Initial results from an IPv6 darknet

A darknet is an advertised and routed portion of Internet address space that contains no advertised services. Any traffic observed on a darknet is therefore illegitimate and darknets are useful tools for observing the level of background 'noise ' on a larger network. Darknets have been used in existing IPv4 networks to help to identify malicious traffic, malware trends, or the consequences of misconfiguration. We have created what may be the world's first IPv6 darknet to help us observe the 'noise' present on the IPv6 Internet and to see how this differs from the IPv4 Internet. Initial results suggest that the level of undirected malicious software active on the IPv6 Internet is currently minimal and there is no apparent undirected port-scanning activity. We suspect this is partially a (predicted) consequence of the larger IPv6 address space and also an indication of the immaturity of the IPv6 Internet at the present time.