Packet filtering restricts the types of packets that pass through
network interfaces entering or leaving the host based on filter
rules as described in
pf.conf5.
The packet filter can also replace addresses and ports of packets.
Replacing source addresses and ports of outgoing packets is called
NAT (Network Address Translation) and is used to connect an internal
network (usually reserved address space) to an external one (the
Internet) by making all connections to external hosts appear to
come from the gateway.
Replacing destination addresses and ports of incoming packets
is used to redirect connections to different hosts and/or ports.
A combination of both translations, bidirectional NAT, is also
supported.
Translation rules are described in
pf.conf5.
The packet filter does not itself forward packets between interfaces.
Forwarding can be enabled by setting the
sysctl(8)
variables
net.inet.ip.forwarding
and/or
net.inet6.ip6.forwarding
to 1.
Set them permanently in
sysctl.conf5.
- -A
-
Load only the queue rules present in the rule file.
Other rules and options are ignored.
- -a anchor
-
Apply flags
-f
-F
and
-s
only to the rules in the specified
anchor
In addition to the main ruleset,
pfctl
can load and manipulate additional rulesets by name,
called anchors.
The main ruleset is the default anchor.
Anchors are referenced by name and may be nested,
with the various components of the anchor path separated by
`/'
characters, similar to how file system hierarchies are laid out.
The last component of the anchor path is where ruleset operations are
performed.
Evaluation of
anchor
rules from the main ruleset is described in
pf.conf5.
For example, the following will show all filter rules (see the
-s
flag below) inside the anchor
``authpf/smith(1234)''
which would have been created for user
``smith''
by
authpf(8),
PID 1234:
# pfctl -a "authpf/smith(1234)" -s rules
Private tables can also be put inside anchors, either by having table
statements in the
pf.conf5
file that is loaded in the anchor, or by using regular table commands, as in:
# pfctl -a foo/bar -t mytable -T add 1.2.3.4 5.6.7.8
When a rule referring to a table is loaded in an anchor, the rule will use the
private table if one is defined, and then fall back to the table defined in the
main ruleset, if there is one.
This is similar to C rules for variable scope.
It is possible to create distinct tables with the same name in the global
ruleset and in an anchor, but this is often bad design and a warning will be
issued in that case.
By default, recursive inline printing of anchors applies only to unnamed
anchors specified inline in the ruleset.
If the anchor name is terminated with a
`*'
character, the
-s
flag will recursively print all anchors in a brace delimited block.
For example the following will print the
``authpf''
ruleset recursively:
# pfctl -a 'authpf/*' -sr
To print the main ruleset recursively, specify only
`*'
as the anchor name:
# pfctl -a '*' -sr
- -D macro = value
-
Define
macro
to be set to
value
on the command line.
Overrides the definition of
macro
in the ruleset.
- -d
-
Disable the packet filter.
- -e
-
Enable the packet filter.
- -F modifier
-
Flush the filter parameters specified by
modifier
(may be abbreviated):
- -F nat
-
Flush the NAT rules.
- -F queue
-
Flush the queue rules.
- -F rules
-
Flush the filter rules.
- -F state
-
Flush the state table (NAT and filter).
- -F Sources
-
Flush the source tracking table.
- -F info
-
Flush the filter information (statistics that are not bound to rules).
- -F Tables
-
Flush the tables.
- -F osfp
-
Flush the passive operating system fingerprints.
- -F all
-
Flush all of the above.
- -f file
-
Load the rules contained in
file
This
file
may contain macros, tables, options, and normalization, queueing,
translation, and filtering rules.
With the exception of macros and tables, the statements must appear in that
order.
- -g
-
Include output helpful for debugging.
- -h
-
Help.
- -i interface
-
Restrict the operation to the given
interface
- -K host | network
-
Kill all of the source tracking entries originating from the specified
host
or
network
A second
-K host
or
-K network
option may be specified, which will kill all the source tracking
entries from the first host/network to the second.
- -k host | network
-
Kill all of the state entries originating from the specified
host
or
network
A second
-k host
or
-k network
option may be specified, which will kill all the state entries
from the first host/network to the second.
For example, to kill all of the state entries originating from
``host''
# pfctl -k host
To kill all of the state entries from
``host1''
to
``host2''
# pfctl -k host1 -k host2
To kill all states originating from 192.168.1.0/24 to 172.16.0.0/16:
# pfctl -k 192.168.1.0/24 -k 172.16.0.0/16
A network prefix length of 0 can be used as a wildcard.
To kill all states with the target
``host2''
# pfctl -k 0.0.0.0/0 -k host2
- -m
-
Merge in explicitly given options without resetting those
which are omitted.
Allows single options to be modified without disturbing the others:
# echo "set loginterface fxp0" | pfctl -mf -
- -N
-
Load only the NAT rules present in the rule file.
Other rules and options are ignored.
- -n
-
Do not actually load rules, just parse them.
- -O
-
Load only the options present in the rule file.
Other rules and options are ignored.
- -o [level
]
-
Control the ruleset optimizer.
The ruleset optimizer attempts to improve rulesets by removing rule
duplication and making better use of rule ordering.
- -o none
-
Disable the ruleset optimizer.
- -o basic
-
Enable basic ruleset optimizations.
- -o profile
-
Enable basic ruleset optimizations with profiling.
basic
optimization does does four things:
-
remove duplicate rules
-
remove rules that are a subset of another rule
-
combine multiple rules into a table when advantageous
-
re-order the rules to improve evaluation performance
If
profile
is specified, the currently loaded ruleset will be examined as a feedback
profile to tailor the optimization of the
quick
rules to the actual network behavior.
It is important to note that the ruleset optimizer will modify the ruleset
to improve performance.
A side effect of the ruleset modification is that per-rule accounting
statistics will have different meanings than before.
If per-rule accounting is important for billing purposes or whatnot, either
the ruleset optimizer should not be used or a
label
field should be added to all of the accounting rules to act as optimization
barriers.
To retain compatibility with previous behaviour, a single
-o
without any options will enable
basic
optimizations, and a second
-o
will enable profiling.
- -p device
-
Use the device file
device
instead of the default
/dev/pf
- -q
-
Only print errors and warnings.
- -R
-
Load only the filter rules present in the rule file.
Other rules and options are ignored.
- -r
-
Perform reverse DNS lookups on states when displaying them.
- -s modifier
-
Show the filter parameters specified by
modifier
(may be abbreviated):
- -s nat
-
Show the currently loaded NAT rules.
- -s queue
-
Show the currently loaded queue rules.
When used together with
-v
per-queue statistics are also shown.
When used together with
-v v
pfctl
will loop and show updated queue statistics every five seconds, including
measured bandwidth and packets per second.
- -s rules
-
Show the currently loaded filter rules.
When used together with
-v
the per-rule statistics (number of evaluations,
packets and bytes) are also shown.
Note that the
``skip step''
optimization done automatically by the kernel
will skip evaluation of rules where possible.
Packets passed statefully are counted in the rule that created the state
(even though the rule isn't evaluated more than once for the entire
connection).
- -s Anchors
-
Show the currently loaded anchors directly attached to the main ruleset.
If
-a anchor
is specified as well, the anchors loaded directly below the given
anchor
are shown instead.
If
-v
is specified, all anchors attached under the target anchor will be
displayed recursively.
- -s state
-
Show the contents of the state table.
- -s Sources
-
Show the contents of the source tracking table.
- -s info
-
Show filter information (statistics and counters).
When used together with
-v
source tracking statistics are also shown.
- -s labels
-
Show per-rule statistics (label, evaluations, packets total, bytes total,
packets in, bytes in, packets out, bytes out) of
filter rules with labels, useful for accounting.
- -s timeouts
-
Show the current global timeouts.
- -s memory
-
Show the current pool memory hard limits.
- -s Tables
-
Show the list of tables.
- -s osfp
-
Show the list of operating system fingerprints.
- -s Interfaces
-
Show the list of interfaces and interface drivers available to PF.
When used together with
-v
it additionally lists which interfaces have skip rules activated.
When used together with
-vv
interface statistics are also shown.
-i
can be used to select an interface or a group of interfaces.
- -s all
-
Show all of the above, except for the lists of interfaces and operating
system fingerprints.
- -T command [address ...
]
-
Specify the
command
(may be abbreviated) to apply to the table.
Commands include:
- -T kill
-
Kill a table.
- -T flush
-
Flush all addresses of a table.
- -T add
-
Add one or more addresses in a table.
Automatically create a nonexisting table.
- -T delete
-
Delete one or more addresses from a table.
- -T expire number
-
Delete addresses which had their statistics cleared more than
number
seconds ago.
For entries which have never had their statistics cleared,
number
refers to the time they were added to the table.
- -T replace
-
Replace the addresses of the table.
Automatically create a nonexisting table.
- -T show
-
Show the content (addresses) of a table.
- -T test
-
Test if the given addresses match a table.
- -T zero
-
Clear all the statistics of a table.
- -T load
-
Load only the table definitions from
pf.conf5.
This is used in conjunction with the
-f
flag, as in:
# pfctl -Tl -f pf.conf
For the
add
delete
replace
and
test
commands, the list of addresses can be specified either directly on the command
line and/or in an unformatted text file, using the
-f
flag.
Comments starting with a
`#'
are allowed in the text file.
With these commands, the
-v
flag can also be used once or twice, in which case
pfctl
will print the
detailed result of the operation for each individual address, prefixed by
one of the following letters:
- A
-
The address/network has been added.
- C
-
The address/network has been changed (negated).
- D
-
The address/network has been deleted.
- M
-
The address matches
Po test
operation only
Pc .
- X
-
The address/network is duplicated and therefore ignored.
- Y
-
The address/network cannot be added/deleted due to conflicting
`!'
attributes.
- Z
-
The address/network has been cleared (statistics).
Each table maintains a set of counters that can be retrieved using the
-v
flag of
.
For example, the following commands define a wide open firewall which will keep
track of packets going to or coming from the
Ox FTP server.
The following commands configure the firewall and send 10 pings to the FTP
server:
# printf "table <test> { ftp.openbsd.org }\n \
pass out to <test>\n" | pfctl -f-
# ping -qc10 ftp.openbsd.org
We can now use the table
show
command to output, for each address and packet direction, the number of packets
and bytes that are being passed or blocked by rules referencing the table.
The time at which the current accounting started is also shown with the
``Cleared''
line.
# pfctl -t test -vTshow
129.128.5.191
Cleared: Thu Feb 13 18:55:18 2003
In/Block: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
In/Pass: [ Packets: 10 Bytes: 840 ]
Out/Block: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
Out/Pass: [ Packets: 10 Bytes: 840 ]
Similarly, it is possible to view global information about the tables
by using the
-v
modifier twice and the
-s
Tables
command.
This will display the number of addresses on each table,
the number of rules which reference the table, and the global
packet statistics for the whole table:
# pfctl -vvsTables
--a-r- test
Addresses: 1
Cleared: Thu Feb 13 18:55:18 2003
References: [ Anchors: 0 Rules: 1 ]
Evaluations: [ NoMatch: 3496 Match: 1 ]
In/Block: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
In/Pass: [ Packets: 10 Bytes: 840 ]
In/XPass: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
Out/Block: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
Out/Pass: [ Packets: 10 Bytes: 840 ]
Out/XPass: [ Packets: 0 Bytes: 0 ]
As we can see here, only one packet - the initial ping request - matched the
table, but all packets passing as the result of the state are correctly
accounted for.
Reloading the table(s) or ruleset will not affect packet accounting in any way.
The two
``XPass''
counters are incremented instead of the
``Pass''
counters when a
``stateful''
packet is passed but doesn't match the table anymore.
This will happen in our example if someone flushes the table while the
ping(8)
command is running.
When used with a single
-v
pfctl
will only display the first line containing the table flags and name.
The flags are defined as follows:
- c
-
For constant tables, which cannot be altered outside
pf.conf5.
- p
-
For persistent tables, which don't get automatically killed when no rules
refer to them.
- a
-
For tables which are part of the
active
tableset.
Tables without this flag do not really exist, cannot contain addresses, and are
only listed if the
-g
flag is given.
- i
-
For tables which are part of the
inactive
tableset.
This flag can only be witnessed briefly during the loading of
pf.conf5.
- r
-
For tables which are referenced (used) by rules.
- h
-
This flag is set when a table in the main ruleset is hidden by one or more
tables of the same name from anchors attached below it.
- -t table
-
Specify the name of the table.
- -v
-
Produce more verbose output.
A second use of
-v
will produce even more verbose output including ruleset warnings.
See the previous section for its effect on table commands.
- -x level
-
Set the debug
level
(may be abbreviated) to one of the following:
- -x none
-
Don't generate debug messages.
- -x urgent
-
Generate debug messages only for serious errors.
- -x misc
-
Generate debug messages for various errors.
- -x loud
-
Generate debug messages for common conditions.
- -z
-
Clear per-rule statistics.