Re: IPv6 Security [Was: Re: misunderstanding scale]

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

On Mar 23, 2014, at 2:45 PM, Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster () mykolab com> wrote:

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> On 3/23/2014 2:27 PM, Timothy Morizot wrote:
>
> > On Mar 23, 2014 11:27 AM, "Paul Ferguson"
> > <fergdawgster () mykolab com <mailto:fergdawgster () mykolab com>>
> > wrote:
> > > Also, IPv6 introduces some serious security concerns, and until
> > > they are properly addressed, they will be a serious barrier to
> > > even considering it.
> >
> > And that is pure FUD. The sorts of security risks with IPv6 are
> > mostly in the same sorts of categories as those with IPv4 and have
> > appropriate mitigations available. Moreover, by not enabling and
> > controlling IPv6 on their networks, an operator is actually
> > markedly more vulnerable to IPv6 attacks, not less.
>
> Only if end-points are unaware of dual-stack capabilities.
>
> Also, neighbor discovery, for example, can be dangerous (admittedly,
> so can ARP spoofing in IPv4). And aside from the spoofable ability of
> ND, robust DHCPv6 is needed for enterprises for sheer operational
> continuity.

DHCPv6 is no less robust in my experience than DHCPv4.

ARP and ND have mostly equivalent issues.

> And that's only a "half" example.
>
> I haven't even mentioned spam management in v6, which will become a
> nightmare if people have been relying on IP BL's or similar.

IP reputation didn’t really scale to IPv4 and was only practical because we were willing to toss out vast swaths of 
hosts just because they were unfortunately behind the same NATed address as some host that did something wrong some 
time.

So far, it’s proven to be the worst possible solution to SPAM except for all the others. Nonetheless, yes, we’re going 
to have to come up with a better way in IPv6.

OTOH, we will also have better end-to-end accountability in IPv6, so that might actually help make new solutions more 
feasible.

Owen