UCEPROTECT blacklists removed due to bad behavior

ShadowTrackr uses a lot of OSINT blacklists. This is not something you want to do in your internal SIEM without proper tuning. Any reasonably large organization will have users occasionally hitting blacklisted websites, resulting in quite a few false positives.

The purpose of the OSINT blacklists in ShadowTrackr is different: it’s to check if your public websites or mailservers appear on them. That is something you should always want to know.

Last two weeks, a lot of assets of several different clients turned up on UCEPROTECT blacklists. Often, if the ip or url is really showing bad behavior, you’ll see it listed on multiple blacklists from mutliple organizations. The funny thing about the ip’s showing up on UCEPROTECT was that almost all of them did not show up at other blacklists. That is odd.

When I looked in to the details, UCEPROTECT showed that entire ip ranges and ASNs we’re blocked. These ASNs are all owned by decent providers, and it seemed a bit like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I contacted one of the ISPs, and they told me that they were on it and trying to work with UCEPROTECT. Problem was that UCEPROTECT charges a hefty fee to get your ASN de-listed. That is, in the words of the ISP, predatory behavior that they will not put up with. And they are right. So, as of now ShadowTrackr has dropped checking assets againts UCEPROTECT blacklists.

We still use more than 100 other blacklists, and you’re assets will very likely show up on those if they misbehave. So, you should notice any real difference.