[network] Fix IPAddress::str_to() to lowercase IPv6 hex digits (#13325)

esphome/components/network/ip_address.h

@@ -43,6 +43,14 @@ namespace network {
 /// Buffer size for IP address string (IPv6 max: 39 chars + null)
 static constexpr size_t IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE = 40;
 
+/// Lowercase hex digits in IP address string (A-F -> a-f for IPv6 per RFC 5952)
+inline void lowercase_ip_str(char *buf) {
+  for (char *p = buf; *p; ++p) {
+    if (*p >= 'A' && *p <= 'F')
+      *p += 32;
+  }
+}
+
 struct IPAddress {
  public:
 #ifdef USE_HOST
@@ -52,10 +60,15 @@ struct IPAddress {
   }
   IPAddress(const std::string &in_address) { inet_aton(in_address.c_str(), &ip_addr_); }
   IPAddress(const ip_addr_t *other_ip) { ip_addr_ = *other_ip; }
-  std::string str() const { return str_lower_case(inet_ntoa(ip_addr_)); }
+  std::string str() const {
+    char buf[IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE];
+    this->str_to(buf);
+    return buf;
+  }
   /// Write IP address to buffer. Buffer must be at least IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE bytes.
   char *str_to(char *buf) const {
-    return const_cast<char *>(inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ip_addr_, buf, IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE));
+    inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ip_addr_, buf, IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE);
+    return buf;  // IPv4 only, no hex letters to lowercase
   }
 #else
   IPAddress() { ip_addr_set_zero(&ip_addr_); }
@@ -134,9 +147,18 @@ struct IPAddress {
   bool is_ip4() const { return IP_IS_V4(&ip_addr_); }
   bool is_ip6() const { return IP_IS_V6(&ip_addr_); }
   bool is_multicast() const { return ip_addr_ismulticast(&ip_addr_); }
-  std::string str() const { return str_lower_case(ipaddr_ntoa(&ip_addr_)); }
+  std::string str() const {
+    char buf[IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE];
+    this->str_to(buf);
+    return buf;
+  }
   /// Write IP address to buffer. Buffer must be at least IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE bytes.
-  char *str_to(char *buf) const { return ipaddr_ntoa_r(&ip_addr_, buf, IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE); }
+  /// Output is lowercased per RFC 5952 (IPv6 hex digits a-f).
+  char *str_to(char *buf) const {
+    ipaddr_ntoa_r(&ip_addr_, buf, IP_ADDRESS_BUFFER_SIZE);
+    lowercase_ip_str(buf);
+    return buf;
+  }
   bool operator==(const IPAddress &other) const { return ip_addr_cmp(&ip_addr_, &other.ip_addr_); }
   bool operator!=(const IPAddress &other) const { return !ip_addr_cmp(&ip_addr_, &other.ip_addr_); }
   IPAddress &operator+=(uint8_t increase) {