ISP revealing customer NAME on DNS IP hostname (IP address resolved to hostname)

Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
588
I really don't know how to explain the technical "name" for where the customer name is used, I believe it is the "hostname" of the IP address - so I appologize for the title.

Here is an example of \wWhat they are doing, without telling customers. Let's say the customer has a static IP address of 267.123.234.221 The hostname from a simple internet search shows the following: Lfe-static-JoeEPublic.dmts.ISPname.net (replace the part in red with the customers name).

I found this out while administering a website and when I was looking at a post I had made it showed my actual name under the "user details" aspect of the software where it had information about the user such as IP and hostname as well.

I was totally appauled when I saw this and didn't know what to think so I dug in and looked a little closer. I did a search for IP hostnames on a seperate ISP 3000 miles away and it gave the same results, showing my name in the publicly available hostname! I was outraged because I had no idea that this was being done. It is like going to sites with a name badge on. Luckily I don't go to sites that I would have been embarassed about but I'm sure there are some that might.

This is SUPER IMPORTANT for the customer to know because they could be posting on sites about personal medical conditions or whatever. Whether or not it is legal or ethical for the ISP to do this isn't really as important as whether or not they tell the customer it is happening. I feel it shouldnt be legal for them to do this and definitely not ethical and definately not ethical not to inform the customer.

I don't want to use the service any more but I have little options. The company says that it isn't really an issue, not a big deal, and they can't change it because the "system" (computer) generates the names and they don't do it on purpose. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? They say it isn't their fault because it is done by an automated system that THEY operate and program!?

What do you guys think about this?
 
I think you need to go configure a reverse DNS for your IP with your ISP, sounds like they're just using a generic for you and their generic ones use the customer/business name.
 
I think you need to go configure a reverse DNS for your IP with your ISP, sounds like they're just using a generic for you and their generic ones use the customer/business name.

I'm not sure what that is going to accomplish as this hostname is resolved by the ISP DNS not on my end. I asked them if I could change it and they said it could only be done on their end. It's funny, your explination is similar to what they said but it doesn't change the fact that they are using private information publicly, by no choice of the customer and the customer can't change it on their end.
 
Your name is not private information. This is no different than being listed in the white pages and your name showing up on caller ID's. The ISP has assigned a unique hostname to your modem/gateway, it just happens to include your name.

What you've asked them is if they could change their DNS records to remove your name, the script reader on the phone can only see that the DNS system is automated and can't connect the dots that the automated DNS system uses the hostname of your modem/gateway. Call them up and see if they'll change the hostname of your modem/gateway... or log into the modem/gateway's admin page and see if you can do it.
 
Your name is not private information. This is no different than being listed in the white pages and your name showing up on caller ID's. The ISP has assigned a unique hostname to your modem/gateway, it just happens to include your name.

What you've asked them is if they could change their DNS records to remove your name, the script reader on the phone can only see that the DNS system is automated and can't connect the dots that the automated DNS system uses the hostname of your modem/gateway. Call them up and see if they'll change the hostname of your modem/gateway... or log into the modem/gateway's admin page and see if you can do it.


It is different than white pages and caller ID as in bothcases, you KNOW that that is going to be used as an identifier and a call is TOTALLY different than how web services operate in many ways. There is a reason people have private phone numbers, unlisted numbers etc. This is more like having your name written underneath your license plate.

I find it difficult to believe that many of the people and companies who are on my subnet are OK with having their names publicly listed as such. I've seen police departments, fire departments, hospitals, Dr's offices, banks and tons of private individuals. With less than 25 keystrokes I was able to get a list of all 254 people on the subnet. If a hacker had a desire to do such, it would make things a lot easier.

Excuses that "it's automated" or anything don't absolve them of their neglegence in properly protecting their customers security. Whether or not they can change it makes no difference if the customer doesn't know it needs to be changed.

Maybe a certain political candidate is having problems because a search was done and it said lpte-POLITICAL_CANDIDATE_NAME_SERVER.home2.ispname.net - If the candidate had been told that their name would be made public, do you think they would try to have this changed or take some other measures?
 
If you have a static IP issued by your ISP, then you should be able to change your reverse DNS entry to whatever you want/need it to be. The thing is, they're responsible for the reverse DNS entries for that IP block. If they don't have a way to update it using their tools under your account, then get on the phone and tell them what you want your reverse DNS entry to be.
 
While I don't agree with the ISP's practice, it is unlikely anyone here on the [H] can do anything about it.

If you really want something done, your going to need to do more than complain on the [H] about it. Contact your local newspaper and show a reporter what's happening. Invoke scenarios where customers who assume or trust that they have a certain level of privacy or anonymity are in fact being betrayed by the ISP.

If enough of the ISP's customers in that area see the story and agree with you, then the ISP will have to decide how many complaints to endure until they decide to change their system or allow customers to have the PTR records changed.
 
1) name-n-shame the isp
2) if there is no better provider in your area, use a VPN permanently (you can manually split tunnel routes for latency sensitive things like games)
 
At the very least, can you change your "name" as provided to your ISP to some fictitious name that has nothing to do with you? I doubt that they will care what your "name" is as long as you pay them every month.
 
If you have a static IP issued by your ISP, then you should be able to change your reverse DNS entry to whatever you want/need it to be. The thing is, they're responsible for the reverse DNS entries for that IP block. If they don't have a way to update it using their tools under your account, then get on the phone and tell them what you want your reverse DNS entry to be.

While I don't agree with the ISP's practice, it is unlikely anyone here on the [H] can do anything about it.

If you really want something done, your going to need to do more than complain on the [H] about it. Contact your local newspaper and show a reporter what's happening. Invoke scenarios where customers who assume or trust that they have a certain level of privacy or anonymity are in fact being betrayed by the ISP.

If enough of the ISP's customers in that area see the story and agree with you, then the ISP will have to decide how many complaints to endure until they decide to change their system or allow customers to have the PTR records changed.

1) name-n-shame the isp
2) if there is no better provider in your area, use a VPN permanently (you can manually split tunnel routes for latency sensitive things like games)

At the very least, can you change your "name" as provided to your ISP to some fictitious name that has nothing to do with you? I doubt that they will care what your "name" is as long as you pay them every month.

I appreciate all the replies. The point of the post was to gauge the feelings of others who are internet users to see how they feel about something like this. As one guy said "it's no different than the white pages and caller ID" - well, yes it is, VERY much different and I'm not going to be the person to educate him on how or why. A statement like that seems to either come from lack of critical thinking, an uninspired (dare I say "lazy") response, or has reason to protect the current methodology.

I wasn't necessarily trying to get things to change from this post alone, but was hoping to hear if this seemed unusual, unethical, a breach of privacy, etc. I'm interested in pursuing this legally but I do not know what kind of attorney to speak to about this, nor where/how to find one that will be "good". I have a very large list of other customers who are probably totally unaware their info is publicly displayed on the admin side of some websites (so website admins see the name of the person browsing). 60,000+ people and probably the same or 2x as many businesses could be very interested.

I considered taking this to a news paper but all of them have large advertising space for this company as well as local TV stations. If I were to report this what's to say they don't hand over the info to the company so they can clean up their act?
I guess it is good that I generated lists (massive IP blocks) on 5 different occasions from my web server, encrypted them and sent them to numerous email accounts, drop box, Gdrive and torrent seed boxes. I didn't know of any other way to prove creation date of the files but if they had been on the server since their receipt/upload date, they had to be created before then. (if anyone knows of ways to securely digitally "timestamp" a file, I'm very interested in hearing)

I was also thinking about an organization like the A-see-el-you but after something they just pulled in my state I'm looking at them a little differently now. Does anyone know of any org's that advocate for online privacy or anything in that field? I found these: https://privacycoalition.org/ and https://epic.org/ but and not sure if either would be helpful.
 
I would say it's unusual as most ISPs reverse IP lookups are defaulted to the ISP's name in some form or fashion and not using the customer's name.

I'm not a lawyer, but you need to be very careful how and what you do with the information you've collected.It is one thing to have a handful of reverse lookups, but if you've collected a large swath of their IP space via PTR lookups then they could claim that you have an intent to do harm to the company or at the very least you've somehow violated their terms of service agreement.

In the end you need to judge what you feel is necessary, but you should also be ready for any repercussions if you mishandle the situation.
 
i wonder what genius network architect thought it would be a good idea to put the customers name in rDNS

i would say it's probably some guy tired of dealing with subpeona's from OPs government, but... who am i kidding... governments don't need those anymore
 
  • Like
Reactions: rma
like this
I'm not a lawyer, but you need to be very careful how and what you do with the information you've collected.It is one thing to have a handful of reverse lookups, but if you've collected a large swath of their IP space via PTR lookups then they could claim that you have an intent to do harm to the company or at the very least you've somehow violated their terms of service agreement.

Bullshit, websites like robtex, scans.io etc etc etc etc etc (there are a lot...) use automation to collect this stuff and more (basically any service port that responds) all day every day from the whole damn IPv4 space.

Name and shame the isp locally, especially if they are a limited provider. You don't have use your name to get local media to notice this, just someone with a clue. None of the big isps do this.
 
Bullshit, websites like robtex, scans.io etc etc etc etc etc (there are a lot...) use automation to collect this stuff and more (basically any service port that responds) all day every day from the whole damn IPv4 space.

But robtex and scans.io are not customers of the ISP. If the ISP wised to do so they could lodge complaints against robtex and scans.io hosting companies or upstream providers. Hell some of those companies even offer the ability to opt out.

The OP is a customer of the ISP so my opinion stands that at the very least the ISP may have a claim the OP violated their vaguely written terms of service agreement.
 
This is about as much ado about nothing as I've ever seen. When you lease an IP block the default behaviour of ARIN is to list your contact info. I just checked each of the 4 /26 blocks in use in my lab and assigned to me and in all counts my address, email and phone number are there. I should also add that at least 2 of the 4 blocks have been in my name for over 15 years, the other 2 maybe half that time, and the world hasn't ended. If your embarrassed by your surfing habits then perhaps you should change them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: klank
like this
But robtex and scans.io are not customers of the ISP. If the ISP wised to do so they could lodge complaints against robtex and scans.io hosting companies or upstream providers. Hell some of those companies even offer the ability to opt out.

The OP is a customer of the ISP so my opinion stands that at the very least the ISP may have a claim the OP violated their vaguely written terms of service agreement.

well I guess this could be an issue had the searches actually been run from the ISP's network. all tests were run from an external ISP on an external web hosting service - running the search commands to make sure that the info wasn't only available wihtin network of the ISP.
 
Where I used to live the smaller ISPs would use your last name for your RDNS, another one would use your last name for your SSID unless you provided them with another name. More than anything, it is a way for them to correlate equipment to you, when troubleshooting. I am guessing you don't name your PC the default windows-assigned name, you want to name it something to indicate or remind what it is.
 
Im confused why would them cleaning up their act if you went to the media be a bad thing?
Isn't that exactly what you want?

btw I would be ticked off if I found out my isp was doing this also.
 
I remember back in the dialup days my ISP used to do this - use the PC netbios name as part of the internet hostname, I thought it was interesting since it basically gave me a somewhat customizable static host name without needing to use any of those dyndns type services. But that was before routers were really a thing. Isin't this client using a router? I would find out where the ISP's systems are getting that name from, and if it's the router, then just rename it to something generic like "dlink".

I would also recommend some kind of VPN service/Tor setup if the client often posts sensitive info as there are al sorts of prying eyes on your internet traffic these days. NSA, Facebook, etc.
 
Back
Top