OpenBSD pf Firewall Patch Proposes Making af-to IPv4/IPv6 Translation Less Magical
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Summary
The article discusses a proposed patch for OpenBSD's pf firewall to make the af-to option less 'magical' and more explicit. The af-to option handles IPv4 to IPv6 address family translation, but has been considered awkward by some developers. David Gwynne is proposing changes to make the functionality more transparent and less reliant on implicit behavior, continuing OpenBSD's tradition of making complex networking features more understandable and maintainable.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledSeasoned networkers will know to tell you that legacy IPv4 and modern IPv6 are, in fact, not directly compatible, and shipping traffic between IPv4 and IPv6 networks requires address family translation.
On our favorite operating system and its siblings, that special case has been handled via the af-to option and special case rules since back in the OpenBSD 5.1 days.
But that special case has always felt a bit awkward to some, and now David Gwynne (dlg@) is airing a patch on tech@ with a view to making af-to less magical.
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