IP Ownership Verification: WHOIS Admin Email Setup Guide

For the i.lease / idolist Resource Management workspace

This guide explains how to configure WHOIS admin contact mailbox information in each RIR system so i.lease can resolve ownership-confirmation recipient email from RDAP and send verification emails successfully.

How i.lease Resolves Recipient Email

1. For supplier-managed offers, i.lease queries RIR RDAP using the prefix IP.
2. i.lease only accepts an email from RDAP entity role administrative / admin.
3. i.lease does not fall back to abuse, technical, noc, or routing roles.
4. If no valid admin email is exposed by RDAP, ownership-confirmation email cannot be sent.

Before You Start

1. Identify the RIR of your target prefix: ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC, or AFRINIC.
2. Prepare a mailbox dedicated for WHOIS admin / ownership verification operations.
3. Make sure mailbox is continuously monitored by your operations or legal team.

RIR Setup Paths and Steps (WHOIS Admin Contact)

1) ARIN

1. Open ARIN Online: https://account.arin.net.
2. Create or update a POC with a valid admin mailbox.
3. Associate this POC as administrative contact on Org ID / network records.
4. Wait for ARIN record propagation, then validate by RDAP.

2) RIPE

1. Open RIPE Database Webupdates: https://apps.db.ripe.net.
2. Create or update admin contact objects (person/role) with valid mailbox.
3. Bind admin contact via admin-c on organisation and/or resource objects (inetnum, inet6num, aut-num).
4. Confirm updated objects are visible, then validate by RDAP.

3) APNIC

1. Open MyAPNIC: https://my.apnic.net.
2. Create or update admin contact records with valid mailbox.
3. Ensure related resources reference the admin contact through proper contact attributes (for example admin-c where applicable).
4. Complete mailbox validation workflow if requested by APNIC.
5. Validate by RDAP.

4) LACNIC

1. Open MiLACNIC: https://milacnic.lacnic.net.
2. Configure and validate administrative contact data with a valid mailbox.
3. If resources are managed through NIR, apply updates via the corresponding NIR workflow.
4. Validate by RDAP.

5) AFRINIC

1. Open MyAFRINIC: https://my.afrinic.net.
2. Update organisation/contact records and ensure administrative contact mailbox is published.
3. If object-level update requires hostmaster handling, submit support request.
4. Validate by RDAP.

RDAP Verification Checklist

1. Query the RDAP endpoint with an IP from the target prefix.
2. Check entities and vcardArray for email fields.
3. Required by i.lease: entity contains role administrative / admin with a valid email.
4. If only abuse or other non-admin roles have email, ownership confirmation will fail.

Common RDAP URLs

• ARIN: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/{ip}
• RIPE: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/ip/{ip}
• APNIC: https://rdap.apnic.net/ip/{ip}
• LACNIC: https://rdap.lacnic.net/rdap/ip/{ip}
• AFRINIC: https://rdap.afrinic.net/rdap/ip/{ip}

How i.lease Confirms Ownership After Email Is Sent

1. Use ownership resend action for the offer if needed.
2. Recipient clicks the confirmation link in email.
3. i.lease checks token hash, expiration time, and confirmation state.
4. When valid, i.lease marks offer as ownership_confirmed=1 and records confirmation timestamp.
5. For supplier-managed flow, offer can continue auto-approval logic after confirmation.

Troubleshooting

1. No valid WHOIS admin email found: RDAP has no administrative/admin mailbox. Update RIR admin contact and retry.
2. Link expired: resend ownership confirmation to generate a new token.
3. Mailbox updated but RDAP still old: wait for registry propagation, then retry.

Operational Recommendation

Maintain one dedicated WHOIS admin mailbox policy per RIR account and review quarterly. This minimizes ownership-confirmation failures and prevents listing delays in supplier-managed onboarding.