IPv6style
A barrier to the propagation of IPv6
Increasingly, security-related crimes and troubles have been appearing in the news as the number of Internet users increases. In the past, many security software products for consumers only dealt with viruses. However, features such as firewalls, which protect against Internet worms, and anti-spyware, which prevents the theft of personal information, are becoming standard these days.
Since IPv6 connection services were used primarily for research and development at companies and universities in the past, the issue of security did not receive much attention. However, IPv6 is gradually propagating also in consumer services, e.g. IPv6-based IP-TV multi-casting services. Also, it is said that major Internet service providers will soon start IPv6 connection services for consumers, so security software for consumers is becoming a necessity.
In reality, however, the number of software products that support IPv6, not just security products, is still limited, and it is also hard to find information about which software supports it.
Since we heard that the firewall included with Virus Buster 2006 supports IPv6, we tested it.
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Virus Buster 2006 main menu
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Personal firewall rules configuration screen. There are only IPv4-related options.
I installed Virus Buster 2006 on Windows XP SP2. At this point, only the IPv4 stack is enabled. The IPv6 stack is disabled. Keeping that configuration, I took a look at the personal firewall configuration menu and found no IPv6-related menus.
So, I installed the official Microsoft IPv6 stack, which comes with Windows XP SP1 and above by default, from the Windows XP network connection configuration screen. Although IPv6 is officially supported on Windows XP, starting from SP1, since it is disabled by default, you need to install the IPv6 stack manually.
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Installing the IPv6 stack from the Windows XP network connection screen
When I looked at the personal firewall configuration menu again, I could see that it automatically recognized that the IPv6 stack was enabled and that IPv6-related options had been added. The configuration options let you specify things in detail, such as individual addresses or a range of addresses for IPv6 and IPv4, and these features are sufficient for consumer level software.
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IPv6-related options appear in the personal firewall rules configuration screen
According to Trend Micro, there have been no confirmed worms targeting IPv6 addresses, however, they will probably appear as IPv6 becomes widely used in the future.
I imagine that IPv6 networks will undoubtedly propagate in the future and average users will probably be using networks without knowing if they are IPv4 or IPv6. Hence, security related software need to be IPv6-ready ahead of time.
Note:
Virus Buster 2006’s English version is called PC-cillin Internet Security 2006.
Related information:
Press releases
English:
http://www.trendmicro.com/en/about/
news/pr/archive/2005/pr103105b.htm
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