[LINK] Google-Cloud IP addressing

[David Lochrin]

I've been doing a little amateur covid-19 epidemiology for a few months now.  While tracking down some reliable statistics on the number of active caes recently, I came across two otherwise unrelated websites with the same IP address: 23.236.62.147, namely <covidaustralia.com> and <covid19data.com.au>.  (<covidlive.com.au is also a good site, and all three seem very reputable.)

APNIC reveals the large chunk of IP4 address space which includes the above address is allocated to Google-Cloud: 23.236.48.0 - 23.236.63.255.  So instead of keying either symbolic URL into the browser I plugged in the numeric address, with this curious response from wix.com:
	Hey,
	We Know What You're Trying To Do :)
	But We Actually Need You To Type In The Website URL
 
Wix.com also has a separate address space 185.230.63.0 - 185.230.63.255 with contact details in Israel.

I presume Google-Cloud has sub-allocated a space containing 23.236.62.147 to wix.com, and wix.com is even sharing that specific address between <covidaustralia.com>, <covid19data.com.au>, and no doubt others by parsing DNS lookups.

I know I'm retired and rapidly becoming out of touch, but if true, that scheme doesn't sound to me like a good idea.  The world's domestic and SME routers rely on masquerading for security, and that assumes each IP address corresponds one system or organisation.  It also allows Google to immediately identify traffic for it's own universe of users and possibly expedite it.

Do Linkers have a more informed view?  Is hacking the DNS like that allowed by the relevant RFCs?

David Lochrin