Enhance IPv6 dynamic host configuration with cryptographically generated addresses

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6) enables dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) servers to provide configuration parameters to client hosts via IPv6 connections. Security becomes a very important issue. This paper analyses the security issues of the IPv6 DHCP. It then proposes a security solution using the Cryptographically Generated Address (CGA) along with DHCPv6 interaction. It also discusses some further extensions to this mechanism and the security issue for downgrade attacks. Finally it draws conclusions based on the studies and identifies the directions for the future work. © 2011 IEEE