> I have a question about a corner case of IPv6 Neighbor Discovery; what
> should a host do if a received RA contains a prefix whose preferred
> lifetime is larger than valid lifetime?

> In terms stateless address autoconfiguration, the specification
> clearly says that such a prefix must be ignored:

>     c) If the preferred lifetime is greater than the valid lifetime,
>        silently ignore the Prefix Information option. A node MAY wish to
>        log a system management error in this case.
> (RFC 2462 Section 5.5.3)

> However, there seems to be no description about the case in RFC 2461.
> This is perhaps intentional, because the preferred lifetime does not
> affect on-link prefix configuration.  So my question is:

> - is RFC 2461 intentionally silent about the case of preferred
>   lifetime > valid lifetime?
> - if so, what should a host do when, for example, it receives a prefix
>   with the L bit being set, the A bit being set, and preferred LT >
>   valid LT?  Should it just regard the prefix as on-link and not
>   configure a corresponding address?
> - or, do I miss something in RFC 2461?

I don't know that it really  matters that much whether one ignores the
on-link determiniation or not in this case. Neither seems particularly
catastrophic. 

Note the follow words in 2461:

   Stateless address autoconfiguration [ADDRCONF] may in some
   circumstances increase the Valid Lifetime of a prefix or ignore it
   completely in order to prevent a particular denial of service attack.
   However, since the effect of the same denial of service targeted at
   the on-link prefix list is not catastrophic (hosts would send packets
   to a default router and receive a redirect rather than sending
   packets directly to a neighbor) the Neighbor Discovery protocol does
   not impose such a check on the prefix lifetime values.

I think similar logic applies to the case you describe.

Thomas
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