Comment by Dagger2
5 days ago
It keeps getting repeated precisely because it isn't gaslighting. And yet we still see people claiming that NAT is security.
The only reason those networks aren't exposed to the whole Internet on v4 is because they're using RFC1918, not because of NAT -- but that still leaves them exposed to some outside networks, so routers come with firewalls, which act as an actual security boundary.
And they won't be exposed on v6, because those exact same firewalls work their magic on v6 too.
NAT doesn't provide and isn't needed for security. Its main security contribution is to confuse people about how secure their network is.
NAT effectively stops inbound connectivity at the NAT edge. A system could be a dozen hops beyond that and no inbound traffic can reach it.
IPv6 (without any NAT) means that the source and destination are fully routable.
How folks DON'T see this as a functional component of security is beyond me.
I'd expect folks would see the behavior you're describing here as being part of security.
However, NAT in the real world doesn't work the way you're describing here. My position is based on how NAT actually behaves, not on incorrect descriptions of how it behaves.
Or perhaps you could explain how NAT stops inbound connectivity at the NAT edge? I've tested and it doesn't, so I don't think it's possible to explain how it does, but I'm open to being wrong on that if anybody could actually explain it in a way that doesn't contract actual observed behavior.