IPv6 Security (Paperback)

~ (Author), Eric Vyncke (Author)
Key Phrases: destination options, mobile node, home agent, Cisco Press, Securing the Transition Mechanisms, Extension Header Threats (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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

 

 

About the Author

Scott Hogg, CCIE No. 5133, has been a network computing consultant for more than 17 years. Scott provides network engineering, security consulting, and training services, focusing on creating reliable, high-performance, secure, manageable, and cost-effective network solutions. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Colorado. In addition to his CCIE he has his CISSP (No. 4610) and many other vendor and industry certifications. Scott has designed, implemented, and troubleshot networks for many large enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. For the past eight years, Scott has been researching IPv6 technologies. Scott has written several white papers on IPv6 and has given numerous presentations and demonstrations of IPv6 technologies. He is also currently the chair of the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force and the Director of Advanced Technology Services at Global Technology Resources, Inc. (GTRI), a Cisco Gold partner headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

 

Eric Vynckeis a Distinguished System Engineer for Cisco working as a technical consultant for security covering Europe. His main area of expertise for 20 years has been security from Layer 2 to applications. He has helped several organizations deploy IPv6 securely. For the past eight years, Eric has participated in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (he is the author of RFC 3585). Eric is a frequent speaker at security events (notably Cisco Live [formerly Networkers]) and is also a guest professor at Belgian Universities for security seminars. He has a master’s degree in computer science engineering from the University of Liège in Belgium. He worked as a research assistant in the same university before joining Network Research Belgium, where he was the head of R&D; he then joined Siemens as a project manager for security projects including a proxy firewall. He coauthored the Cisco Press book LAN Switch Security: What Hackers Know About Your Switches. He is CISSP No. 75165.

 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Cisco Press; 1 edition (December 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587055945
• ISBN-13: 978-1587055942
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The IPv6 security book the world needs, August 5, 2009

By	Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity.com" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've read and reviewed three other books on IPv6 in the last four years: "IPv6 Essentials, 2nd Ed" (IE2E) in September 2006, "Running IPv6" (RI) in January 2006, and "IPv6 Network Administration" (INA) in August 2005. All three were five-star books, but they lacked the sort of attention to security that I hoped would be covered one day. IPv6 Security by Scott Hogg and Eric Vyncke is the book for which we have been waiting. Although some of the early "philosophical" security discussions (what's a threat, where are they) are lacking, the overwhelming amount of thorough and actionable content makes this book a winner.

IPv6 Security reminded me of Cisco Router Firewall Security (CRFS) by Richard Deal, which I also liked a lot. CRFS was Cisco-specific and helped readers squeeze all the network-level security features they could from their routers. IPv6 Security is similar, but even better because readers receive guidance for Windows, FreeBSD, Fedora, and even Solaris, in addition to Cisco gear. One note on FreeBSD, however: p 42 says "FreeBSD systems are susceptible to RH0 attacks," although FreeBSD issued a fix in April 2007 with Security Advisory FreeBSD-SA-07:03.ipv6.

In addition to offering configuration guidance for a variety of products, IPv6 Security used Scapy6 to demonstrate various IPv6 traffic types. I liked this approach, although a brief appendix explaining Scapy usage would have been appreciated. The book also covered material I had not seen elsewhere, like shim6 for multihoming. I would have liked some examples of IPv6 NetFlow output, as hinted at in Ch 11. Using SCTP with IPv6, also mentioned in the book, would have been helpful and innovative too.

My main issue with IPv6 Security (and it is minor, given this is a five star review) is the inappropriate use of the word "threat" early in the book, and the unnecessary focus on "insider abuse." On p xix the authors say IPv6 is a "threat," and they say threats "exist" in IPv6. IPv6 implementations may introduce vulnerabilities and exposures, but not "threats." On p 8 the authors cite the 2007 CSI/FBI study by saying "59% of all survey respondents suffered from insider abuse of network access." They use that "statistic" to justify saying "the percentage of internal attack sources is likely to be even higher today... The key issue is that most organizations do not spend 50 percent of their security budget on mitigating inside threats." This has nothing to do with IPv6. If it is related to IPv6, reading page 2 of the 2007 CSI/FBI shows that 59% figure means "Insider abuse of network access or e-mail (such as trafficking in pornography or pirated software)". That's hardly the "attack source" the reader should associate with security for IPv4 or IPv6 networks.

Overall, I strongly recommend reading IPv6 Security. There's no other book on the market with the depth of actionable defensive information available.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine guide advanced software engineers need, February 13, 2009

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

College-level and advanced software developer's collections will find important IPv6 Security, a survey of security issues identifying all components of modern networks, identifying specific security deficiencies that occur within the IPv6 environment and showing how to correct them. From preventing network attack to monitoring security and understanding large-scale threats and filtering techniques, this is a fine guide advanced software engineers need.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IPv6 Security at its best explained, January 1, 2009

By	Richard Tucker - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In my quest to learn and transition to IPv6 from IPv4, I learned that you have to have a stable background in learning new materials. IPv6 has been around awhile but now just getting a little more used from many companies and myself. Along with the transition comes concerns with security as IPv4 didn't have much security. With this book [IPv6 Security] the authors took the technology and really explained some very detail and practical aspects of IPv6 with security enhancements. I realyy enjoyed reading this book. The authors did a good job in bringing the IPv6 protocol to the forefront by explaning different parts of the security features like mobile security, running dual stack protocols, IPv6 deployment solutions, address spoofing, and many other network problems. The authors used Cisco products to explain the security mechanisms. they also teach you how to use Cisco IOS® and ASA firewalls and ACLs to filter out IPv6 traffic. This book is one for the ages in describing, explaining, and implementing security in an IPv6 netowrk. Overall the book is great. I gave it a 5 start because of the deep explaining of the IPv6 protocol and security.