Summary

As part of the Amazon EC2 detection FNP may make calls to the IP Address 169.254.169.254:80

Synopsis

Starting with FlexNet Publisher (FNP) 11.12 it has been noticed that FNP attempts to communicate with the IP address 169.254.169.254.

Discussion

Statement from Engineering -
The IP address noted (169.254.169.254) is one we attempt to connect to and query as part of our virtualization checks - in this case for Amazon EC2.

However this check had some side effects -
- Checkouts are slower since this check was incorporated
- Some anti virus scanners are reporting the behaviour as suspicious - "Suspicious network activity has been detected.'..... - TCP Port 80 - 169.254.169.254:80'

There is no mechanism to prevent the VM detection functionality from accessing 169.254.169.254:80.
The use of an iptables blocking rule is the best practice approach for a customer to take if they are concerned about accesses to this address.

Workaround

There is no workaround for the first side effect as the detection cannot be disabled.
For the second side effect it should be possible to add the executable to the Virus Scanner Publishers 'Whitelist'