The Effect of P2P-Based Worm Propagation in an IPv6 Internet

It is commonly believed that the IPv6 provides greater security against worms by its huge address space. We show that a P2P-based worm can exploit the P2P services to spread in the IPv6 Internet. The P2P-based worm applies a two-phase scanning mechanism to find targets. The behavior of such a worm in this paper is modeled. We explore via analysis and simulation the spread of such worms in an IPv6 Internet. Our results indicate that such a worm can exhibit propagation speeds comparable to an IPv4 random-scanning worm. We develop a detailed analytical model that reveals the relationship between network parameters and the spreading rate of the worm in an IPv6 world. It is also noted that the P2P-based worm may influence the propagation of the worm in the Internet.