Security Implications of Network Address Translation on Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems

Network address translation (NAT) is a technology that allows multiple computers on a LAN to share a single public IP address for accessing the Internet. Without it, the IPv4 protocol's limited number of available addresses would be pushed to its limits. However, NAT poses a big problem for security and especially for networks protected by intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS). The paper underlines the NAT's implications on IDS and IPS and proposes a solution that includes the NAT technique in this security infrastructure.