A New Step to Strengthen Routing Security in the Region

LACNIC has implemented the option to create and publish ASPA objects in MiLACNIC. ASPA, a new RPKI mechanism, complements origin validation by incorporating route path information and allowing the incremental validation of these paths.

For a few days now, LACNIC members holding an ASN have been able to configure and publish ASPA objects directly through MiLACNIC. This feature expands the tools available to members and adds a new capability to continue to strengthen routing security across the region.

Until now, ROAs and Route Origin Validation (ROV) allowed verifying whether the entity originating a prefix is ??authorized to do so. ASPA complements this information by incorporating route path data.

Through an ASPA object, the organization responsible for an ASN can declare its authorized transit providers. Operators can use this information to validate whether specific relationships within a path are consistent with published authorizations, thus detecting potential route leaks and route hijacks, including those where the origin AS is spoofed.

It is important to clarify that ASPA does not replace ROAs or origin validation but rather complements them. In other words, while ROAs provide the information to perform origin validation, ASPA adds information that allows advancing toward path validation.

ASPA adoption is currently in its early stages. Its growth will depend on an increasing number of operators in the region adopting these best practices, both by publishing ASPA objects and by using this information in their operations.

At LACNIC, we seek to support our members and operators across the region in this process by providing training, raising awareness, and offering knowledge-sharing spaces to facilitate the adoption of these best practices and contribute to further strengthening routing security.

To learn more about this topic, we invite you to read the article on the LACNIC Blog titled “An Introduction to ASPA.” We also encourage you to join the routing security tutorials offered during our events, which are available on line free of charge.

For more information on how to create ASPA objects on MiLACNIC, please contact hostmaster@lacnic.net