A Martian packet is an
IP packet
Packet may refer to:
* A small container or pouch
** Packet (container), a small single use container
** Cigarette packet
** Sugar packet
* Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network
* Packet radio, a form ...
seen on the
public Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
that contains a source or destination address that is
reserved for special-use by
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Interne ...
(IANA) as defined in , Appendix B Glossary (Martian Address Filtering). On the public Internet, such a packet either has a
spoofed source address, and it cannot actually originate as claimed, or the packet cannot be delivered.
The requirement to do this is found in , Section 5.3.7 (Martian Address Filtering).
Martian packets commonly arise from
IP address spoofing
In computer networking, IP address spoofing or IP spoofing is the creation of Internet Protocol (IP) packets with a false source IP address, for the purpose of impersonating another computing system.
Background
The basic protocol for sending ...
in
denial-of-service attack
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...
s,
but can also arise from network equipment malfunction or misconfiguration of a
host
A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it.
Host may also refer to:
Places
* Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County
People
*Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman
* Michel Host ...
.
In
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
terminology, a martian packet is an IP packet received by the kernel on a specific interface, while routing tables indicate that the source IP is expected on another interface.
The name is derived from ''packet from Mars'', meaning that packet seems to be not of this Earth.
IPv4 and IPv6
In both
IPv4
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP). It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. IPv4 was the first version de ...
and
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...
, a Martian packet has a source address, a destination address, or both within one of the special-use ranges.
[ Updated by .]
Transition mechanisms
6to4
6to4
6to4 is an Internet transition mechanism for migrating from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to version 6 (IPv6) and a system that allows IPv6 packets to be transmitted over an IPv4 network (generally the IPv4 Internet) without the need to co ...
is an
IPv6 transition technology
An IPv6 transition mechanism is a technology that facilitates the transitioning of the Internet from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) infrastructure in use since 1983 to the successor addressing and routing system of Internet Protocol Vers ...
where the IPv6 address encodes the originating IPv4 address such that every IPv4 has a corresponding, unique IPv6 prefix. Because 6to4 relays use the encoded value for determining the end site of the 6to4 tunnel, 6to4 addresses corresponding to IPv4 martians are not routable and should never appear on the public Internet.
Teredo tunneling
Teredo is another
IPv6 transition technology
An IPv6 transition mechanism is a technology that facilitates the transitioning of the Internet from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) infrastructure in use since 1983 to the successor addressing and routing system of Internet Protocol Vers ...
that encodes the originating IPv4 address in the IPv6 address. However, the
encoding format encodes the Teredo server address and tunnel information before the IPv4 client address. Thus there is no definable set of prefixes more specific than for Teredo packets with martian end-site addresses. It is, however, possible to spoof Teredo packets with the Teredo server IPv4 address set to a martian.
See also
*
Bogon filtering
Bogon filtering is the practice of filtering bogons, which are bogus (fake) IP addresses of a computer network. Bogons include IP packets on the public Internet that contain addresses that are not in any range allocated or delegated by the Intern ...
*
Christmas tree packet
In information technology, a Christmas tree packet is a packet with every single option set for whatever protocol is in use.
Background
The term derives from a fanciful image of each little option bit in a header being represented by a differen ...
*
Broadcast storm
A broadcast storm or broadcast radiation is the accumulation of broadcast and multicast traffic on a computer network. Extreme amounts of broadcast traffic constitute a "broadcast storm". It can consume sufficient network resources so as to render ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martian Packet
Packets (information technology)
Denial-of-service attacks
IP addresses