R Eview on Ip V 6 S Ecurity V Ulnerability I Ssues and M Itigation

One of the main purposes of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) developments was to solve the IP address depletion concern due to the burgeoning growth of the Internet users. The new Internet protocol provides end-to-end communication, enhanced security and extensibility apart from the other features such as address auto-configuration or plug-and-play and faster packet processing in the routers. However, as a new technology, it is also reported that the protocol introduces some security vulnerabilities both in the header format and in the other protocols associated to it. This paper reviews IPv6 security vulnerabilities that have large potential exploitation in terms of denial of service attacks. The IPv6 security vulnerabilities are classified under three categories that include the IPv6 main header field, IPv6 extension header and Neighbour Discovery Protocol (NDP). This paper also summarizes the current mitigation methods proposed by researchers and practitioners to secure from these IPv6 security vulnerabilities.