A Martian packet is an IP packet which specifies a source or destination address that is reserved for special-use by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and cannot actually originate as claimed or be delivered.
Martian packets commonly arise from IP address spoofing in denial-of-service attacks, but can also arise from network equipment malfunction or misconfiguration of a host.
The name is derived from packet from Mars, a place where packets clearly can not originate.
Famous quotes containing the word packet:
“The captain was a duck
With a packet on his back,
And when the ship began to move
The captain said, Quack! Quack!”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. I saw a ship a-sailing (l. 13–16)