ATTENTION: always take care that you only scan your own systems or after receiving a written order, otherwise legal issues are able to come up to you. CHECK destination IPv6 addresses TWICE before starting a scan.

With the IPv6-enabled netcat (see IPv6+Linux-status-apps/security-auditing for more) you can run a portscan by wrapping a script around which run through a port range, grab banners and so on. Usage example:

# nc6 ::1 daytime
13 JUL 2002 11:22:22 CEST

NMap, one of the best portscaner around the world, supports IPv6 since version 3.10ALPHA1. Usage example:

# nmap -6 -sT ::1
Starting nmap V. 3.10ALPHA3 ( www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) 
Interesting ports on localhost6 (::1): 
(The 1600 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed) 
Port       State       Service 
22/tcp     open        ssh 
53/tcp     open        domain 
515/tcp    open        printer 
2401/tcp   open        cvspserver
Nmap run completed -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.525 seconds

Strobe is a (compared to NMap) more a low budget portscanner, but there is an IPv6-enabling patch available (see IPv6+Linux-status-apps/security-auditing for more). Usage example:

# ./strobe ::1 strobe 1.05 (c) 1995-1999 Julian Assange <proff@iq.org>.
::1 2401 unassigned unknown
::1 22 ssh Secure Shell - RSA encrypted rsh 
::1 515 printer spooler (lpd)
::1 6010 unassigned unknown 
::1 53 domain Domain Name Server

Note: strobe isn't really developed further on, the shown version number isn't the right one.

There are some IPv6 enabled online tools available which can support in testing inbound firewall configuration:

If the result of an audit mismatch your IPv6 security policy, use IPv6 firewalling to close the holes, e.g. using netfilter6 (see Firewalling/Netfilter6 for more).

Info: More detailed information concerning IPv6 Security can be found here: