Martian Packet

What Does Martian Packet Mean?

A Martian packet is a term for a specific kind of IP-routed data packet that has some suspicious markers. In most cases, the address space used has not yet been allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Techopedia Explains Martian Packet

System administrators and other network professionals are encouraged to mark and observe bogons or Martian packets to look for signs of denial of service attacks or other hacking or network dysfunctionality.

Martian packets get their name because they seem to come from an impossible source. The name may also be related to the term Martian address, which is used to refer to the unroutable addresses often associated with IP spoofing.

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

All Articles by Margaret Rouse