Arguing against using public IP space

Tue Nov 15 00:35:30 UTC 2011

William Herrin wrote:
> If your machine is addressed with a globally routable IP, a trivial
> failure of your security apparatus leaves your machine addressable
> from any other host in the entire world which wishes to send it

Isn't that the case with IPv6? That the IP is addressable from any host 
in the entire (IPv6) world? And isn't that considered a good thing?

I don't think that being addressable from anywhere is a security hole in 
and of itself. It's how you implement and (mis)configure your firewall 
and related things that is the (potential) security hole. Whether the IP 
is world addressable or not

> with all your stuff. Yet when you forget to throw the deadbolt, it
> does stop an intruder from simply turning the knob and wandering in.

Personally I prefer car analogies when it comes to explaining (complex) 
computer matters. ;-)

Greetings,
Jeroen

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