Echo Request message.  It may be passed to processes that did not
   originate the Echo Request message.

5. Security Considerations

5.1 Authentication and Encryption of ICMP messages

   ICMP protocol packet exchanges can be authenticated using the IP
   Authentication Header [IPv6-AUTH].  A node SHOULD include an
   Authentication Header when sending ICMP messages if a security
   association for use with the IP Authentication Header exists for the
   destination address.  The security associations may have been created
   through manual configuration or through the operation of some key
   management protocol.

   Received Authentication Headers in ICMP packets MUST be verified for
   correctness and packets with incorrect authentication MUST be ignored
   and discarded.

   It SHOULD be possible for the system administrator to configure a
   node to ignore any ICMP messages that are not authenticated using
   either the Authentication Header or Encapsulating Security Payload.
   Such a switch SHOULD default to allowing unauthenticated messages.







 
RFC 2463                 ICMPv6 (ICMP for IPv6)            December 1998


   Confidentiality issues are addressed by the IP Security Architecture
   and the IP Encapsulating Security Payload documents [IPv6-SA, IPv6-
   ESP].

5.2 ICMP Attacks

   ICMP messages may be subject to various attacks.  A complete
   discussion can be found in the IP Security Architecture [IPv6-SA].  A
   brief discussion of such attacks and their prevention is as follows:

   1. ICMP messages may be subject to actions intended to cause the
      receiver believe the message came from a different source than the
      message originator.  The protection against this attack can be
      achieved by applying the IPv6 Authentication mechanism [IPv6-Auth]
      to the ICMP message.

   2. ICMP messages may be subject to actions intended to cause the
      message or the reply to it go to a destination different than the
      message originator's intention.  The ICMP checksum calculation
      provides a protection mechanism against changes by a malicious
      interceptor in the destination and source address of the IP packet
      carrying that message, provided the ICMP checksum field is
      protected against change by authentication [IPv6-Auth] or
      encryption [IPv6-ESP] of the ICMP message.

   3. ICMP messages may be subject to changes in the message fields, or
      payload.  The authentication [IPv6-Auth] or encryption [IPv6-ESP]
      of the ICMP message is a protection against such actions.

   4. ICMP messages may be used as attempts to perform denial of service
      attacks by sending back to back erroneous IP packets.  An
      implementation that correctly followed section 2.4, paragraph (f)
      of this specifications, would be protected by the ICMP error rate
      limiting mechanism.

6. References

   [IPv6]       Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version
                6, (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.

   [IPv6-ADDR]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
                Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998.

   [IPv6-DISC]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E. and W. Simpson, "Neighbor
                Discovery for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December
                1998.






 
RFC 2463                 ICMPv6 (ICMP for IPv6)            December 1998


   [RFC-792]    Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
                RFC 792, September 1981.

   [RFC-1122]   Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
                Communication Layers", STD 5, RFC 1122, August 1989.

   [PMTU]       McCann, J., Deering, S. and J. Mogul, "Path MTU
                Discovery for IP version 6", RFC 1981, August 1996.

   [RFC-2119]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate