Header Manipulation and Fragmentation
IPv6 is susceptible to fragmentation and other header manipulation attacks. With these types of attacks, the attacker uses fragmentation to evade network intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and firewalls.
An attacker can also use out-of-order fragments to try to avoid an IDS/IPS device that is deployed to detect attacks based on the enabled signatures on the system. RFC 2460 prohibits fragmentation of IPv6 packets by intermediary network devices.
As is the case with IPv4, you should always deny IPv6 fragments destined to an internetworking device whenever possible. On the other hand, you should test this in the lab and make sure that this does not cause problems with specific applications in your particular network environment.
The combination of multiple extension headers and fragmentation in IPv6 creates the potential that the Layer 4 protocol will not be included in the first packet of a fragment set. Make sure that your IDS/IPS system or any other security monitoring device accounts for this possibility and reassembles fragments. Today, Cisco IPS/IDS devices support multiple extension headers and fragmentation.
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