Security threats for IPv6 transition strategies: A review

There is a growing perception among communications experts that IPv6 and its associated protocols is set to soon replace the current IP version. This is somewhat interesting given that general adoption of IPv6 has been slow. Perhaps this can be explained by the short-term fixes to IPv4 address including classless addressing and NAT. Because of these short-term solutions in addition that IPv4 is not capable to manage the growth of information systems, particularly the growth of internet technologies and services including cloud computing, mobile IP, IP telephony, and IP-capable mobile telephony, all of which necessitate the use of IPv6. There is however a realization that the transformation must be gradual and properly guided and managed. To this end, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was formed to assist in the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 Dual Stack, Header Translation and Tunneling. The mechanisms employed in this transition consist of changes to protocol mechanisms affecting hosts and routers, addressing and deployment, that are designed to avoid mishap and facilitate a smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Given the inevitability of adopting IPv6, this paper focuses on a detailed examination of the transition techniques and its associated benefits and possible shortcomings. Furthermore, the security threats for each transition technique are overviewed.