The invention includes a method and apparatus for detecting a forwarding loop at a network element. The method includes determining whether a received message was previously received by the first network element, and, if the received message was previously received, calculating a current routing digest and determining whether a header of the received message includes a previous routing digest. If the header of the received message includes the previous routing digest, a determination is made as to whether a forwarding loop exists. If the header of the received message does not include the previous routing digest, the current routing digest is inserted into the header of the received message and the message is forwarded toward the second network element. If the received message was not previously received, forwarding the received message toward a second network element.