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3. Security Considerations

The IPv6 addressing document does not have any direct impact on Internet infrastructure security. Authentication of IPv6 packets is defined in [AUTH].

While the IPv6 addressing architecture itself does not directly introduce security vulnerabilities, the following should be noted when implementing and deploying IPv6:

  1. Address Scanning: IPv6's vast address space (/64 subnets have 2^64 addresses) makes traditional address scanning attacks impractical.

  2. Privacy Considerations: Interface identifiers generated from MAC addresses may leak device information. Privacy extensions (see [RFC3041]) are recommended.

  3. Address Validation: Implementations should validate IPv6 address formats and ranges to prevent issues caused by maliciously crafted addresses.

  4. Multicast Security: The use of multicast addresses should be subject to appropriate access controls to prevent unauthorized multicast traffic.

Related security mechanisms are referenced in:

  • RFC 2402 (IP Authentication Header)
  • RFC 4301 (Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol)
  • RFC 3041 (Privacy Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration)
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