I am working on a change in a Java EE application that would authenticate based on the user's IP address using ServletRequest.getRemoteAddr. We store IP address ranges (FROM_IP and TO_IP) in a database and the system would authenticate only if a user's IP address falls in a range.
Now, testers have pointed out that digit 0 (zero) should not be allowed in FROM_IP and TO_IP values (in any place). Note that this is an Internet facing application, and so we will get only public IP addresses.
Are testers right in suggesting that validation? Why can't we have zero in the range value such as in 167.23.0.1 - 167.23.255.255?