Microsoft warned customers this Tuesday to patch a critical TCP/IP remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability with an increased likelihood of exploitation that impacts all Windows systems using IPv6, which is enabled by default.
- If your ISP doesn’t do IPv6, then you’re fine (But should look for a better ISP)
- If your ISP does do IPv6, then you should install the patch now (Unless you’re not using IPv6 on the LAN, in which case you’re fine but get a better router/sysadmin)
- If your ISP does do IPv6, but you can’t install the patch for whatever reason, only then should you disable IPv6
The problem is people recommend disabling IPv6 for random unrelated reasons (Like gamers claiming it decreases your IPv4 latency), so yeah MS is going to be insistent that users not fiddle with things they don’t understand because it’s really unlikely they’ll go back and restore that config when it doesn’t actually help.
The problem is that IPV6 is only half implemented at best. Do you know how many software vendors have “disable IPV6” in their documentation? Because it’s a lot. I, as a sysadmin, have no control over that. I can’t make these vendors implement IPV6, if they haven’t done it yet they clearly aren’t in a hurry to. I’m not talking about gamers, I’m talking about niche legacy software and internal proprietary programs, older networked hardware (like door systems) often don’t support IPV6. I feel like IPV6 was created because we were running out of IPV4 addresses, and then the world realized we could just NAT everything and stopped caring. I was there Gandalf, I was there 3,000 years ago on 512K day, when the strength of IPV4 failed. Trust me I want nothing more than for IPV6 to work and be universally adopted, but here we are 30 years later
