IPv6 Router Advertisement guard (RA guard)

IPv6 Router Advertisement guard (IPv6 RA guard) allows you to configure policies that filter out IPv6 RA messages that may be incorrectly or maliciously configured. IPv6 RA messages entering a subinterface where an IPv6 RA guard policy is applied can be accepted or discarded based on match criteria specified in the policy.

IPv6 RA guard is supported on Layer 2 and Layer 3 subinterfaces, which allows unwanted RA messages to be discarded as close to the network edge or server connection as possible. The IPv6 RA guard feature can be configured on 7220 IXR-D1, D2, and D3 systems only.

On IRB interfaces, an IPv6 RA guard policy can be applied to the Layer 2 subinterface, but not on the IRB subinterface.

Ingress ACLs are applied before IPv6 RA guard policies, which may cause RA messages to be discarded before they can be evaluated by an IPv6 RA guard policy

Note:

Ingress ACLs are applied before IPv6 RA guard policies, which may cause RA messages to be discarded before they can be evaluated by an IPv6 RA guard policy

The following can be used as match criteria in an IPv6 RA guard policy:

  • Advertised IPv6 prefix set

  • Source IPv6 address list or prefix set

  • RA hop-count limit

  • Router preference value

  • Managed configuration flag (M-flag) setting

  • Other configuration flag (O-flag) setting

An IPv6 RA guard policy can have an action of accept or discard. When an IPv6 RA guard policy is applied to a subinterface, the default action for the subinterface is the opposite of the action specified in the policy. If the policy action is accept, then IPv6 RA packets that do not match the policy are discarded; if the policy action is discard, IPv6 RA packets that do not match the policy are accepted.

To configure IPv6 RA guard, you specify match criteria and an action in an IPv6 RA guard policy, then apply the policy to a subinterface. If an IPv6 RA guard policy is not applied to a subinterface, then IPv6 RA guard is disabled on that subinterface.

Note:

Depending on your configuration, it may be more efficient to block IPv6 RA messages on a subinterface using an ACL entry and action, instead of configuring an IPv6 RA guard policy.

Configuring IPv6 RA guard policies

To configure an IPv6 RA guard policy, specify one or more match criteria and an action of either accept or discard.

Configure an IPv6 RA guard policy with accept action

The following example configures an IPv6 RA guard policy with an advertised IPv6 prefix set and source IPv6 prefix set as match criteria, and accept as the action.

To be considered a match, all advertised prefixes in the RA message must match the IPv6 prefix set, and the source address of the RA message must match the source IPv6 address prefix set.

--{ * candidate shared default }--[  ]--
# info system ra-guard-policy
    system {
        ra-guard-policy rag1 {
            action accept
            advertise-prefix-set 2001:db8:0:b::/64
            source-prefix-set 2001:1::192:168:11:1/126
        }
    }

Configure an IPv6 RA guard policy with discard action

The following example configures an IPv6 RA guard policy with no match criteria and action of discard. This policy blocks all RA messages on subinterfaces where it is applied.

--{ * candidate shared default }--[  ]--
# info system ra-guard-policy
    system {
        ra-guard-policy "Discard all" {
            action discard
        }
    }

Applying IPv6 RA guard policies to subinterfaces

To activate IPv6 RA guard, apply an IPv6 RA guard policy to a subinterface.

Apply an IPv6 RA guard policy to a subinterface

The following example applies an IPv6 RA guard policy to a subinterface. This policy (configured in the previous example) causes all IPv6 RA messages received on the subinterface to be discarded.

--{ * candidate shared default }--[  ]--
# info interface ethernet-1/4 subinterface 2 ra-guard
    interface ethernet-1/4 {
        subinterface 2 {
            ra-guard {
                policy "Discard all"
            }
        }
    }

If the subinterface has VLANs configured, you can specify a list of VLANs to which the IPv6 RA guard policy applies. If a VLAN list is specified, the IPv6 RA guard policy applies only to those VLANs, not to any others configured on the subinterface. If VLAN list is not specified, the policy applies to all VLANs on the subinterface.

Specify a VLAN list with the IPv6 RA guard policy

On a default bridged subinterface, where the vlan encap single-tagged vlan-id any setting is configured, a VLAN list must be specified with the IPv6 RA guard policy. For example:

--{ * candidate shared default }--[  ]--
# info interface ethernet-1/4 subinterface 2
    interface ethernet-1/4 {
        subinterface 2 {
            admin-state enable
            type bridged
            vlan {
                encap {
                    single-tagged {
                        vlan-id any
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            ra-guard {
                policy rag1
                vlan-list 10 {
                }
            }
        }
    }