Operational Implications of IPv6 Packets with Extension Headers
draft-ietf-v6ops-ipv6-ehs-packet-drops-03
IPv6 Operations Working Group (v6ops) F. Gont
Internet-Draft SI6 Networks
Intended status: Informational N. Hilliard
Expires: July 6, 2021 INEX
G. Doering
SpaceNet AG
W. Kumari
Google
G. Huston
APNIC
W. Liu
Huawei Technologies
January 2, 2021
Operational Implications of IPv6 Packets with Extension Headers
draft-ietf-v6ops-ipv6-ehs-packet-drops-03
Abstract
This document summarizes the operational implications of IPv6
extension headers specified in the IPv6 protocol specification
(RFC8200), and attempts to analyze reasons why packets with IPv6
extension headers are often dropped in the public Internet.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on July 6, 2021.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Gont, et al. Expires July 6, 2021 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft IPv6 Extension Headers January 2021
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Background Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Previous Work on IPv6 Extension Headers . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Packet Forwarding Engine Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. Recirculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Requirement to Process Layer-3/layer-4 information in
Intermediate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. ECMP and Hash-based Load-Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.2. Enforcing infrastructure ACLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.3. DDoS Management and Customer Requests for Filtering . . . 9
6.4. Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention . . . . . . . 10
6.5. Firewalling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. Operational Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.1. Inability to Find Layer-4 Information . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.2. Route-Processor Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.3. Inability to Perform Fine-grained Filtering . . . . . . . 12
7.4. Security Concerns Associated with IPv6 Extension Headers 12
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Introduction
IPv6 Extension Headers (EHs) allow for the extension of the IPv6
protocol, and provide support for core functionality such as IPv6
fragmentation. However, common implementation limitations suggest
that EHs present a challenge for IPv6 packet routing equipment and
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