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by LambdaComplex 1133 days ago
Martian traffic is a common term among network engineers (or at least among the ones who work at/with ISPs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_packet
1 comments

Yeah, but I think that WP page is wrong.

It relies on the page Reserved_IP_addresses, implying that a martian is a packet with a source address within certain ranges. In fact a martian is a packet with a source address for which the receiving interface isn't configured; any address could be a martian, depending on how the interface is set up.

Hey, if I'm wrong, please set me straight.

Looking at RFC1812, Martian packets [1] seems to be reserved addresses only.

What you're talking about is referred to as source address validation [2] also known as strict reverse path forwarding (RPF) [3].

[1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1812#section-5.3.7

[2] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1812#section-5.3.8

[3] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3704#section-2.2