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i have an embedded system with an Ethernet interface that needs to accept external packets with IP of 127.x.x.xx. is there a way to force Linux to accept external packets with this loop back address and to treat the packets as "normal" IP packets? also, is there a way to force Linux to send out ping packets when the interface has an IP of 127.x.x.x?

thank you in advance.

mark
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  • It is not clear what you mean with "accept" (accept on IP layer or accept for TCP/UDP connections). It might also be helpful to show the actual use case where you have this problem. – Steffen Ullrich Jan 05 '15 at 06:20
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    Your are probably barking up the wrong tree. Please clarify your use case. – Xavier Lucas Jan 05 '15 at 14:25
  • hi, sorry for not being clear. when external packet is an arp packe with source ip of 127.x.x.x, kernel drops the packet, not forwarding it up to tcp/ip stack. i traced arp.c inside kernel source and do see that kernel doesn't push the packet up the stack. i understand that this isn't a valid setup but it's an embeded system and my system is required to process all packets. wondering if there's a rule that can force kernel not to drop arp packets with ip of 127.x.x.x thank you.. – mark Jan 05 '15 at 21:04
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    @mark From RFC 1812 : * Internal host loopback address. Addresses of this form MUST NOT appear outside a host.* – Xavier Lucas Jan 05 '15 at 22:36

2 Answers2

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Linux has a weak host model and the network stack doesn't really care which interface an TCP/IP packet arrives on. If it is for a configured IP-address it will be accepted.

That does not take into account ARP, firewall rules and routing.

HBruijn
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  • hi Hbrujin, i noticed that the kernel doesn't route arp packet with 127.x.x.x. kerel will discard packet. is there a rule that will make kernel route arp packet with ip of 127.x.x.x? thank you. – mark Jan 05 '15 at 21:00
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From RFC 1812 :

(e) { 127, }

     Internal host loopback address.  Addresses of this form MUST
     NOT appear outside a host.

The kernel uses net.ipv4.conf.<interface>.route_localnet to make 127.0.0.0/8 routable or not (actually consider source/destination IP addresses of this kind as martian packets or not).

I completely disencourage you to to play with this, you MUST rethink your setup.

Community
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Xavier Lucas
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  • hi xavier, unforutnately, the packets that are coming into my interface is out of my control and i can not change the ip....these packets come from another embeded system...even though this is discoraged, if you have a solution, please let me know. thank you in advance. – mark Jan 06 '15 at 04:04