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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Yes, of course. But saying trite things like that doesn't get around the idea that giving out a map of the internal network by default isn't the best policy.
So instead we open up a bunch of other issues.
With CGNAT, governments still spy on individual addresses when they want. Since those individual addresses now cover a whole bunch of people, they effectively spy on large groups, most of whom have nothing to do with whatever they're investigating. At least with IPv6, it'd be targetted.
NAT obscurity comes at a cost. Its gain is so little that even a small cost eliminates its benefit.
Governments are not anyone's issue other than other governments. If your threat model is state actors, you're SOL either way.
Making it harder for everyone else is the goal, and to do that you need a swiss cheese model. Hopefully all the holes don't line up between the layers to make it that much harder to get through. You aren't plugging all the holes, but every layer you put on makes it a little bit harder.
And NAT is not just simple to set up, it's the intuitive base for the last 30 years of firewalls. I don't see where you get a cost from it. As I said, separating network spaces with it comes naturally at this point. Maybe that'll change, but I remember using routable IPV4 when it was it the norm, and moving to NAT made that all feel way more natural.
That's a silly way to look at it. Governments can be spying on a block of people at once, or just the one person they actually care about. One is clearly preferable.
Again, the obscurity benefit of NAT is so small that literally any cost outweighs it.
We forced decisions into a more centralized, less private Internet for reasons that can be traced directly to NAT.
If you want to hide your hosts, just block non-established, non-related incoming connections at your firewall. NAT does not help anything besides extending IPv4's life.