IPv6 Security

IPv6 Security

Protection measures for the next Internet Protocol

As the world’s networks migrate to the IPv6 protocol, networking professionals need a clearer understanding of the security risks, threats, and challenges this transition presents. In IPv6 Security, two of the world’s leading Internet security practitioners review each potential security issue introduced by IPv6 networking and present today’s best solutions.

IPv6 Security offers guidance for avoiding security problems prior to widespread IPv6 deployment. The book covers every component of today’s networks, identifying specific security deficiencies that occur within IPv6 environments and demonstrating how to combat them.

The authors describe best practices for identifying and resolving weaknesses as you maintain a dual stack network. Then they describe the security mechanisms you need to implement as you migrate to an IPv6-only network. The authors survey the techniques hackers might use to try to breach your network, such as IPv6 network reconnaissance, address spoofing, traffic interception, denial of service, and tunnel injection.

The authors also turn to Cisco® products and protection mechanisms. You learn how to use Cisco IOS® and ASA firewalls and ACLs to selectively filter IPv6 traffic. You also learn about securing hosts with Cisco Security Agent 6.0 and about securing a network with IOS routers and switches. Multiple examples are explained for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris hosts. The authors offer detailed examples that are consistent with today’s best practices and easy to adapt to virtually any IPv6 environment.

Scott Hogg, CCIE® No. 5133, is Director of Advanced Technology Services at Global Technology Resources, Inc. (GTRI). He is responsible for setting the company’s technical direction and helping it create service offerings for emerging technologies such as IPv6. He is the Chair of the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force.

Eric Vyncke, Cisco Distinguished System Engineer, consults on security issues throughout Europe. He has 20 years’ experience in security and teaches security seminars as a guest professor at universities throughout Belgium. He also participates in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and has helped several organizations deploy IPv6 securely.

• Understand why IPv6 is already a latent threat in your IPv4-only network
• Plan ahead to avoid IPv6 security problems before widespread deployment
• Identify known areas of weakness in IPv6 security and the current state of attack tools and hacker skills
• Understand each high-level approach to securing IPv6 and learn when to use each
• Protect service provider networks, perimeters, LANs, and host/server connections
• Harden IPv6 network devices against attack
• Utilize IPsec in IPv6 environments
• Secure mobile IPv6 networks
• Secure transition mechanisms in use during the migration from IPv4 to IPv6
• Monitor IPv6 security
• Understand the security implications of the IPv6 protocol, including issues related to ICMPv6 and the IPv6 header structure
• Protect your network against large-scale threats by using perimeter filtering techniques and service provider–focused security practices
• Understand the vulnerabilities that exist on IPv6 access networks and learn solutions for mitigating each

This security book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks.

Category: Networking: Security

Covers: IPv6 Security

Related Article

Why IT Pros Need to Learn About IPv6 Security Now: An Interview with Scott Hogg and Eric Vyncke

Online Sample Chapter

IPv6 Internet Security for Your Network

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 3 and Index)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction to IPv6 Security

Reintroduction to IPv6 3

IPv6 Update 6

IPv6 Vulnerabilities 7

Hacker Experience 8

IPv6 Security Mitigation Techniques 9

Summary

Recommended Readings and Resources

Chapter 2 IPv6 Protocol Security Vulnerabilities

The IPv6 Protocol Header

ICMPv6

ICMPv6 Functions and Message Types

ICMPv6 Attacks and Mitigation Techniques

Multicast Security

Extension Header Threats

Extension Header Overview

Extension Header Vulnerabilities

Hop-by-Hop Options Header and Destination Options Header

IPv6 Extension Header Fuzzing

Router Alert Attack

Routing Headers

RH0 Attack

Preventing RH0 Attacks

Additional Router Header Attack Mitigation Techniques

Fragmentation Header

Overview of Packet Fragmentation Issues

Fragmentation Attacks

Preventing Fragmentation Attacks

Virtual Fragment Reassembly

Unknown Option Headers

Upper-Layer Headers

Reconnaissance on IPv6 Networks

Scanning and Assessing the Target

Registry Checking

Automated Reconnaissance

Speeding Up the Scanning Process

Leveraging Multicast for Reconnaissance

Automated Reconnaissance Tools

Sniffing to Find Nodes

Neighbor Cache

Node Information Queries

Protecting Against Reconnaissance Attacks

Layer 3 and Layer 4 Spoofing

Summary

References

Chapter 3 IPv6 Internet Security

Large-Scale Internet Threats

Packet Flooding

Internet Worms

Worm Propagation

Speeding Worm Propagation in IPv6

Current IPv6 Worms

Preventing IPv6 Worms

Distributed Denial of Service and Botnets

DDoS on IPv6 Networks

Attack Filtering

Attacker Traceback

Black Holes and Dark Nets

Ingress/Egress Filtering

Filtering IPv6 Traffic

Filtering on Allocated Addresses

Bogon Filtering

Bogon Filtering Challenges and Automation

Securing BGP Sessions

Explicitly Configured BGP Peers

Using BGP Session Shared Secrets

Leveraging an IPsec Tunnel

Using Loopback Addresses on BGP Peers

Controlling the Time-to-Live (TTL) on BGP Packets

Filtering on the Peering Interface

Using Link-Local Peering

Link-Local Addresses and the BGP Next-Hop Address

Drawbacks of Using Link-Local Addresses

Preventing Long AS Paths

Limiting the Number of Prefixes Received

Preventing BGP Updates Containing Private AS Numbers

Maximizing BGP Peer Availability

Disabling Route-Flap Dampening

Disabling Fast External Fallover

Enabling Graceful Restart and Route Refresh or Soft Reconfiguration

BGP Connection Resets

Logging BGP Neighbor Activity

Securing IGP

Extreme Measures for Securing Communications Between BGP Peers

IPv6 over MPLS Security

Using Static IPv6 over IPv4 Tunnels Between PE Routers

Using 6PE

Using 6VPE to Create IPv6-Aware VRFs

Customer Premises Equipment

Prefix Delegation Threats

SLAAC

DHCPv6

Multihoming Issues

Summary

References

Chapter 4 IPv6 Perimeter Security

IPv6 Firewalls

Filtering IPv6 Unallocated Addresses

Additional Filtering Considerations

Firewalls and IPv6 Headers

Inspecting Tunneled Traffic

Layer 2 Firewalls

Firewalls Generate ICMP Unreachables

Logging and Performance

Firewalls and NAT

Cisco IOS Router ACLs

Implicit IPv6 ACL Rules

Internet ACL Example

IPv6 Reflexive ACLs

Cisco IOS Firewall

Configuring IOS Firewall

IOS Firewall Example

IOS Firewall Port-to-Application Mapping for IPv6

Cisco PIX/ASA/FWSM Firewalls

Configuring Firewall Interfaces

Management Access

Configuring Routes

Security Policy Configuration

Object Group Policy Configuration

Fragmentation Protection

Checking Traffic Statistics

Neighbor Discovery Protocol Protections

Summary

References

Chapter 5 Local Network Security

Why Layer 2 Is Important

ICMPv6 Layer 2 Vulnerabilities for IPv6

Stateless Address Autoconfiguration Issues

Neighbor Discovery Issues

Duplicate Address Detection Issues

Redirect Issues

ICMPv6 Protocol Protection

Secure Neighbor Discovery

Implementing CGA Addresses in Cisco IOS

Understanding the Challenges with SEND

Network Detection of ICMPv6 Attacks

Detecting Rogue RA Messages

Detecting NDP Attacks

Network Mitigation Against ICMPv6 Attacks

Rafixd

Reducing the Target Scope

IETF Work

Extending IPv4 Switch Security to IPv6

Privacy Extension Addresses for the Better and the Worse

DHCPv6 Threats and Mitigation

Threats Against DHCPv6

Mitigating DHCPv6 Attacks

Mitigating the Starvation Attack

Mitigating the DoS Attack

Mitigating the Scanning

Mitigating the Rogue DHCPv6 Server

Point-to-Point Link

Endpoint Security

Summary

References

Chapter 6 Hardening IPv6 Network Devices

Threats Against Network Devices

Cisco IOS Versions

Disabling Unnecessary Network Services

Interface Hardening

Limiting Router Access

Physical Access Security

Securing Console Access

Securing Passwords

VTY Port Access Controls

AAA for Routers

HTTP Access

IPv6 Device Management

Loopback and Null Interfaces

Management Interfaces

Securing SNMP Communications

Threats Against Interior Routing Protocol

RIPng Security

EIGRPv6 Security

IS-IS Security

OSPF Version 3 Security

First-Hop Redundancy Protocol Security

Neighbor Unreachability Detection

HSRPv6

GLBPv6

Controlling Resources

Infrastructure ACLs

Receive ACLs

Control Plane Policing

QoS Threats

Summary

References

Chapter 7 Server and Host Security

IPv6 Host Security

Host Processing of ICMPv6

Services Listening on Ports

Microsoft Windows

Linux

BSD

Sun Solaris

Checking the Neighbor Cache

Microsoft Windows

Linux

BSD

Sun Solaris

Detecting Unwanted Tunnels

Microsoft Windows

Linux

BSD

Sun Solaris

IPv6 Forwarding

Microsoft Windows

Linux

BSD

Sun Solaris

Address Selection Issues

Microsoft Windows

Linux

BSD

Sun Solaris

Host Firewalls

Microsoft Windows Firewall

Linux Firewalls

BSD Firewalls

OpenBSD Packet Filter

ipfirewall

IPFilter

Sun Solaris

Securing Hosts with Cisco Security Agent 6.0

Summary

References

Chapter 8 IPsec and SSL Virtual Private Networks

IP Security with IPv6

IPsec Extension Headers

IPsec Modes of Operation

Internet Key Exchange (IKE)

IKE Version 2

IPsec with Network Address Translation

IPv6 and IPsec

Host-to-Host IPsec

Site-to-Site IPsec Configuration

IPv6 IPsec over IPv4 Example

Configuring IPv6 IPsec over IPv4

Verifying the IPsec State

Adding Some Extra Security

Dynamic Crypto Maps for Multiple Sites

IPv6 IPsec Example

Configuring IPsec over IPv6

Checking the IPsec Status

Dynamic Multipoint VPN

Configuring DMVPN for IPv6

Verifying the DMVPN at the Hub

Verifying the DMVPN at the Spoke

Remote Access with IPsec

SSL VPNs

Summary

References

Chapter 9 Security for IPv6 Mobility

Mobile IPv6 Operation

MIPv6 Messages

Indirect Mode

Home Agent Address Determination

Direct Mode

Threats Linked to MIPv6

Protecting the Mobile Device Software

Rogue Home Agent

Mobile Media Security

Man-in-the-Middle Threats

Connection Interception

Spoofing MN-to-CN Bindings

DoS Attacks

Using IPsec with MIPv6

Filtering for MIPv6

Filters at the CN

Filters at the MN/Foreign Link

Filters at the HA

Other IPv6 Mobility Protocols

Additional IETF Mobile IPv6 Protocols

Network Mobility (NEMO)

IEEE .16e

Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Summary

References

Chapter 10 Securing the Transition Mechanisms

Understanding IPv4-to-IPv6 Transition Techniques

Dual-Stack

Tunnels

Configured Tunnels

6to4 Tunnels

ISATAP Tunnels

Teredo Tunnels

6VPE

Protocol Translation

Implementing Dual-Stack Security

Exploiting Dual-Stack Environment

Protecting Dual-Stack Hosts

Hacking the Tunnels

Securing Static Tunnels

Securing Dynamic Tunnels

6to4

ISATAP

Teredo

Securing 6VPE

Attacking NAT-PT

IPv6 Latent Threats Against IPv4 Networks

Summary

References

Chapter 11 Security Monitoring

Managing and Monitoring IPv6 Networks

Router Interface Performance

Device Performance Monitoring

SNMP MIBs for Managing IPv6 Networks

IPv6-Capable SNMP Management Tools

NetFlow Analysis

Router Syslog Messages

Benefits of Accurate Time

Managing IPv6 Tunnels

Using Forensics

Using Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems

Cisco IPS Version 6.1

Testing the IPS Signatures

Managing Security Information with CS-MARS

Managing the Security Configuration

Summary

References

Chapter 12 IPv6 Security Conclusions

Comparing IPv4 and IPv6 Security

Similarities Between IPv4 and IPv6

Differences Between IPv4 and IPv6

Changing Security Perimeter

Creating an IPv6 Security Policy

Network Perimeter

Extension Headers

LAN Threats

Host and Device Hardening

Transition Mechanisms

IPsec

Security Management

On the Horizon

Consolidated List of Recommendations

Summary

References

1587055945 TOC 11/25/2008

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