IPv6 Security: Audit Security

Currently there are no comfortable tools out which are able to check a system over network for IPv6 security issues. Neither Nessus nor any commercial security scanner is as far as I know able to scan IPv6 addresses.

19.3.1. Legal issues

ATTENTION: always take care that you only scan your own systems or after receiving a written order, otherwise legal issues are able to come up to you. CHECK destination IPv6 addresses TWICE before starting a scan.

19.3.2. Security auditing using IPv6-enabled netcat

With the IPv6-enabled netcat (see IPv6+Linux-status-apps/security-auditing for more) you can run a portscan by wrapping a script around which run through a port range, grab banners and so on. Usage example:

# nc6 ::1 daytime
13 JUL 2002 11:22:22 CEST

19.3.3. Security auditing using IPv6-enabled nmap

NMap, one of the best portscaner around the world, supports IPv6 since version 3.10ALPHA1. Usage example:

# nmap -6 -sT ::1

Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-07-11 07:54 WIT
Nmap scan report for ip6-localhost (::1)
Host is up (0.00049s latency).
Not shown: 993 closed ports
PORT    STATE SERVICE
22/tcp  open  ssh
25/tcp  open  smtp
80/tcp  open  http
139/tcp open  netbios-ssn
445/tcp open  microsoft-ds
631/tcp open  ipp
873/tcp open  rsync

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.15 seconds

19.3.4. Security auditing using IPv6-enabled strobe

Strobe is a (compared to NMap) more a low budget portscanner, but there is an IPv6-enabling patch available (see IPv6+Linux-status-apps/security-auditing for more). Usage example:

# ./strobe ::1 strobe 1.05 (c) 1995-1999 Julian Assange <proff@iq.org>.
::1 2401 unassigned unknown
::1 22 ssh Secure Shell - RSA encrypted rsh 
::1 515 printer spooler (lpd)
::1 6010 unassigned unknown 
::1 53 domain Domain Name Server

Note: strobe isn't really developed further on, the shown version number isn't the right one.

19.3.5. Audit results

If the result of an audit mismatch your IPv6 security policy, use IPv6 firewalling to close the holes, e.g. using netfilter6 (see Firewalling/Netfilter6 for more).

Info: More detailed information concerning IPv6 Security can be found here:

   IETF drafts - IPv6 Operations (v6ops)

   RFC 3964 / Security Considerations for 6to4