp --help
Usage: throne bgp [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Retrieve BGP related information.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  asn     Gets information on the specified AS number.
  lg      BGP looking glass information based upon provided address or...
  prefix  Gets prefix information for specified prefix or ip address.

bgp asn​

Starting with the command within the asn command within the bgp module of thone. You'll need to specify an ASN to get relevant information as per the help information of the module.

Help
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp asn --help
Usage: throne bgp asn [OPTIONS] ASNUM

  Gets information on the specified AS number.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.
Example
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp asn 59
---Basic ASN Info--
AS#: 59
Holder: WISC-MADISON-AS
Announced: True
---AS Block Info---
AS Block: 1-1876
Name: IANA 16-bit Autonomous System (AS) Numbers Registry
Description: Assigned by ARIN
---ARIN/AS59 Contact Information---
University of Wisconsin Madison (Registrant):
 Entity Address: 1210 W Dayton B332 Madison WI 53706 United States
 Entity Phone: None
 Entity Email: None
Network Operations (Administrative):
 Entity Address: Division of Information Technology 1210 West Dayton Street Madison WI 53706 United States
 Entity Phone: +1-608-262-9030
 Entity Email: [email protected]
Network Operations Center (Technical/Abuse):
 Entity Address: 1210 West Dayton Street B332 Madison WI 53706 United States
 Entity Phone: +1-608-263-4188
 Entity Email: [email protected]

Let's dive into our example and go though it line by line to see what throne is providing us.

  • Basic ASN Info
    • AS# - The query we made
    • Holder - Name of the ASN within its RIR
    • Announced - If the ASN is being used for advertisement
  • AS Block Info
    • AS Block - The original block of AS#'s this was provided out of
    • Name: The name of the AS block this originated from
    • Description: Typically will contain Assigned by X with X being the RIR who IANA assigned the AS block to
  • Contact Information
    • X(ROLE): - In our example we see University of Wisconsin Madison (Registrant), Network Operations (Administrative) and Network Operations Center (Technical/Abuse). throne will parse the readable name of each contact and their role and provide it as a header for the group/individual.
    • Entity Address: The address the RIR has on-file for the contact
    • Entity Phone: The phone number the RIR has on-file for the contact
    • Entity Email: The email the RIR has on-file for the contact
RIPE Contact Information

Please note that RIPE does filter out non-abuse contact information from their RDAP API. throne will produce a warning when it detects RIPE as the RIR to notify you that the details/results may be filtered. To get full contact information you will need to go to query the RIPE database directly.

Example - RIPE
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp asn 2792
---Basic ASN Info--
AS#: 2792
Holder: TERASTREAM-AS - Deutsche Telekom AG
Announced: True
---AS Block Info---
AS Block: 2773-2822
Name: IANA 16-bit Autonomous System (AS) Numbers Registry
Description: Assigned by RIPE NCC
---RIPE/AS2792 Contact Information---
Deutsche Telekom LIR Abuse Contact (Abuse):
 Entity Address: Deutsche Telekom AG
 Entity Phone: None
 Entity Email: [email protected]

Some of these details may be filtered by RIPE. To verify this information please visit https://apps.db.ripe.net/db-web-ui/query.

As we can see in the example above, with a RIPE issued ASN we only see the abuse contact information along with the warning that throne will provide you when RIPE is detected.

bgp lg​

This is one of my favorite commands that was able to get implemented into throne. I can't tell you how many times I've needed to look at the HE.net BGP Looking Glass to see if I had routes being advertised properly. Having the ability to have a looking glass available at a moments notice via command line, at least for me has been very helpful. Let's take a look at how this command works.

Help
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp lg --help
Usage: throne bgp lg [OPTIONS] ADDRESS_OR_PREFIX

  BGP looking glass information based upon provided address or prefix

Options:
  --location [US-NY|US-FL|US-CA|UK|NL|SG|DE|ZA|JP]
                                  Looking Glass Location  [default: (US-NY)]
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

We have one available option and an argument that is needed when using throne bgp lg.

  • --location X
    • Here we can specify what location we want to query the address or prefix out of. On throne we can query out of New York (US-NY), Miami (US-FL), Palo Alto (US-CA), London (UK), Amsterdam (NL), Singapone (SG), Frankfurt (DE), Johannesburg (ZA), and Tokyo (JP).

It is okay to NOT specify a location, just know that if you don't put one by default throne will query US-NY.

We also must specify an address or prefix so that we tell the looking glass exactly what to query. Let's see what we can get out of the throne bgp lg command.

Example
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp lg 1.1.1.1
Peer: 198.32.160.12
 Peer Location: New York City, New York, US
---
Origin AS: 13335
 Prefix: 1.1.1.0/24
 AS Path: 199524 13335

throne will provide us the peer IP and location that the route server is seeing the route from, the origin AS number, the advertised prefix that the IP is apart of and the AS path.

Let's query Frankfurt and see what that router is seeing for 1.1.1.1.

Example - Location Specified
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp lg 1.1.1.1 --location DE
Peer: 2001:7f8::30b6:0:1
 Peer Location: Frankfurt, Germany
---
Origin AS: 13335
 Prefix: 1.1.1.0/24
 AS Path: 12470 174 13335

We can see that by specifying --location DE at the end of the command we were now able to query the Frankfurt peer and grab what information it sees for 1.1.1.1.

Oh don't worry, you can query prefixes as well!

Example - Prefix Specified
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp lg 8.8.8.0/24
Peer: 198.32.160.12
 Peer Location: New York City, New York, US
---
Origin AS: 15169
 Prefix: 8.8.8.0/24
 AS Path: 199524 15169

bgp prefix​

Just like you can with AS numbers, you can get information about prefixes or IP addresses using throne bgp prefix.

Help
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp prefix --help
Usage: throne bgp prefix [OPTIONS] ADDRESS_OR_PREFIX

  Gets prefix information for specified prefix or ip address.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

There isn't any additional options for this command but you'll need to specify an address or a prefix to get information on.

Example
[user@throne ~]$ throne bgp prefix 8.8.8.0/24
Prefix: 8.8.8.0/24
 Announced By: 15169
 Holder: GOOGLE
---
IP Block: 8.0.0.0/8
 Name: IANA IPv4 Address Space Registry
 Description: Administered by ARIN

Looking at the output above, throne is telling us the prefix that our query is advertised under, who the prefix is announced by (AS & Holder), as well as the original IANA IP block information and who it's administrated/assigned by. In this case 8.0.0.0/8 is administered by ARIN.

If we want to query an IP address we just replace 8.8.8.0/24 with an IP such as 8.8.8.8. This will give us the exact same information. When you query a specific IP it will tell you the prefix it is advertised out of, who it's announced by and the original IANA IP block information.