If you are looking for my IPv6 Reference repository - look here: https://github.com/amwalding/ipv6-ref

IPv6 Extension Header PCAPs

For those who know networking, there are very few opportunities to get your hands on packet capture (pcaps) that have IPv6 Extension Headers. There are a number of reasons for this, and one is that extension headers in IPv6 have always been a security vulnerability. So many service providers do not support transport of IPv6 packets with extension headers.

Initial Tests in 2014 were recorded in RFC 7872 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7872
Geoff Huston has set up a worldwide testing client/server system that tests this worldwide: https://stats.labs.apnic.net/v6frag

What are IPv6 Extension Headers?

Extension headers fit between the IPv6 header and the Layer 4 headers (UDP or TCP)
Note: IPv4 supports this capability, but has never been utilized
IPv6 header is fixed to 40 bytes, so extensions allow features to be added beyond this limit
Extension Headers are part of the Payload
Primarily end-to-end – not processed by intermediate nodes
Extension Headers are designed to make IPv6 extensible to add features we may not even contemplate today.

Are Extension Headers Supported in Limited Domains?

Limited Domains are domains that are
- Managed by a single entity – think a company, a university, perhaps a provider
- A network that is firewalled off the larger network
Enterprise Networks (generally) have been hesitant to deploy IPv6
- Security issues (privacy of extension headers), other “gaps”
- Can extension headers support segment routing, OAM, other features?
- Enterprises need to understand the exact use cases
Some Universities report free flow of Extension Headers inside their networks, but policing at the network edges
Possible use cases:
- Some kind of Traffic Engineering
- Using IPv6 as an underlay network?

I searched and searched and could not find a good source of IPv6 extension header samples. So I have created this repository to try to provide some for researchers/engineers.

Here are a collection of IPv6 Extension Header packet captures for those interested in what they look like in Wireshark.

That said, if you are a researcher like me I hope this little repository helps. You may also want to grab my IPv6 Wireshark Profiles from that repository.

If you want to contribute - please let me know.

You can find more Wireshark related stuff here in Github (like my profiles repository) and here: https://www.cellstream.com/tag/wireshark/ - at my web site. Also, feel free to browse our other IPv6 related articles and information here: https://www.cellstream.com/tag/ipv6/

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