PFCTL(8)                NetBSD System Manager's Manual                PFCTL(8)

NAME
     pfctl -- control the packet filter (PF) and network address translation
     (NAT) device

SYNOPSIS
     pfctl [-AdeghNnOoqRrvz] [-a anchor] [-D macro=value] [-F modifier]
           [-f file] [-i interface] [-k host] [-p device] [-s modifier] [-t
           table -T command [address ...]] [-x level]

DESCRIPTION
     The pfctl utility communicates with the packet filter device using the
     ioctl interface described in pf(4).  It allows ruleset and parameter con-
     figuration and retrieval of status information from the packet filter.

     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.conf(5).  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 con-
     nect 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.conf(5).

     When the variable pf is set to YES in rc.conf(5), the rule file specified
     with the variable pf_rules is loaded automatically by the rc(8) scripts
     and the packet filter is enabled.

     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 /etc/sysctl.conf.

     The pfctl utility provides several commands.  The options are as follows:

     -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 vari-
             ous 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 per-
             formed.

             Evaluation of anchor rules from the main ruleset is described in
             pf.conf(5).

             For example, the following will show all filter rules (see the -s
             flag below) inside the anchor authpf/smith, which would have been
             created for user smith by authpf(8):

                   # pfctl -a authpf/smith -s rules

             Private tables can also be put inside anchors, either by having
             table statements in the pf.conf(5) 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 fallback
             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 cre-
             ate 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.

     -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 abbre-
             viated):

             -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
             Kill all of the state entries originating from the specified
             host.  A second -k host option may be specified, which will kill
             all the state entries from the first host to the second host.
             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

     -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      Enable the ruleset optimizer.  The ruleset optimizer attempts to
             improve rulesets by removing rule duplication and making better
             use of rule ordering.  Specifically, it does four things:

             1.   remove duplicate rules
             2.   remove rules that are a subset of another rule
             3.   combine multiple rules into a table when advantageous
             4.   re-order the rules to improve evaluation performance

             A second -o may be specified to use the currently loaded ruleset
             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 impor-
             tant for billing purposes or whatnot, either the ruleset opti-
             mizer should not be used or a label field should be added to all
             of the accounting rules to act as optimization barriers.

     -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 abbrevi-
             ated):

             -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 state-
                            fully 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 tar-
                            get 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 sta-
                            tistics are also shown.
             -s labels      Show per-rule statistics (label, evaluations,
                            packets, bytes) of filter rules with labels, use-
                            ful 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 a double
                            -v, 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.  Automati-
                           cally create a nonexisting table.
             -T delete     Delete one or more addresses from a 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.conf(5).
                           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 let-
             ters:

             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 (test operation only).
             X    The address/network is duplicated and therefore ignored.
             Y    The address/network cannot be added/deleted due to conflict-
                  ing `!' 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 pfctl.  For example, the following commands
             define a wide open firewall which will keep track of packets
             going to or coming from the OpenBSD FTP server.  The following
             commands configure the firewall and send 10 pings to the FTP
             server:

                   # printf "table <test> { ftp.NetBSD.org }\n \
                       pass out to <test> keep state\n" | pfctl -f-
                   # ping -qc10 ftp.NetBSD.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 num-
             ber 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'' coun-
             ters 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.conf(5).
             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.conf(5).
             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.

FILES
     /etc/pf.conf  Packet filter rules file.
     /etc/pf.os    Passive operating system fingerprint database.

SEE ALSO
     pf(4), pf.conf(5), pf.os(5), rc.conf(5), authpf(8), ftp-proxy(8), rc(8),
     sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The pfctl program and the pf(4) filter mechanism first appeared in
     OpenBSD 3.0.

NetBSD 3.1                     November 20, 2002                    NetBSD 3.1