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Windows PCs can be compromised by an IPv6 flaw
AN INSECURITY RESEARCHER has revealed that IPv6 can enable 'man in the middle attacks' on Windows PCs.
Alec Waters of the Infosec Institute showed off a proof of concept attack that targeted Windows 7 systems, but said it could apply in theory to any operating system with IPv6 installed and operational.
The attack physically needs rogue hardware, a router that's connected to the victim's IPv4 network that will act as a sort of network parasite. The router will have two interfaces, with the one facing the victim IPv6-capable and the one facing the Internet IPv4-capable.
The systems at risk will use the newer IPv6 protocol rather than the older IPv4 protocol. This means that in an IPv4 based network, traffic will flow through the rogue router instead of legitimate routers. It is called a Stateless Address Auto Configuration (SLAAC) attack, named after the process it is taking advantage of.
Waters said, "We have successfully awakened the victim's latent desire to use IPv6 in preference to IPv4. We've not needed any passwords, hacks or brute force. All we had to do was nudge the victim in the right direction."
He added, "The most effective defence is simply to disable IPv6 on all capable hosts if there's no business reason to use it." µ
Tags: Security
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This is not a new issue with IPv6. If you have two DHCP servers on a network giving out addresses then the first one to respond is used. So setup a rouge device which gets a real local IP address from the original DHCP server. Then start a dhcp server giving out some addresses, set it to also be a DNS server and gateway. For any client that it responds first it will be the DNS server and can redirect/intercept any traffic its interested in. Anything else it can just pass to the real network.
If someone has physical access then it is very hard to prevent mischief if they REALLY know what they are doing.
Protocols like SSH and SSL assume that the internet is insecure, but protocols like SMB, NFS and IMAP most certainly do not. These are mostly used on internal networks, which are obvious targets for such an attack.
It should not require much in the way of imagination to figure out what the consequences of hackers having unfettered access to corporate file shares and e-mail would be. That is, if you have any imagination at all...
A simple piece of malware running on a PC in the same network will do the trick. So, all you REALLY need is a suitable OS exploit and someone stupid enough to open attachments without looking at them. Those people can still be found in abundance, so no worries there.
I think we will be seeing a LOT more of this.
You're right, no need to worry about being compromised in your ivory tower.
Who cares if routers are “insecure”? End-to-end protocols like SSH and SSL already assume the whole Internet is insecure. And they work just fine over both IPv6 and IPv4.
So what’s the big bloody deal?
Its hard enough weaning lusers off of their beloved IPv4 as it is. This certainly isnt going to help.
You have to larf.
from what i've gathered so far it looks more like a networking issue not necessarily OS issue