Parler research vanity

various internet sources | 1/12/21 | Loucon

[loucon]

Any IT people out there that have any thoughts on this.

[loucon]

First I heard that parler.com has registered at Epik. (confirmed)

whois parler.com
Domain:parler.com
Registrar:Epik Inc.
Updated On:2021-01-11

Next I checked to see if there was an "A" record yet for parler.

Query a Domain Name Server
https://manytools.org/network/query-dns-records-online/go/
Domain to lookup (IP for reverse DNS): parler.com
DNS nameserver you want to query (optional): ns3.epik.com (Epik DNS)
Type of record: A

"A" DNS records for parler.com, [DNS server 52.55.168.70]:
parler.com. 300 IN A 0.0.0.0

Next I checked to see the propgation of it in other DNS locations.

whatsmydns.net DNS Propagation Checker
"A" DNS records for parler.com
OpenDNS - parler.com. 245 IN A 0.0.0.0
Sprint - parler.com. 300 IN A 0.0.0.0
.
. (most have the place holder)
. (this one however resolved to an IP address)
CNNIC - parler.com. 228 IN A 185.45.7.189

Per Wikipedia:
CNNIC is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China.

So Whois IP 185.45.7.189 and why does their DNS point parler.com to it?
inetnum: 185.45.4.0 - 185.45.7.255
netname: IE-TWITTER-INTL-20140114
country: GB
org: ORG-TIC5-RIPE
admin-c: CK3500-RIPE
tech-c: CK3500-RIPE
status: ALLOCATED PA
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: MAINT-TWITTER
mnt-routes: MAINT-TWITTER
created: 2014-01-14T08:59:17Z
last-modified: 2018-07-18T22:56:31Z
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-TIC5-RIPE
org-name: Twitter International Company
country: IE
org-type: LIR
address: FENIAN STREET
address: D02 F663
address: Dublin
address: IRELAND
phone: +1415- 222-9670
phone: +1415-613-3818
abuse-c: AC28286-RIPE
mnt-ref: MAINT-TWITTER
mnt-ref: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: MAINT-TWITTER
created: 2013-12-11T12:08:09Z
last-modified: 2020-12-16T12:28:52Z
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: Christian Koch
address: 1355 Market Street
address: Suite 900
address: San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: +1-415-426-4200
nic-hdl: CK3500-RIPE
mnt-by: MAINT-TWITTER
created: 2013-12-11T19:27:23Z
last-modified: 2013-12-11T19:27:24Z
source: RIPE # Filtered

[rarestia]

What’s the question?

[loucon]

Why is the CNNIC DNS pointing searches for parler.com to a twitter domain?

[rarestia]

That one IP falls into Twitter’s owned IP space. Twitter bought that /8 (very large) network a long time ago. Why it is that a single resolver has that IP isn’t clear. Someone would’ve associated that IP, perhaps in a root resolver somewhere, but the name parler.com doesn’t resolve to anything globally, except that one resolver. It doesn’t constitute ownership.

[humblegunner]

What’s the question?

Is it not working for you?
Is it working too well for you?
Can you not figure out the interface?
Are your muffins burning and you should pull them out of the oven?
Has your dog got out and is eating up random neighbor kids?

[Pollard]

He was on Tucker last night. He can’t get hosting. People say yes and then back out at the last minute. He says they’ll be back and “hopes” it will be soon. Here’s the clip; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfyA1yIloQ

Doesn’t look very good for parler. If it takes weeks to get it back up and running, more than half the members will be gone for good. They will have been on gab, mewe or clouthub for so long, they’ll just stay there.

[shaven_llama]

> What’s the question?

Wondering the same. They got screwed by a coordinated smack-down by several large tech companies and are now scrambling. We really just have to wait and see if they find a hosting provider willing to take them in.

[Spirochete]

They’ll have new ICANN records when they’re back up. This is old data

[libh8er]

You have given us the answer. Now please the question.

[loucon]

Why it is that a single resolver has that IP isn’t clear.

So will that IP address propagate back to the other DNS or do they only propagate from the listed registrars DNS?

[rarestia]

It sounds like their web front ends were hosted on a cloud provider while their main farms are on-premise. Web front ends get blasted by bad actors, so any small cloud provider will be consumed by bad traffic and entities trying to take down the site, so it’s likely to mean strain on their infrastructure.

If a large provider like Azure or Google don’t take them, they’re not likely to land anywhere that can handle their traffic, and hosting an on-premise web front end farm could mean death for their ISP. DDoS attacks would be very effective without extensive protections put in place, which require knowledgeable security professionals commanding very lucrative contracts.

[libh8er]

ask

[rarestia]

It’s likely just bad data leftover from the purge. They own the name with Epik. They control the IPs associated to the name. Since a majority are 0.0.0.0, I suspect it’s just a propagation issue with that one root resolver.

[loucon]

So the 0.0.0.0 pointer is a result of the purge?

[rarestia]

It’s a “dead” IP. It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a default for any empty registration or perhaps they set that as the IP on Epik as a placeholder.

[loucon]

Thanks

[cicero2k]

Is GAB an alternative? Is FR vulnerable to DDOS?

[SecondAmendment]

Are you asking in a round about way if a site can get "disappeared" from DNS ?

We will know the answer in a couple of days, that's how long records tend to work their way through the system, but it is possible, just ask anyone in China.

[glorgau]

So the Chinese DNS parked control of Parler.com with their buddies at Twitter.

Kinda makes sense on their part. They probably don’t want want that domain name suddenly popping up if Parler gets their service unexpectedly restored.

[familyop]

Nameservers that are improperly configured will slow DNS in general. When those “big tech” company retards changed DNS configs, they messed up traffic for many other services that had nothing to do with them. There were brief outages all over the place a couple of days ago.