Found in a real uploaded run from the phone: the server held
fda1:3fb1:ff92:6696::2662 for a DNS server. The general IPv6 path keeps the
leading two groups on purpose - for a global address that preserves the ISP
allocation, which is the useful part - but for a ULA that passes through 32 of
the 40 random bits of the global ID.
A ULA looks like the v6 RFC1918 and the instinct is to treat it the same. It is
not analogous, and the difference is the point: an RFC1918 prefix is shared by
millions of networks and identifies none of them, while a ULA global ID is
random and unique to one network by construction (RFC 4193). The prefix IS the
identifier, so it was a network fingerprint surviving redaction.
Pseudonymized as a unit now, so two addresses on one ULA subnet still share a
pseudonymous prefix - "these hosts are on one network" survives, "this is that
network" does not. RFC1918 stays readable, and the contrast is what justifies
it; a test pins both halves.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
