Martian Packet

As a martian packet ( German that "data package from Mars ", " a Martian data packet " ) or short martian ( martian, martian ) are called data packets whose source address in the network in which they were observed, is not routable. The name derives from the fact that this data packet (from the perspective of the observer ) may " not from here " originate in other words: There is no indication that the package of this ( our ) world is coming. Is obvious - this train of thought following - the presumption, it came from Mars.

Martian packets can malfunction or incorrect configuration of hosts frequently arise and in regular operation when multiple logical networks on one physical network segment ( collision domain) are operated. They arise also in attacks on the Internet Protocol.

Other definitions see only IP packets with the source address of the test loopback interfaces [ 127.0.0.1 ] as a martian packets.

Example

The IP - networks 192.168.34.0/24 and 10.2.3.0/24 are on the same Ethernet segment. IP packets from 10.2.3.4 provides the host with the IP address 192.168.34.9 as from Mars coming on, vice versa as well.