[Term of the Day]: Martian address

Term of the Day

“Martian Address”

Definition — What is a Martian Address?

A Martian address is a source or destination IP address that does not exist, it's an invalid IP address that is non-routable. This type of address is typically created accidentally by misconfigured systems or even it could be a spoofed IP address created by hackers, they can also belong to a pool of reserved IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) addresses. In this context, a Martian address may also be referred to as a bogon. Martian packets were first mentioned in June 1995 in RFC 1812, Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers. Today, most networks filter for Martian addresses. Once an IP address has been found invalid, the address is rejected and Martian packets are dropped.