ICMPV6 Vulnerability

Abstract

Handling Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) vulnerabilities is among the challenges in securing the IPv6 deployment. Since ICMPv6 messages are crucial in IPv6 communications, this paper discusses the discovery of ICMPv6 vulnerabilities by producing a threat model of ICMPv6 vulnerabilities and proposing the use of Selective Filtering ICMPv6 Messages (SF-ICMP6) to handle some of the vulnerabilities. An experiment was conducted to verify the threat model by observing and discussing the usage of ICMPv6 threat model together with SF-ICMP6. The findings showed that the attack derived in the threat model is possible and the countermeasure associated with it is appropriate. As for SF-ICMP6, selectively filtering messages should be enforced because different messages require filtering of different type and code. It is expected that with the use of threat model and SF-ICMP6, maintaining and securing ICMPv6 messages in IPv6 deployment is attainable.