A bit of fun with IPv6 setup

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 09:28:38 +0000

When doing some tests on Suricata, I needed to setup a small IPv6 network. The setup is simple with one laptop which is Ethernet connected to a desktop. And the desktop host a Virtualbox system.
This way, the desktop can act as a router with laptop on eth0 and Vbox on vboxnet0.

To setup the desktop/router, I’ve used:

ip a a 4::1/64 dev eth0
ip a a 2::1/64 dev vboxnet0
echo "1">/proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/forwarding

To setup the laptop who already has a IPv6 public address on eth0, I’ve done:

IPv6 privacy extensions on Linux

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:41:24 +0000

IPv6 global address

The global address is used in IPv6 to communicate with the outside world. This is thus the one that is used as source for any communication and thus in a way identify you on Internet.

Below is a dump of an interface configuration:

eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000

link/ether 00:22:15:64:42:bd brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet6 2a01:f123:1234:5bd0:222:15ff:fe64:42bd/64 scope global dynamic 
   valid_lft 86314sec preferred_lft 86314sec
inet6 fe80::222:15ff:fe64:42bd/64 scope link 
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever</pre>

The global address is here 2a01:f123:1234:5bd0:222:15ff:fe64:42bd/64. It is build by using the prefix and adding an identifier build with the hardware address. For example, here the hardware address is 00:22:15:64:42:bd and the global IPv6 address is ending with 22:15_ff:fe_64:42bd.

IPv6 on To Linux and beyond !

A bit of fun with IPv6 setup

IPv6 privacy extensions on Linux

IPv6 global address