nanog mailing list archives

Re: NIST IPv6 document


From: Jeff Kell <jeff-kell () utc edu>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:22:46 -0500

On 1/10/2011 6:55 PM, Owen DeLong wrote:
Nonetheless, NAT remains an opaque screen door at best.

If the bad guy is behind the door, it helps hide him.

If the bad guy is outside the door, the time it takes for his knife to cut through it is so small as to be 
meaningless.

For a "server" expected to be open to anyone, anywhere, anytime... yes. 
Otherwise no.

NAT overload (many to 1), and 1-to-1 NAT with some timeout value both
serve to disconnect the potential targets from the network, absent any
static NAT or port mapping (for "servers").

RFC-1918 behind NAT insures this (notwithstanding pivot attacks).

It is a decreasing risk, given the typical user initiated compromise of
today (click here to infect your computer), but a non-zero one.

The whole IPv6 / no-NAT philosophy of "always connected and always
directly addressable" eliminates this layer.

Jeff





Current thread: