Secure network addresses

A computer-implemented method of verifying a network address for a network, wherein the method is performed by an address verifier and comprises:

• obtaining a candidate network address, a target public key, a candidate modifier value, a candidate signature, and a candidate collision count value, wherein the candidate network address comprises a subnet prefix and an interface identifier;
• verifying the candidate signature using the target public key;
• generating a candidate interface identifier based on a hash value, wherein the hash value is generated based on a hash of at least the candidate modifier value, the subnet prefix, a candidate collision count value and the target public key;
• and
• verifying that the candidate interface identifier corresponds to the interface identifier.

A computer program product embodied on non-transitory computer-readable storage media and configured so as, when run on one or more processors, to perform the method of generating a network address for a network, wherein the method is performed by an address generator and comprises:

• generating an interface identifier, wherein the interface identifier is based on a hash value, wherein the hash value is based on a hash of at least a modifier value, a subnet prefix, a collision count value and a public key;
• generating the network address by combining the subnet prefix and the interface identifier;
• and
• generating a signature by signing the network address with a private key, wherein the private key used to generate the signature corresponds to the public key.