IPv6 transition opens a wide scope for potential cyber attacks, research says

A paper published by researchers at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and the Tallinn University of Technology reveals that Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) transition opens a wide scope for potential cyber attacks. The research shows that tunnel-based IPv6 transition mechanisms could allow the set-up of communications channels over an IPv4-only or dual-stack network, while evading detection by a network intrusion detection system (NIDS). According to the authors, current NIDS solutions have serious drawbacks for handling IPv6 traffic, and IPv6 and various evasion techniques pose a difficult task for network security monitoring. They also note that the tendency of use of IPv6 in attack campaigns conducted by sophisticated malicious actors is going to increase, and calls for security solution developers and implementers to focus more on IPv6 security aspects