Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Down After "Epic" Configuration Error Outage

by WarriorForum.com Administrator
12 replies
This won't exactly be news, but a new article on Search Engine Journal reveals how Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram fered that DNS related outage, which was described as "epic" and a "nightmare."



As most people will already know, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsAPP and Oculus VR went down early on October 4, 2021, and the outage continued through the afternoon. It's been determined from multiple sources that the outage is likely due to a major misconfiguration that knocked the sites completely off the Internet in what has been described as an epic and nightmare scenario.

Earlier on Monday, Facebook began slowing down and completely stopped, with browsers unable to resolve the domain. The problem happened across other Facebook owned sites as well. The configuration errors that caused Facebook to go offline appear to have done more than just take it offline, it essentially made Facebook disappear from the Internet.

It turns out the problem may have been due to the configuration of Facebook's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing. The BGP routing protocol is a service that calculates the most efficient path to reach a website through the multiple autonomous systems/networks that form the Internet.

Basically, when a browser asks for Facebook.com the domain name is translated by the DNS system to an Internet Protocol address (IP address) to a series of numbers that is an address. That IP address number is the address of the content on Facebook's servers. The browser makes the request and the BGP routing system calculates the fastest series of network hops to reach that content on Facebook's servers.

According to reports on Twitter, the BGP routes to Facebook have been dropped from the Internet. The CTO of Cloudflare tweeted that five minutes before the Facebook DNS stopped working, they noticed a large number of BGP route withdrawals. Cyber Security Expert Kevin Beaumont called it an "epic configuration error."
#“epic” #configuration #error #facebook #instagram #outage #whatsapp
  • Profile picture of the author bikashdaily
    I didn't found any such issues with browsing any of the social networking sites.
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  • That makes a lot of sense. Facebook kept logging me out yesterday. And I couldn't login to any other websites that used Facebook to login.
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  • Profile picture of the author Profit Traveler
    Banned
    I have a feeling since there was Congressional hearing from a FB whistleblower the day before there was an emergency meeting on... possible sabotage, and a story that would pass the smell test....which it did not for me.

    That kind of timing?

    Of course they would do damage control if an employee did it or an outsider did it. Just my 2.
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    • Profile picture of the author WF- Enzo
      Administrator
      Quite a coincidence, innit?



      Originally Posted by Profit Traveler View Post

      I have a feeling since there was Congressional hearing from a FB whistleblower the day before there was an emergency meeting on... possible sabotage, and a story that would pass the smell test....which it did not for me.

      That kind of timing?

      Of course they would do damage control if an employee did it or an outsider did it. Just my 2.
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  • Profile picture of the author Awais_Afzal1
    I saw in the news someone was selling Facebook data on some website for $5000 Pretty weird.
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesMill
    Fascinating.
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  • Could this be a case of "Free Guy"? LOL.
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    • Profile picture of the author WF- Enzo
      Administrator
      Free Guy? Who?

      Originally Posted by Charlyne Masongsong View Post

      Could this be a case of "Free Guy"? LOL.
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  • Profile picture of the author doanqthang
    Facebook recently has met many serious problems. I don't know if it is good or bad news.
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  • Profile picture of the author BerniceDonna
    I have not received any information from Whatsapp.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Check date - this thread is from October
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    Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
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    Sometimes I just want someone to hug me and say...
    "It's going to be OK - here's a horse and two million dollars."
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