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c#ip-addresssubnet

How to check if an IP address is within a particular subnet


I have a subnet in the format 10.132.0.0/20 and an IP address from the ASP.Net request object.

Is there a .NET framework function to check to see if the IP address is within the given subnet?

If not, how can it be done? Bit manipulation, I guess?


Solution

  • Using the answers from Thomas and Chris together with Ciscos Subnetting Examples I finally got something to work for IPv4 and IPv6 if you use the CIDR notation (IPAddress/PrefixLength). My IPv6-Implementation might be a bit too straight forward but as there is no UInt128-datatype I couldn't adapt Thomas's solution. Here is the code that seems to work well:

    public static bool IsInSubnet(this IPAddress address, string subnetMask)
    {
        var slashIdx = subnetMask.IndexOf("/");
        if (slashIdx == -1)
        { // We only handle netmasks in format "IP/PrefixLength".
            throw new NotSupportedException("Only SubNetMasks with a given prefix length are supported.");
        }
    
        // First parse the address of the netmask before the prefix length.
        var maskAddress = IPAddress.Parse(subnetMask.Substring(0, slashIdx));
    
        if (maskAddress.AddressFamily != address.AddressFamily)
        { // We got something like an IPV4-Address for an IPv6-Mask. This is not valid.
            return false;
        }
    
        // Now find out how long the prefix is.
        int maskLength = int.Parse(subnetMask.Substring(slashIdx + 1));
    
        if (maskLength == 0)
        {
            return true;
        }
    
        if (maskLength < 0)
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException("A Subnetmask should not be less than 0.");
        }
    
        if (maskAddress.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
        {
            // Convert the mask address to an unsigned integer.
            var maskAddressBits = BitConverter.ToUInt32(maskAddress.GetAddressBytes().Reverse().ToArray(), 0);
    
            // And convert the IpAddress to an unsigned integer.
            var ipAddressBits = BitConverter.ToUInt32(address.GetAddressBytes().Reverse().ToArray(), 0);
    
            // Get the mask/network address as unsigned integer.
            uint mask = uint.MaxValue << (32 - maskLength);
    
            // https://stackoverflow.com/a/1499284/3085985
            // Bitwise AND mask and MaskAddress, this should be the same as mask and IpAddress
            // as the end of the mask is 0000 which leads to both addresses to end with 0000
            // and to start with the prefix.
            return (maskAddressBits & mask) == (ipAddressBits & mask);
        }
    
        if (maskAddress.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetworkV6)
        {
            // Convert the mask address to a BitArray. Reverse the BitArray to compare the bits of each byte in the right order.
            var maskAddressBits = new BitArray(maskAddress.GetAddressBytes().Reverse().ToArray());
    
            // And convert the IpAddress to a BitArray. Reverse the BitArray to compare the bits of each byte in the right order.
            var ipAddressBits = new BitArray(address.GetAddressBytes().Reverse().ToArray());
            var ipAddressLength = ipAddressBits.Length;
    
            if (maskAddressBits.Length != ipAddressBits.Length)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Length of IP Address and Subnet Mask do not match.");
            }
    
            // Compare the prefix bits.
            for (var i = ipAddressLength - 1; i >= ipAddressLength - maskLength; i--)
            {
                if (ipAddressBits[i] != maskAddressBits[i])
                {
                    return false;
                }
            }
    
            return true;
        }
    
        throw new NotSupportedException("Only InterNetworkV6 or InterNetwork address families are supported.");
    }
    

    And this are the XUnit tests I tested it with:

    public class IpAddressExtensionsTests
    {
        [Theory]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/24", "192.168.5.1")]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/24", "192.168.5.254")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.48")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.49")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.50")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.51")]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/0", "0.0.0.0")]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/0", "255.255.255.255")]
        public void IpV4SubnetMaskMatchesValidIpAddress(string netMask, string ipAddress)
        {
            var ipAddressObj = IPAddress.Parse(ipAddress);
            Assert.True(ipAddressObj.IsInSubnet(netMask));
        }
    
        [Theory]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/24", "192.168.4.254")]
        [InlineData("192.168.5.85/24", "191.168.5.254")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.47")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.240.52")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.128.239.50")]
        [InlineData("10.128.240.50/30", "10.127.240.51")]
        public void IpV4SubnetMaskDoesNotMatchInvalidIpAddress(string netMask, string ipAddress)
        {
            var ipAddressObj = IPAddress.Parse(ipAddress);
            Assert.False(ipAddressObj.IsInSubnet(netMask));
        }
    
        [Theory]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:0001:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFF0")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/128", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:5678::0/53", "2001:0db8:abcd:5000:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:5678::0/53", "2001:0db8:abcd:57ff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/0", "::")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/0", "ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff")]
        public void IpV6SubnetMaskMatchesValidIpAddress(string netMask, string ipAddress)
        {
            var ipAddressObj = IPAddress.Parse(ipAddress);
            Assert.True(ipAddressObj.IsInSubnet(netMask));
        }
    
        [Theory]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0011:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0013:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0013:0001:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0011:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFF0")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/128", "2001:0DB8:ABCD:0012:0000:0000:0000:0001")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:5678::0/53", "2001:0db8:abcd:4999:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        [InlineData("2001:db8:abcd:5678::0/53", "2001:0db8:abcd:5800:0000:0000:0000:0000")]
        public void IpV6SubnetMaskDoesNotMatchInvalidIpAddress(string netMask, string ipAddress)
        {
            var ipAddressObj = IPAddress.Parse(ipAddress);
            Assert.False(ipAddressObj.IsInSubnet(netMask));
        }
    }
    

    As base for the tests I used Ciscos Subnetting Examples and IBMs IPV6 address examples.

    I hope someone finds this helpful ;)