Bogons Be Gone!

What in the world is a bogon? It is a source address that should not appear in an IP packet on an interface that faces the public Internet. A very famous example of a bogon address would be the Private IP address space, as defined in RFC 1918. This address space is as follows:

• 10.0.0.0/8
• 172.16.0.0/12
• 192.168.0.0/16

What would be another example of a bogon address? How about the "link-local" addresses that a system will use to communicate on the local link in the event of DHCP failure. This address space is 169.254.0.0/16.

So bogons consist of special use addresses and any other portions of the address space that has not been allocated for public use. This list of addresses is not static, and does change over time. These addresses are excellent entries in your filters (access control lists) for interfaces that face the Internet.
What is a convenient place to learn of the bogon addresses you should be most concerned with as a CCIE candidate? Well, it is none other than an RFC. It is RFC 3330. It is an excellent RFC that summarizes many of the other RFCs detailing special use address space. You can find RFC 3330 here:

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3330.html