IPv6 OS Fingerprinting Methods

Abstract

IPv6 is the new communication protocol which will eventually replace IPv4 is suffering from different security issues. As an initial step to understand IPv6 networks and their vulnerabilities it is of critical importance to identify the characteristics of the connected devices. Detecting the OS fingerprints of these devices is one of these characteristics that are essential to identifying the vulnerabilities of each of them. Currently, few OS detection methods have supported IPv6 protocol, as it did not fully replace IPv4 yet. This paper attempts to describe the existing methods of OS fingerprinting with IPv6, as well as their challenges and limitations. Moreover, this paper studies the available datasets that might be used for IPv6 OS fingerprinting. By understanding the existing methods and datasets, the reader can figure out the current needs for proposing new OS fingerprinting methods for IPv6 protocol.