MAP66 (NAT from IPv6 to IPv6, NAT66) for Linux
Sven-Ola
Tücke
Freifunk
06-OCT-2010
These files implement a Linux netfilter target to change the IPv6
address of packets. The address change is done checksum neutral, thus no
checksum re-calculation for the IPv6 packet is necessary. You can change the
IPv6 source address of outgoing packets as well as the IPv6 destination
address of incoming packets. This allows you to map an internal IPv6 address
range to a second, externally used IPv6 address range. IPv6 address mapping
is not very similar to IPv4 network address translation, but one can
describe it as some sort of stateless NAT. The implementation is based on
the expired the IETF discussion paper published here:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mrw-behave-nat66-02
Installation
MAP66 implements two pieces of software: a shared library that
extends the ip6tables command and a Linux kernel module. The shared
library file adds the '-j MAP66' target to the ip6tables command. To build
and install, you need ip6tables installed as well as the necessary
headers. The Linux kernel module requires the Linux source file tree and
Linux configuration files to compile. On a Debian/(EKU)buntu, the
following command prepares the build environment:
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers iptables-dev
Unpack the source tgz archive, change to the directory and issue
"make" to build. If this compiles without errors, install the ip6tables
extension with the following command:
sudo make install
The kernel module (ip6t_MAP66.ko for
Linux-2.6 or ip6t_MAP66.o for Linux-2.4) is not
automatically installed nor loaded into the kernel. You can copy the
kernel module file manually, e.g. with sudo cp ip6t_MAP66.ko
/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/.
DKMS Integration
If the next system update needs to install a new kernel version, you
also need to re-compile/re-install the MAP66 kernel module. With
Debian/(EKU)buntu, this can be automated with the Dynamic Kernel Module
Support Framework (DKMS). For this, the dkms.conf
file is included with the MAP66 source file package. Install DKMS with the
following command:
sudo apt-get install dkms
Move/unpack the MAP66 source files below /usr/src and adapt the
directory name to the version mentioned in the dkms.conf file. For
example, issue mkdir /usr/src/ip6t_MAP66-0.3 and
cp * /usr/src/ip6t_MAP66-0.3/. To register the
MAP66 source to DKMS and compile/install, issue these commands:
sudo dkms add -m ip6t_MAP66 -v 0.3
sudo dkms build -m ip6t_MAP66 -v 0.3
sudo dkms install -m ip6t_MAP66 -v 0.3
Read DKMS details here: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kernel/Dev/DKMSPackaging
Configuration
Brief Version
You always need to add two ip6tables-rules to your netfilter
configuration. One rule matches the outgoing packet and changes the IPv6
source address. The second rule matches the incoming packet and revert
the address change by altering the IPv6 destination address. To
following commands correspond to the Address Mapping
Example
given in the IETF discussion paper:
ip6tables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s FD01:0203:0405::/48 -j MAP66 --to 2001:0DB8:0001::/48
ip6tables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i eth0 -d 2001:0DB8:0001::/48 -j MAP66 --to FD01:0203:0405::/48
This example is also printed to the screen if you issue
ip6tables -j MAP66 --help. By design, you cannot
use an arbitrary prefix length. Only /112, /96 .. /16 are supported.
For each packet, the Linux kernel module also compares the
packet's source address to all IPv6 addresses assigned to the outgoing
interface. It a match is found, the packet's source address is not
mapped. The same comparison happens on the incoming packet's destination
address. The comparison require some CPU resources, especially if the
interface has a large number of assigned IPv6 addresses. If you are
sure, that the mapping cannot match the IPv6 address of the interface
(e.g. the mapping rule defines a mapping prefix that cannot match the
interface address) you can switch off the comparison. Add the
--nocheck parameter to the ip6tables command for
this.
Detailed Version
The following explanation details a living example from the
wireless mesh network that is mentioned under (see below). The mesh
network uses a private IP range, the ULA prefix fdca:ffee:babe::/64. All
mesh nodes derive their IPv6 interface addresses by correlating the ULA
prefix with the EUI48 (MAC address
) of the respective
network adapter.
There is a Debian based virtual machine that should act as one
Internet gateway for the mesh. You can reach this virtual machine's web
service via IPv4 under http://bbb-vpn.freifunk.net.
To experiment with IPv6, a SIXXS static tunnel setup has been
added and there is also an experimental 6-to-4 configuration. The
following /etc/network/interfaces file provides the
configuration for IPv6:
auto sixxs
iface sixxs inet6 v4tunnel
address 2001:4dd0:ff00:2ee::2
netmask 64
local 77.87.48.7
endpoint 78.35.24.124
ttl 64
up ip link set mtu 1280 dev $IFACE
up ip route add default via 2001:4dd0:ff00:2ee::1 dev $IFACE
up ip addr add 2001:4dd0:fe77::1/48 dev $IFACE
#auto tun6to4
iface tun6to4 inet6 v4tunnel
# ipv6calc --quiet --action conv6to4 77.87.48.7
address 2002:4d57:3007::1
netmask 16
local 77.87.48.7
endpoint any
ttl 64
gateway ::192.88.99.1
As you can see, the virtual machine has an IPv6 prefix of
2001:4dd0:fe77::/48 and is reachable via http://[2001:4dd0:fe77::1]/.
For experimental reasons, the 6-to-4 tunnel can be activated by issuing
ifup tun6to4. The netfilter setup of this machine
includes the following command sequence to ensure mapping from the
private fdca:ffee:babe::/64 prefix to the globally valid IPv6
address:
ip6tables -t mangle -F POSTROUTING
ip6tables -t mangle -F PREROUTING
ip6tables -t mangle -F FORWARD
grep -q ^ip6t_MAP66 /proc/modules && rmmod ip6t_MAP66
insmod /usr/src/map66/ip6t_MAP66.ko
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o sixxs -s fdca:ffee:babe::/64 -j MAP66 --to 2001:4dd0:fe77:1::/64 --nocheck
ip6tables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -i sixxs -d 2001:4dd0:fe77:1::/64 -j MAP66 --to fdca:ffee:babe::/64 --nocheck
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o tun6to4 -s fdca:ffee:babe::/64 -j MAP66 --to 2002:4d57:3007:1::/64 --nocheck
ip6tables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -i tun6to4 -d 2002:4d57:3007:1::/64 -j MAP66 --to fdca:ffee:babe::/64 --nocheck
ip6tables -t mangle -A FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu
Because for both IPv6 networks the external prefix length is
smaller than the internal prefix length, we can make sure that the
mapped addresses cannot match the interfaces address. For example:
2001:4dd0:fe77:1::/64 cannot match 2001:4dd0:fe77:0::1/128. For this
reason, we can use the --nocheck speedup flag
here.
You may stumble over the MSS-clamping rule. While IPv6 defines,
that path MTU detection via ICMPv6 must be supported by any host,
sometimes path MTU detection does not work. The SIXXS tunnel uses an MTU
of 1280 byte. To get the following command working, I needed to add the
above MSS-clamping rule on the gateway:
wget --prefer-family=IPv6 -O - http://6to4.nro.net/
The tun6to4 tunnel interface is disabled normally, because of
the implicit 2002::/16 network route configured for that interface.
This network route ensures, that traffic between one 2002::/16 to
another 2002::/16 travels directly between the IPv4 hosts. Without
this network route, any IPv6 traffic will be routed via the 6-to-4
gateways which may not work and place a higher load on those
gateways.
However, if you ping the SIXXS IP address from another host that
has a 6-to-4 address, you will get the answer packet back via 6-to-4.
If the above network mapping is configured, you ping one IPv6 address
and get the answer from another IPv6 address...
Hints (Chapter is To-do)
Note for me: svn propedit svn:ignore.
Note on ubuntu. One needs to enable prefer-family in /etc/wgetrc.
after this e.g. "wget -O /dev/null http://ftp.se.debian.org" should
connect to the IPv6 addrs of that server. Alternative: change presedence
of ULAs in /etc/gai.conf
Idea to think about: --salt 3b5b91c5a2 XOR client addresses for some
more privacy
Motivation
My Internet access at home is realized by a wireless community mesh
network not owned by me. The mesh is operated with small embedded devices
(nodes aka. WLAN routers) that are interconnected via radio links (WLAN
IBSS / AdHoc). Routing is done with a specialized protocol such as Batman
or OLSR. The routing protocol selects the nearest out of a dozen Internet
gateways and configures a default route or an IPIP tunnel accordingly.
Each Internet gateway is connected to a different ISP and provides the
service with the help of IPv4 network address translation (NAT). Using NAT
has the following effects:
Address amplification - something not necessary with IPv6 any
more
Anonymization - nice to have as an option but not mission
critical
ISP independence - no reverse routing, no
"buy-a-number-range"
The last point _is_ mission critical. One can use a provider
independent IPv6 address range, but you need the cooperation of an ISP to
use that address range for Internet connectivity. If you e.g. move to
another ISP you need that address range to be re-routed to your new
location.
ISP independence is also possible with some tunneling technique,
such as VPN or mobile IP. Tunneling can be implemented on client PCs and
Internet gateways/servers one day. But there is no need to implement the
same tunneling technique on every mesh node. Why? Because the mesh nodes
can use private IP addresses (or "ULA") to transport the tunnel data
between the client PC and the gateway/server. Each tunneling technique
typically needs a single instance (the "server") which forms a single
point of failure. Rule-of-thumb1: avoid a SPOF for the infrastructure.
Rule-of-thumb2: KISS.
Using private IP addresses on the mesh nodes has a drawback: mesh
node software updates e.g. via HTTP downloads from an Internet server is
not possible. This is where I start to think: "hey, some kind of address
mapping may be nice to have". While opening Pandora's NAT66 box, I
discovered that IPv6 nerds do not like the acronym. It is always a good
tactic in info wars to rename, hence the name "MAP66".
// Sven-Ola