Iptables
is used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IP packet
filter rules in the Linux kernel. Several different tables
may be defined. Each table contains a number of built-in
chains and may also contain user-defined chains.
Each chain is a list of rules which can match a set of packets. Each
rule specifies what to do with a packet that matches. This is called
a `target', which may be a jump to a user-defined chain in the same
table.
TARGETS
A firewall rule specifies criteria for a packet, and a target. If the
packet does not match, the next rule in the chain is the examined; if
it does match, then the next rule is specified by the value of the
target, which can be the name of a user-defined chain or one of the
special values
ACCEPT,
DROP,
QUEUE,
or
RETURN.
ACCEPT
means to let the packet through.
DROP
means to drop the packet on the floor.
QUEUE
means to pass the packet to userspace. (How the packet can be received
by a userspace process differs by the particular queue handler. 2.4.x
and 2.6.x kernels up to 2.6.13 include the
ip_queue
queue handler. Kernels 2.6.14 and later additionally include the
nfnetlink_queue
queue handler. Packets with a target of QUEUE will be sent to queue number '0'
in this case. Please also see the
NFQUEUE
target as described later in this man page.)
RETURN
means stop traversing this chain and resume at the next rule in the
previous (calling) chain. If the end of a built-in chain is reached
or a rule in a built-in chain with target
RETURN
is matched, the target specified by the chain policy determines the
fate of the packet.
TABLES
There are currently three independent tables (which tables are present
at any time depends on the kernel configuration options and which
modules are present).
-t, --table table
This option specifies the packet matching table which the command
should operate on. If the kernel is configured with automatic module
loading, an attempt will be made to load the appropriate module for
that table if it is not already there.
The tables are as follows:
filter:
This is the default table (if no -t option is passed). It contains
the built-in chains
INPUT
(for packets destined to local sockets),
FORWARD
(for packets being routed through the box), and
OUTPUT
(for locally-generated packets).
nat:
This table is consulted when a packet that creates a new
connection is encountered. It consists of three built-ins:
PREROUTING
(for altering packets as soon as they come in),
OUTPUT
(for altering locally-generated packets before routing), and
POSTROUTING
(for altering packets as they are about to go out).
mangle:
This table is used for specialized packet alteration. Until kernel
2.4.17 it had two built-in chains:
PREROUTING
(for altering incoming packets before routing) and
OUTPUT
(for altering locally-generated packets before routing).
Since kernel 2.4.18, three other built-in chains are also supported:
INPUT
(for packets coming into the box itself),
FORWARD
(for altering packets being routed through the box), and
POSTROUTING
(for altering packets as they are about to go out).
raw:
This table is used mainly for configuring exemptions from connection
tracking in combination with the NOTRACK target. It registers at the netfilter
hooks with higher priority and is thus called before ip_conntrack, or any other
IP tables. It provides the following built-in chains:
PREROUTING
(for packets arriving via any network interface)
OUTPUT
(for packets generated by local processes)
OPTIONS
The options that are recognized by
iptables
can be divided into several different groups.
COMMANDS
These options specify the specific action to perform. Only one of them
can be specified on the command line unless otherwise specified
below. For all the long versions of the command and option names, you
need to use only enough letters to ensure that
iptables
can differentiate it from all other options.
-A, --append chain rule-specification
Append one or more rules to the end of the selected chain.
When the source and/or destination names resolve to more than one
address, a rule will be added for each possible address combination.
-D, --delete chain rule-specification
-D, --delete chain rulenum
Delete one or more rules from the selected chain. There are two
versions of this command: the rule can be specified as a number in the
chain (starting at 1 for the first rule) or a rule to match.
-I, --insert chain [rulenum] rule-specification
Insert one or more rules in the selected chain as the given rule
number. So, if the rule number is 1, the rule or rules are inserted
at the head of the chain. This is also the default if no rule number
is specified.
-R, --replace chain rulenum rule-specification
Replace a rule in the selected chain. If the source and/or
destination names resolve to multiple addresses, the command will
fail. Rules are numbered starting at 1.
-L, --list [chain]
List all rules in the selected chain. If no chain is selected, all
chains are listed. As every other iptables command, it applies to the
specified table (filter is the default), so NAT rules get listed by
iptables -t nat -n -L
Please note that it is often used with the
-n
option, in order to avoid long reverse DNS lookups.
It is legal to specify the
-Z
(zero) option as well, in which case the chain(s) will be atomically
listed and zeroed. The exact output is affected by the other
arguments given. The exact rules are suppressed until you use
iptables -L -v
-F, --flush [chain]
Flush the selected chain (all the chains in the table if none is given).
This is equivalent to deleting all the rules one by one.
-Z, --zero [chain]
Zero the packet and byte counters in all chains. It is legal to
specify the
-L, --list
(list) option as well, to see the counters immediately before they are
cleared. (See above.)
-N, --new-chain chain
Create a new user-defined chain by the given name. There must be no
target of that name already.
-X, --delete-chain [chain]
Delete the optional user-defined chain specified. There must be no references
to the chain. If there are, you must delete or replace the referring rules
before the chain can be deleted. The chain must be empty, i.e. not contain
any rules. If no argument is given, it will attempt to delete every
non-builtin chain in the table.
-P, --policy chain target
Set the policy for the chain to the given target. See the section
TARGETS
for the legal targets. Only built-in (non-user-defined) chains can have
policies, and neither built-in nor user-defined chains can be policy
targets.
-E, --rename-chain old-chain new-chain
Rename the user specified chain to the user supplied name. This is
cosmetic, and has no effect on the structure of the table.
-h
Help.
Give a (currently very brief) description of the command syntax.
PARAMETERS
The following parameters make up a rule specification (as used in the
add, delete, insert, replace and append commands).
-p, --protocol [!] protocol
The protocol of the rule or of the packet to check.
The specified protocol can be one of
tcp,
udp,
icmp,
or
all,
or it can be a numeric value, representing one of these protocols or a
different one. A protocol name from /etc/protocols is also allowed.
A "!" argument before the protocol inverts the
test. The number zero is equivalent to
all.
Protocol
all
will match with all protocols and is taken as default when this
option is omitted.
-s, --source [!] address[/mask]
Source specification.
Address
can be either a network name, a hostname (please note that specifying
any name to be resolved with a remote query such as DNS is a really bad idea),
a network IP address (with /mask), or a plain IP address.
The
mask
can be either a network mask or a plain number,
specifying the number of 1's at the left side of the network mask.
Thus, a mask of
24
is equivalent to
255.255.255.0.
A "!" argument before the address specification inverts the sense of
the address. The flag
--src
is an alias for this option.
-d, --destination [!] address[/mask]
Destination specification.
See the description of the
-s
(source) flag for a detailed description of the syntax. The flag
--dst
is an alias for this option.
-j, --jump target
This specifies the target of the rule; i.e., what to do if the packet
matches it. The target can be a user-defined chain (other than the
one this rule is in), one of the special builtin targets which decide
the fate of the packet immediately, or an extension (see
EXTENSIONS
below). If this
option is omitted in a rule (and
-g
is not used), then matching the rule will have no
effect on the packet's fate, but the counters on the rule will be
incremented.
-g, --goto chain
This specifies that the processing should continue in a user
specified chain. Unlike the --jump option return will not continue
processing in this chain but instead in the chain that called us via
--jump.
-i, --in-interface [!] name
Name of an interface via which a packet was received (only for
packets entering the
INPUT,
FORWARD
and
PREROUTING
chains). When the "!" argument is used before the interface name, the
sense is inverted. If the interface name ends in a "+", then any
interface which begins with this name will match. If this option is
omitted, any interface name will match.
-o, --out-interface [!] name
Name of an interface via which a packet is going to be sent (for packets
entering the
FORWARD,
OUTPUT
and
POSTROUTING
chains). When the "!" argument is used before the interface name, the
sense is inverted. If the interface name ends in a "+", then any
interface which begins with this name will match. If this option is
omitted, any interface name will match.
[!] -f, --fragment
This means that the rule only refers to second and further fragments
of fragmented packets. Since there is no way to tell the source or
destination ports of such a packet (or ICMP type), such a packet will
not match any rules which specify them. When the "!" argument
precedes the "-f" flag, the rule will only match head fragments, or
unfragmented packets.
-c, --set-counters PKTS BYTES
This enables the administrator to initialize the packet and byte
counters of a rule (during
INSERT,APPEND,REPLACE
operations).
OTHER OPTIONS
The following additional options can be specified:
-v, --verbose
Verbose output. This option makes the list command show the interface
name, the rule options (if any), and the TOS masks. The packet and
byte counters are also listed, with the suffix 'K', 'M' or 'G' for
1000, 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 multipliers respectively (but see
the
-x
flag to change this).
For appending, insertion, deletion and replacement, this causes
detailed information on the rule or rules to be printed.
-n, --numeric
Numeric output.
IP addresses and port numbers will be printed in numeric format.
By default, the program will try to display them as host names,
network names, or services (whenever applicable).
-x, --exact
Expand numbers.
Display the exact value of the packet and byte counters,
instead of only the rounded number in K's (multiples of 1000)
M's (multiples of 1000K) or G's (multiples of 1000M). This option is
only relevant for the
-L
command.
--line-numbers
When listing rules, add line numbers to the beginning of each rule,
corresponding to that rule's position in the chain.
--modprobe=command
When adding or inserting rules into a chain, use
command
to load any necessary modules (targets, match extensions, etc).
MATCH EXTENSIONS
iptables can use extended packet matching modules. These are loaded
in two ways: implicitly, when
-p
or
--protocol
is specified, or with the
-m
or
--match
options, followed by the matching module name; after these, various
extra command line options become available, depending on the specific
module. You can specify multiple extended match modules in one line,
and you can use the
-h
or
--help
options after the module has been specified to receive help specific
to that module.
The following are included in the base package, and most of these can
be preceded by a
!
to invert the sense of the match.
account
Account traffic for all hosts in defined network/netmask.
Features:
- long (one counter per protocol TCP/UDP/IMCP/Other) and short statistics
- one iptables rule for all hosts in network/netmask
- loading/saving counters (by reading/writting to procfs entries)
--aaddr network/netmask
defines network/netmask for which make statistics.
--aname name
defines name of list where statistics will be kept. If no is
specified DEFAULT will be used.
--ashort
table will colect only short statistics (only total counters
without splitting it into protocols.
Example usage:
account traffic for/to 192.168.0.0/24 network into table mynetwork:
# iptables -A FORWARD -m account --aname mynetwork --aaddr 192.168.0.0/24
account traffic for/to WWW serwer for 192.168.0.0/24 network into table mywwwserver:
This module matches packets based on their
address type.
Address types are used within the kernel networking stack and categorize
addresses into various groups. The exact definition of that group depends on the specific layer three protocol.
The following address types are possible:
UNSPEC
an unspecified address (i.e. 0.0.0.0)
UNICAST
an unicast address
LOCAL
a local address
BROADCAST
a broadcast address
ANYCAST
an anycast packet
MULTICAST
a multicast address
BLACKHOLE
a blackhole address
UNREACHABLE
an unreachable address
PROHIBIT
a prohibited address
THROW
FIXME
NAT
FIXME
XRESOLVE
FIXME
--src-type type
Matches if the source address is of given type
--dst-type type
Matches if the destination address is of given type
ah
This module matches the SPIs in Authentication header of IPsec packets.
--ahspi [!] spi[:spi]
childlevel
This is an experimental module. It matches on whether the
packet is part of a master connection or one of its children (or grandchildren,
etc). For instance, most packets are level 0. FTP data transfer is level 1.
--childlevel [!] level
comment
Allows you to add comments (up to 256 characters) to any rule.
--comment comment
Example:
iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.0.0/16 -m comment --comment "A privatized IP block"
condition
This matches if a specific /proc filename is '0' or '1'.
--condition [!] filename
Match on boolean value stored in /proc/net/ipt_condition/filename file
connbytes
Match by how many bytes or packets a connection (or one of the two
flows constituting the connection) have tranferred so far, or by
average bytes per packet.
The counters are 64bit and are thus not expected to overflow ;)
The primary use is to detect long-lived downloads and mark them to be
scheduled using a lower priority band in traffic control.
The transfered bytes per connection can also be viewed through
/proc/net/ip_conntrack and accessed via ctnetlink
[!] --connbytes from:[to]
match packets from a connection whose packets/bytes/average packet
size is more than FROM and less than TO bytes/packets. if TO is
omitted only FROM check is done. "!" is used to match packets not
falling in the range.
--connbytes-dir [original|reply|both]
which packets to consider
--connbytes-mode [packets|bytes|avgpkt]
whether to check the amount of packets, number of bytes transferred or
the average size (in bytes) of all packets received so far. Note that
when "both" is used together with "avgpkt", and data is going (mainly)
only in one direction (for example HTTP), the average packet size will
be about half of the actual data packets.
This module matches the netfilter mark field associated with a connection
(which can be set using the
CONNMARK
target below).
--mark value[/mask]
Matches packets in connections with the given mark value (if a mask is
specified, this is logically ANDed with the mark before the
comparison).
connrate
This module matches the current transfer rate in a connection.
--connrate [!] [from]:[to]
Match against the current connection transfer rate being within 'from'
and 'to' bytes per second. When the "!" argument is used before the
range, the sense of the match is inverted.
conntrack
This module, when combined with connection tracking, allows access to
more connection tracking information than the "state" match.
(this module is present only if iptables was compiled under a kernel
supporting this feature)
--ctstate state
Where state is a comma separated list of the connection states to
match. Possible states are
INVALID
meaning that the packet is associated with no known connection,
ESTABLISHED
meaning that the packet is associated with a connection which has seen
packets in both directions,
NEW
meaning that the packet has started a new connection, or otherwise
associated with a connection which has not seen packets in both
directions, and
RELATED
meaning that the packet is starting a new connection, but is
associated with an existing connection, such as an FTP data transfer,
or an ICMP error.
SNAT
A virtual state, matching if the original source address differs from
the reply destination.
DNAT
A virtual state, matching if the original destination differs from the
reply source.
Match remaining lifetime in seconds against given value
or range of values (inclusive)
dccp
--source-port,--sport [!] port[:port]
--destination-port,--dport [!] port[:port]
--dccp-types [!] mask
Match when the DCCP packet type is one of 'mask'. 'mask' is a comma-separated
list of packet types. Packet types are:
REQUEST RESPONSE DATA ACK DATAACK CLOSEREQ CLOSE RESET SYNC SYNCACK INVALID.
--dccp-option [!] number
Match if DCP option set.
dscp
This module matches the 6 bit DSCP field within the TOS field in the
IP header. DSCP has superseded TOS within the IETF.
--dscp value
Match against a numeric (decimal or hex) value [0-32].
--dscp-class DiffServ Class
Match the DiffServ class. This value may be any of the
BE, EF, AFxx or CSx classes. It will then be converted
into it's according numeric value.
dstlimit
This module allows you to limit the packet per second (pps) rate on a per
destination IP or per destination port base. As opposed to the `limit' match,
every destination ip / destination port has it's own limit.
THIS MODULE IS DEPRECATED AND HAS BEEN REPLACED BY ``hashlimit''
--dstlimit avg
Maximum average match rate (packets per second unless followed by /sec /minute /hour /day postfixes).
--dstlimit-mode mode
The limiting hashmode. Is the specified limit per
dstip, dstip-dstport
tuple,
srcip-dstip
tuple, or per
srcipdstip-dstport
tuple.
--dstlimit-name name
Name for /proc/net/ipt_dstlimit/* file entry
[--dstlimit-burst burst]
Number of packets to match in a burst. Default: 5
[--dstlimit-htable-size size]
Number of buckets in the hashtable
[--dstlimit-htable-max max]
Maximum number of entries in the hashtable
[--dstlimit-htable-gcinterval interval]
Interval between garbage collection runs of the hashtable (in miliseconds).
Default is 1000 (1 second).
[--dstlimit-htable-expire time
After which time are idle entries expired from hashtable (in miliseconds)?
Default is 10000 (10 seconds).
ecn
This allows you to match the ECN bits of the IPv4 and TCP header. ECN is the Explicit Congestion Notification mechanism as specified in RFC3168
--ecn-tcp-cwr
This matches if the TCP ECN CWR (Congestion Window Received) bit is set.
--ecn-tcp-ece
This matches if the TCP ECN ECE (ECN Echo) bit is set.
--ecn-ip-ect num
This matches a particular IPv4 ECT (ECN-Capable Transport). You have to specify
a number between `0' and `3'.
esp
This module matches the SPIs in ESP header of IPsec packets.
--espspi [!] spi[:spi]
fuzzy
This module matches a rate limit based on a fuzzy logic controller [FLC]
--lower-limit number
Specifies the lower limit (in packets per second).
--upper-limit number
Specifies the upper limit (in packets per second).
hashlimit
This patch adds a new match called 'hashlimit'.
The idea is to have something like 'limit', but either per
destination-ip or per (destip,destport) tuple.
It gives you the ability to express
'1000 packets per second for every host in 192.168.0.0/16'
'100 packets per second for every service of 192.168.1.1'
with a single iptables rule.
--hashlimit rate
A rate just like the limit match
--hashlimit-burst num
Burst value, just like limit match
--hashlimit-mode destip | destip-destport
Limit per IP or per port
--hashlimit-name foo
The name for the /proc/net/ipt_hashlimit/foo entry
--hashlimit-htable-size num
The number of buckets of the hash table
--hashlimit-htable-max num
Maximum entries in the hash
--hashlimit-htable-expire num
After how many miliseconds do hash entries expire
--hashlimit-htable-gcinterval num
How many miliseconds between garbage collection intervals
helper
This module matches packets related to a specific conntrack-helper.
--helper string
Matches packets related to the specified conntrack-helper.
string can be "ftp" for packets related to a ftp-session on default port.
For other ports append -portnr to the value, ie. "ftp-2121".
Same rules apply for other conntrack-helpers.
icmp
This extension is loaded if `--protocol icmp' is specified. It
provides the following option:
--icmp-type [!] typename
This allows specification of the ICMP type, which can be a numeric
ICMP type, or one of the ICMP type names shown by the command
iptables -p icmp -h
iprange
This matches on a given arbitrary range of IPv4 addresses
[!]--src-range ip-ip
Match source IP in the specified range.
[!]--dst-range ip-ip
Match destination IP in the specified range.
ipv4options
Match on IPv4 header options like source routing, record route,
timestamp and router-alert.
--ssrr
To match packets with the flag strict source routing.
--lsrr
To match packets with the flag loose source routing.
--no-srr
To match packets with no flag for source routing.
[!] --rr
To match packets with the RR flag.
[!] --ts
To match packets with the TS flag.
[!] --ra
To match packets with the router-alert option.
[!] --any-opt
To match a packet with at least one IP option, or no IP option
at all if ! is chosen.
Examples:
$ iptables -A input -m ipv4options --rr -j DROP
will drop packets with the record-route flag.
$ iptables -A input -m ipv4options --ts -j DROP
will drop packets with the timestamp flag.
length
This module matches the length of a packet against a specific value
or range of values.
--length [!] length[:length]
limit
This module matches at a limited rate using a token bucket filter.
A rule using this extension will match until this limit is reached
(unless the `!' flag is used). It can be used in combination with the
LOG
target to give limited logging, for example.
--limit rate
Maximum average matching rate: specified as a number, with an optional
`/second', `/minute', `/hour', or `/day' suffix; the default is
3/hour.
--limit-burst number
Maximum initial number of packets to match: this number gets
recharged by one every time the limit specified above is not reached,
up to this number; the default is 5.
mac
--mac-source [!] address
Match source MAC address. It must be of the form XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.
Note that this only makes sense for packets coming from an Ethernet device
and entering the
PREROUTING,
FORWARD
or
INPUT
chains.
mark
This module matches the netfilter mark field associated with a packet
(which can be set using the
MARK
target below).
--mark value[/mask]
Matches packets with the given unsigned mark value (if a mask is
specified, this is logically ANDed with the mask before the
comparison).
mport
This module matches a set of source or destination ports. Up to 15
ports can be specified. It can only be used in conjunction with
-p tcp
or
-p udp.
--source-ports port[,port[,port...]]
Match if the source port is one of the given ports. The flag
--sports
is a convenient alias for this option.
--destination-ports port[,port[,port...]]
Match if the destination port is one of the given ports. The flag
--dports
is a convenient alias for this option.
--ports port[,port[,port...]]
Match if the both the source and destination ports are equal to each
other and to one of the given ports.
multiport
This module matches a set of source or destination ports. Up to 15
ports can be specified. A port range (port:port) counts as two
ports. It can only be used in conjunction with
-p tcp
or
-p udp.
--source-ports [!] port[,port[,port:port...]]
Match if the source port is one of the given ports. The flag
--sports
is a convenient alias for this option.
Match if the destination port is one of the given ports. The flag
--dports
is a convenient alias for this option.
--ports [!] port[,port[,port:port...]]
Match if either the source or destination ports are equal to one of
the given ports.
nth
This module matches every `n'th packet
--every value
Match every `value' packet
[--counter num]
Use internal counter number `num'. Default is `0'.
[--start num]
Initialize the counter at the number `num' insetad of `0'. Most between `0'
and `value'-1.
[--packet num]
Match on `num' packet. Most be between `0' and `value'-1.
osf
The idea of passive OS fingerprint matching exists for quite a long time,
but was created as extension fo OpenBSD pf only some weeks ago.
Original idea was lurked in some OpenBSD mailing list (thanks
grange@open...) and than adopted for Linux netfilter in form of this code.
Original fingerprint table was created by Michal Zalewski <lcamtuf@coredump.cx>.
This module compares some data(WS, MSS, options and it's order, ttl,
df and others) from first SYN packet (actually from packets with SYN
bit set) with dynamically loaded OS fingerprints.
--log 1/0
If present, OSF will log determined genres even if they don't match
desired one.
0 - log all determined entries,
1 - only first one.
In syslog you find something like this:
ipt_osf: Windows [2000:SP3:Windows XP Pro SP1, 2000 SP3]: 11.22.33.55:4024 -> 11.22.33.44:139
This module attempts to match various characteristics of the packet
creator, for locally-generated packets. It is only valid in the
OUTPUT
chain, and even this some packets (such as ICMP ping responses) may
have no owner, and hence never match.
--uid-owner userid
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
effective user id.
--gid-owner groupid
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
effective group id.
--pid-owner processid
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
process id.
--sid-owner sessionid
Matches if the packet was created by a process in the given session
group.
--cmd-owner name
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given command name.
(this option is present only if iptables was compiled under a kernel
supporting this feature)
NOTE: pid, sid and command matching are broken on SMP
physdev
This module matches on the bridge port input and output devices enslaved
to a bridge device. This module is a part of the infrastructure that enables
a transparent bridging IP firewall and is only useful for kernel versions
above version 2.5.44.
--physdev-in [!] name
Name of a bridge port via which a packet is received (only for
packets entering the
INPUT,
FORWARD
and
PREROUTING
chains). If the interface name ends in a "+", then any
interface which begins with this name will match. If the packet didn't arrive
through a bridge device, this packet won't match this option, unless '!' is used.
--physdev-out [!] name
Name of a bridge port via which a packet is going to be sent (for packets
entering the
FORWARD,
OUTPUT
and
POSTROUTING
chains). If the interface name ends in a "+", then any
interface which begins with this name will match. Note that in the
nat and mangleOUTPUT
chains one cannot match on the bridge output port, however one can in the
filter OUTPUT
chain. If the packet won't leave by a bridge device or it is yet unknown what
the output device will be, then the packet won't match this option, unless
[!] --physdev-is-in
Matches if the packet has entered through a bridge interface.
[!] --physdev-is-out
Matches if the packet will leave through a bridge interface.
[!] --physdev-is-bridged
Matches if the packet is being bridged and therefore is not being routed.
This is only useful in the FORWARD and POSTROUTING chains.
pkttype
This module matches the link-layer packet type.
--pkt-type [unicast|broadcast|multicast]
policy
This modules matches the policy used by IPsec for handling a packet.
--dir in|out
Used to select whether to match the policy used for decapsulation or the
policy that will be used for encapsulation.
in
is valid in the
PREROUTING, INPUT and FORWARD
chains,
out
is valid in the
POSTROUTING, OUTPUT and FORWARD
chains.
--pol none|ipsec
Matches if the packet is subject to IPsec processing.
--strict
Selects whether to match the exact policy or match if any rule of
the policy matches the given policy.
--reqid id
Matches the reqid of the policy rule. The reqid can be specified with
setkey(8)
using
unique:id
as level.
--spi spi
Matches the SPI of the SA.
--proto ah|esp|ipcomp
Matches the encapsulation protocol.
--mode tunnel|transport
Matches the encapsulation mode.
--tunnel-src addr[/mask]
Matches the source end-point address of a tunnel mode SA.
Only valid with --mode tunnel.
--tunnel-dst addr[/mask]
Matches the destination end-point address of a tunnel mode SA.
Only valid with --mode tunnel.
--next
Start the next element in the policy specification. Can only be used with
--strict
psd
Attempt to detect TCP and UDP port scans. This match was derived from
Solar Designer's scanlogd.
--psd-weight-threshold threshold
Total weight of the latest TCP/UDP packets with different
destination ports coming from the same host to be treated as port
scan sequence.
--psd-delay-threshold delay
Delay (in hundredths of second) for the packets with different
destination ports coming from the same host to be treated as
possible port scan subsequence.
--psd-lo-ports-weight weight
Weight of the packet with privileged (<=1024) destination port.
--psd-hi-ports-weight weight
Weight of the packet with non-priviliged destination port.
quota
Implements network quotas by decrementing a byte counter with each
packet.
--quota bytes
The quota in bytes.
KNOWN BUGS: this does not work on SMP systems.
random
This module randomly matches a certain percentage of all packets.
--average percent
Matches the given percentage. If omitted, a probability of 50% is set.
realm
This matches the routing realm. Routing realms are used in complex routing
setups involving dynamic routing protocols like BGP.
--realm [!]value[/mask]
Matches a given realm number (and optionally mask).
recent
Allows you to dynamically create a list of IP addresses and then match
against that list in a few different ways.
For example, you can create a `badguy' list out of people attempting
to connect to port 139 on your firewall and then DROP all future
packets from them without considering them.
--name name
Specify the list to use for the commands. If no name is given then 'DEFAULT'
will be used.
[!] --set
This will add the source address of the packet to the list. If the
source address is already in the list, this will update the existing
entry. This will always return success (or failure if `!' is passed
in).
[!] --rcheck
Check if the source address of the packet is currently in
the list.
[!] --update
Like --rcheck, except it will update the "last seen" timestamp if it
matches.
[!] --remove
Check if the source address of the packet is currently in the list and
if so that address will be removed from the list and the rule will
return true. If the address is not found, false is returned.
[!] --seconds seconds
This option must be used in conjunction with one of --rcheck or
--update. When used, this will narrow the match to only happen
when the address is in the list and was seen within the last given
number of seconds.
[!] --hitcount hits
This option must be used in conjunction with one of --rcheck or
--update. When used, this will narrow the match to only happen
when the address is in the list and packets had been received greater
than or equal to the given value. This option may be used along with
--seconds to create an even narrower match requiring a certain
number of hits within a specific time frame.
--rttl
This option must be used in conjunction with one of --rcheck or
--update. When used, this will narrow the match to only happen
when the address is in the list and the TTL of the current packet
matches that of the packet which hit the --set rule. This may be
useful if you have problems with people faking their source address in
order to DoS you via this module by disallowing others access to your
site by sending bogus packets to you.
Examples:
# iptables -A FORWARD -m recent --name badguy --rcheck --seconds 60 -j DROP
# iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -i eth0 --dport 139 -m recent --name badguy --set -j DROP
Official website (http://snowman.net/projects/ipt_recent/) also has
some examples of usage.
/proc/net/ipt_recent/* are the current lists of addresses and information
about each entry of each list.
Each file in /proc/net/ipt_recent/ can be read from to see the current list
or written two using the following commands to modify the list:
echo xx.xx.xx.xx > /proc/net/ipt_recent/DEFAULT
to Add to the DEFAULT list
echo -xx.xx.xx.xx > /proc/net/ipt_recent/DEFAULT
to Remove from the DEFAULT list
echo clear > /proc/net/ipt_recent/DEFAULT
to empty the DEFAULT list.
The module itself accepts parameters, defaults shown:
ip_list_tot=100
Number of addresses remembered per table
ip_pkt_list_tot=20
Number of packets per address remembered
ip_list_hash_size=0
Hash table size. 0 means to calculate it based on ip_list_tot, default: 512
chunk type available flags
DATA U B E u b e
ABORT T t
SHUTDOWN_COMPLETE T t
(lowercase means flag should be "off", uppercase means "on")
Examples:
iptables -A INPUT -p sctp --dport 80 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -p sctp --chunk-types any DATA,INIT -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -p sctp --chunk-types any DATA:Be -j ACCEPT
set
This modules macthes IP sets which can be defined by ipset(8).
--set setname flag[,flag...]
where flags are
src
and/or
dst
and there can be no more than six of them. Hence the command
iptables -A FORWARD -m set --set test src,dst
will match packets, for which (depending on the type of the set) the source
address or port number of the packet can be found in the specified set. If
there is a binding belonging to the mached set element or there is a default
binding for the given set, then the rule will match the packet only if
additionally (depending on the type of the set) the destination address or
port number of the packet can be found in the set according to the binding.
state
This module, when combined with connection tracking, allows access to
the connection tracking state for this packet.
--state state
Where state is a comma separated list of the connection states to
match. Possible states are
INVALID
meaning that the packet could not be identified for some reason which
includes running out of memory and ICMP errors which don't correspond to any
known connection,
ESTABLISHED
meaning that the packet is associated with a connection which has seen
packets in both directions,
NEW
meaning that the packet has started a new connection, or otherwise
associated with a connection which has not seen packets in both
directions, and
RELATED
meaning that the packet is starting a new connection, but is
associated with an existing connection, such as an FTP data transfer,
or an ICMP error.
string
This modules matches a given string by using some pattern matching strategy. It requires a linux kernel >= 2.6.14.
Set the offset from which it starts looking for any matching. If not passed, default is 0.
--to offset
Set the offset from which it starts looking for any matching. If not passed, default is the packet size.
--string pattern
Matches the given pattern.
--hex-string pattern
Matches the given pattern in hex notation.
tcp
These extensions are loaded if `--protocol tcp' is specified. It
provides the following options:
--source-port [!] port[:port]
Source port or port range specification. This can either be a service
name or a port number. An inclusive range can also be specified,
using the format
port:port.
If the first port is omitted, "0" is assumed; if the last is omitted,
"65535" is assumed.
If the second port greater then the first they will be swapped.
The flag
--sport
is a convenient alias for this option.
--destination-port [!] port[:port]
Destination port or port range specification. The flag
--dport
is a convenient alias for this option.
--tcp-flags [!] maskcomp
Match when the TCP flags are as specified. The first argument is the
flags which we should examine, written as a comma-separated list, and
the second argument is a comma-separated list of flags which must be
set. Flags are:
SYN ACK FIN RST URG PSH ALL NONE.
Hence the command
iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,ACK,FIN,RST SYN
will only match packets with the SYN flag set, and the ACK, FIN and
RST flags unset.
[!] --syn
Only match TCP packets with the SYN bit set and the ACK,RST and FIN bits
cleared. Such packets are used to request TCP connection initiation;
for example, blocking such packets coming in an interface will prevent
incoming TCP connections, but outgoing TCP connections will be
unaffected.
It is equivalent to --tcp-flags SYN,RST,ACK,FIN SYN.
If the "!" flag precedes the "--syn", the sense of the
option is inverted.
--tcp-option [!] number
Match if TCP option set.
--mss value[:value]
Match TCP SYN or SYN/ACK packets with the specified MSS value (or range),
which control the maximum packet size for that connection.
tcpmss
This matches the TCP MSS (maximum segment size) field of the TCP header. You can only use this on TCP SYN or SYN/ACK packets, since the MSS is only negotiated during the TCP handshake at connection startup time.
[!] --mss value[:value]
Match a given TCP MSS value or range.
time
This matches if the packet arrival time/date is within a given range. All options are facultative.
--timestart value
Match only if it is after `value' (Inclusive, format: HH:MM ; default 00:00).
--timestop value
Match only if it is before `value' (Inclusive, format: HH:MM ; default 23:59).
--days listofdays
Match only if today is one of the given days. (format: Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat,Sun ; default everyday)
--datestart date
Match only if it is after `date' (Inclusive, format: YYYY[:MM[:DD[:hh[:mm[:ss]]]]] ; h,m,s start from 0 ; default to 1970)
--datestop date
Match only if it is before `date' (Inclusive, format: YYYY[:MM[:DD[:hh[:mm[:ss]]]]] ; h,m,s start from 0 ; default to 2037)
tos
This module matches the 8 bits of Type of Service field in the IP
header (ie. including the precedence bits).
--tos tos
The argument is either a standard name, (use
iptables -m tos -h
to see the list), or a numeric value to match.
ttl
This module matches the time to live field in the IP header.
--ttl-eq ttl
Matches the given TTL value.
--ttl-gt ttl
Matches if TTL is greater than the given TTL value.
--ttl-lt ttl
Matches if TTL is less than the given TTL value.
u32
U32 allows you to extract quantities of up to 4 bytes from a packet,
AND them with specified masks, shift them by specified amounts and
test whether the results are in any of a set of specified ranges.
The specification of what to extract is general enough to skip over
headers with lengths stored in the packet, as in IP or TCP header
lengths.
Details and examples are in the kernel module source.
udp
These extensions are loaded if `--protocol udp' is specified. It
provides the following options:
--source-port [!] port[:port]
Source port or port range specification.
See the description of the
--source-port
option of the TCP extension for details.
--destination-port [!] port[:port]
Destination port or port range specification.
See the description of the
--destination-port
option of the TCP extension for details.
unclean
This module takes no options, but attempts to match packets which seem
malformed or unusual. This is regarded as experimental.
TARGET EXTENSIONS
iptables can use extended target modules: the following are included
in the standard distribution.
BALANCE
This allows you to DNAT connections in a round-robin way over a given range of destination addresses.
--to-destination ipaddr-ipaddr
Address range to round-robin over.
CLASSIFY
This module allows you to set the skb->priority value (and thus classify the packet into a specific CBQ class).
--set-class MAJOR:MINOR
Set the major and minor class value.
CLUSTERIP
This module allows you to configure a simple cluster of nodes that share
a certain IP and MAC address without an explicit load balancer in front of
them. Connections are statically distributed between the nodes in this
cluster.
--new
Create a new ClusterIP. You always have to set this on the first rule
for a given ClusterIP.
--hashmode mode
Specify the hashing mode. Has to be one of
sourceip, sourceip-sourceport, sourceip-sourceport-destport
--clustermac mac
Specify the ClusterIP MAC address. Has to be a link-layer multicast address
--total-nodes num
Number of total nodes within this cluster.
--local-node num
Local node number within this cluster.
--hash-init rnd
Specify the random seed used for hash initialization.
CONNMARK
This module sets the netfilter mark value associated with a connection
--set-mark mark[/mask]
Set connection mark. If a mask is specified then only those bits set in the
mask is modified.
--save-mark [--mask mask]
Copy the netfilter packet mark value to the connection mark. If a mask
is specified then only those bits are copied.
--restore-mark [--mask mask]
Copy the connection mark value to the packet. If a mask is specified
then only those bits are copied. This is only valid in the
mangle
table.
DNAT
This target is only valid in the
nat
table, in the
PREROUTING
and
OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains. It specifies that the destination address of the packet
should be modified (and all future packets in this connection will
also be mangled), and rules should cease being examined. It takes one
type of option:
--to-destination ipaddr[-ipaddr][:port-port]
which can specify a single new destination IP address, an inclusive
range of IP addresses, and optionally, a port range (which is only
valid if the rule also specifies
-p tcp
or
-p udp).
If no port range is specified, then the destination port will never be
modified.
In Kernels up to 2.6.10 you can add several --to-destination options. For
those kernels, if you specify more than one destination address, either via an
address range or multiple --to-destination options, a simple round-robin (one
after another in cycle) load balancing takes place between these addresses.
Later Kernels (>= 2.6.11-rc1) don't have the ability to NAT to multiple ranges
anymore.
DSCP
This target allows to alter the value of the DSCP bits within the TOS
header of the IPv4 packet. As this manipulates a packet, it can only
be used in the mangle table.
--set-dscp value
Set the DSCP field to a numerical value (can be decimal or hex)
--set-dscp-class class
Set the DSCP field to a DiffServ class.
ECN
This target allows to selectively work around known ECN blackholes.
It can only be used in the mangle table.
--ecn-tcp-remove
Remove all ECN bits from the TCP header. Of course, it can only be used
in conjunction with
-p tcp.
IPMARK
Allows you to mark a received packet basing on its IP address. This
can replace many mangle/mark entries with only one, if you use
firewall based classifier.
This target is to be used inside the mangle table, in the PREROUTING,
POSTROUTING or FORWARD hooks.
--addr src/dst
Use source or destination IP address.
--and-mask mask
Perform bitwise `and' on the IP address and this mask.
--or-mask mask
Perform bitwise `or' on the IP address and this mask.
The order of IP address bytes is reversed to meet "human order of bytes":
192.168.0.1 is 0xc0a80001. At first the `and' operation is performed, then
`or'.
Examples:
We create a queue for each user, the queue number is adequate
to the IP address of the user, e.g.: all packets going to/from 192.168.5.2
are directed to 1:0502 queue, 192.168.5.12 -> 1:050c etc.
We have one classifier rule:
tc filter add dev eth3 parent 1:0 protocol ip fw
Earlier we had many rules just like below:
iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth3 -d 192.168.5.2 -j MARK
--set-mark 0x10502
iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth3 -d 192.168.5.3 -j MARK
--set-mark 0x10503
Using IPMARK target we can replace all the mangle/mark rules with only one:
iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth3 -j IPMARK --addr=dst
--and-mask=0xffff --or-mask=0x10000
On the routers with hundreds of users there should be significant load
decrease (e.g. twice).
IPV4OPTSSTRIP
Strip all the IP options from a packet.
The target doesn't take any option, and therefore is extremly easy to use :
# iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -j IPV4OPTSSTRIP
LOG
Turn on kernel logging of matching packets. When this option is set
for a rule, the Linux kernel will print some information on all
matching packets (like most IP header fields) via the kernel log
(where it can be read with
dmesg
or
syslogd(8)).
This is a "non-terminating target", i.e. rule traversal continues at
the next rule. So if you want to LOG the packets you refuse, use two
separate rules with the same matching criteria, first using target LOG
then DROP (or REJECT).
Prefix log messages with the specified prefix; up to 29 letters long,
and useful for distinguishing messages in the logs.
--log-tcp-sequence
Log TCP sequence numbers. This is a security risk if the log is
readable by users.
--log-tcp-options
Log options from the TCP packet header.
--log-ip-options
Log options from the IP packet header.
--log-uid
Log the userid of the process which generated the packet.
MARK
This is used to set the netfilter mark value associated with the
packet. It is only valid in the
mangle
table. It can for example be used in conjunction with iproute2.
--set-mark mark
MASQUERADE
This target is only valid in the
nat
table, in the
POSTROUTING
chain. It should only be used with dynamically assigned IP (dialup)
connections: if you have a static IP address, you should use the SNAT
target. Masquerading is equivalent to specifying a mapping to the IP
address of the interface the packet is going out, but also has the
effect that connections are
forgotten
when the interface goes down. This is the correct behavior when the
next dialup is unlikely to have the same interface address (and hence
any established connections are lost anyway). It takes one option:
--to-ports port[-port]
This specifies a range of source ports to use, overriding the default
SNAT
source port-selection heuristics (see above). This is only valid
if the rule also specifies
-p tcp
or
-p udp.
MIRROR
This is an experimental demonstration target which inverts the source
and destination fields in the IP header and retransmits the packet.
It is only valid in the
INPUT,
FORWARD
and
PREROUTING
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains. Note that the outgoing packets are
NOT
seen by any packet filtering chains, connection tracking or NAT, to
avoid loops and other problems.
NETMAP
This target allows you to statically map a whole network of addresses onto
another network of addresses. It can only be used from rules in the
nat
table.
--to address[/mask]
Network address to map to. The resulting address will be constructed in the
following way: All 'one' bits in the mask are filled in from the new `address'.
All bits that are zero in the mask are filled in from the original address.
NFQUEUE
This target is an extension of the QUEUE target. As opposed to QUEUE, it allows
you to put a packet into any specific queue, identified by its 16-bit queue
number.
--queue-num value
This specifies the QUEUE number to use. Valud queue numbers are 0 to 65535. The default value is 0.
It can only be used with Kernel versions 2.6.14 or later, since it requires
the
nfnetlink_queue
kernel support.
NOTRACK
This target disables connection tracking for all packets matching that rule.
It can only be used in the
raw
table.
REDIRECT
This target is only valid in the
nat
table, in the
PREROUTING
and
OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains. It redirects the packet to the machine itself by changing the
destination IP to the primary address of the incoming interface
(locally-generated packets are mapped to the 127.0.0.1 address). It
takes one option:
--to-ports port[-port]
This specifies a destination port or range of ports to use: without
this, the destination port is never altered. This is only valid
if the rule also specifies
-p tcp
or
-p udp.
REJECT
This is used to send back an error packet in response to the matched
packet: otherwise it is equivalent to
DROP
so it is a terminating TARGET, ending rule traversal.
This target is only valid in the
INPUT,
FORWARD
and
OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains. The following option controls the nature of the error packet
returned:
--reject-with type
The type given can be
icmp-net-unreachable icmp-host-unreachable icmp-port-unreachable icmp-proto-unreachable icmp-net-prohibited icmp-host-prohibited or icmp-admin-prohibited (*)
which return the appropriate ICMP error message (port-unreachable is
the default). The option
tcp-reset
can be used on rules which only match the TCP protocol: this causes a
TCP RST packet to be sent back. This is mainly useful for blocking
ident
(113/tcp) probes which frequently occur when sending mail to broken mail
hosts (which won't accept your mail otherwise).
(*) Using icmp-admin-prohibited with kernels that do not support it will result in a plain DROP instead of REJECT
ROUTE
This is used to explicitly override the core network stack's routing decision.
mangle
table.
--oif ifname
Route the packet through `ifname' network interface
--iif ifname
Change the packet's incoming interface to `ifname'
--gw IP_address
Route the packet via this gateway
--continue
Behave like a non-terminating target and continue traversing the rules. Not valid in combination with `--iif' or `--tee'
--tee
Make a copy of the packet, and route that copy to the given destination. For the original, uncopied packet, behave like a non-terminating target and continue traversing the rules. Not valid in combination with `--iif' or `--continue'
SAME
Similar to SNAT/DNAT depending on chain: it takes a range of addresses
(`--to 1.2.3.4-1.2.3.7') and gives a client the same
source-/destination-address for each connection.
--to <ipaddr>-<ipaddr>
Addresses to map source to. May be specified more than once for
multiple ranges.
--nodst
Don't use the destination-ip in the calculations when selecting the
new source-ip
SET
This modules adds and/or deletes entries from IP sets which can be defined
by ipset(8).
--add-set setname flag[,flag...]
add the address(es)/port(s) of the packet to the sets
--del-set setname flag[,flag...]
delete the address(es)/port(s) of the packet from the sets,
where flags are
src
and/or
dst
and there can be no more than six of them.
The bindings to follow must previously be defined in order to use
multilevel adding/deleting by the SET target.
SNAT
This target is only valid in the
nat
table, in the
POSTROUTING
chain. It specifies that the source address of the packet should be
modified (and all future packets in this connection will also be
mangled), and rules should cease being examined. It takes one type
of option:
--to-source ipaddr[-ipaddr][:port-port]
which can specify a single new source IP address, an inclusive range
of IP addresses, and optionally, a port range (which is only valid if
the rule also specifies
-p tcp
or
-p udp).
If no port range is specified, then source ports below 512 will be
mapped to other ports below 512: those between 512 and 1023 inclusive
will be mapped to ports below 1024, and other ports will be mapped to
1024 or above. Where possible, no port alteration will occur.
In Kernels up to 2.6.10, you can add several --to-source options. For those
kernels, if you specify more than one source address, either via an address
range or multiple --to-source options, a simple round-robin (one after another
in cycle) takes place between these addresses.
Later Kernels (>= 2.6.11-rc1) don't have the ability to NAT to multiple ranges
anymore.
TARPIT
Captures and holds incoming TCP connections using no local
per-connection resources. Connections are accepted, but immediately
switched to the persist state (0 byte window), in which the remote
side stops sending data and asks to continue every 60-240 seconds.
Attempts to close the connection are ignored, forcing the remote side
to time out the connection in 12-24 minutes.
This offers similar functionality to LaBrea
<http://www.hackbusters.net/LaBrea/> but doesn't require dedicated
hardware or IPs. Any TCP port that you would normally DROP or REJECT
can instead become a tarpit.
To tarpit connections to TCP port 80 destined for the current machine:
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j TARPIT
To significantly slow down Code Red/Nimda-style scans of unused address
space, forward unused ip addresses to a Linux box not acting as a router
(e.g. "ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 ip.of.linux.box" on a Cisco), enable IP
forwarding on the Linux box, and add:
iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -j TARPIT
iptables -A FORWARD -j DROP
NOTE:
If you use the conntrack module while you are using TARPIT, you should
also use the NOTRACK target, or the kernel will unnecessarily allocate
resources for each TARPITted connection. To TARPIT incoming
connections to the standard IRC port while using conntrack, you could:
iptables -t raw -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 6667 -j NOTRACK
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 6667 -j TARPIT
TCPMSS
This target allows to alter the MSS value of TCP SYN packets, to control
the maximum size for that connection (usually limiting it to your
outgoing interface's MTU minus 40). Of course, it can only be used
in conjunction with
-p tcp.
It is only valid in the
mangle
table.
This target is used to overcome criminally braindead ISPs or servers
which block ICMP Fragmentation Needed packets. The symptoms of this
problem are that everything works fine from your Linux
firewall/router, but machines behind it can never exchange large
packets:
1)
Web browsers connect, then hang with no data received.
2)
Small mail works fine, but large emails hang.
3)
ssh works fine, but scp hangs after initial handshaking.
Workaround: activate this option and add a rule to your firewall
configuration like:
iptables -t mangle -A FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN \
-j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu
--set-mss value
Explicitly set MSS option to specified value.
--clamp-mss-to-pmtu
Automatically clamp MSS value to (path_MTU - 40).
These options are mutually exclusive.
TOS
This is used to set the 8-bit Type of Service field in the IP header.
It is only valid in the
mangle
table.
--set-tos tos
You can use a numeric TOS values, or use
iptables -j TOS -h
to see the list of valid TOS names.
TRACE
This target has no options. It just turns on
packet tracing
for all packets that match this rule.
TTL
This is used to modify the IPv4 TTL header field. The TTL field determines
how many hops (routers) a packet can traverse until it's time to live is
exceeded.
Setting or incrementing the TTL field can potentially be very dangerous,
so it should be avoided at any cost.
Don't ever set or increment the value on packets that leave your local network!
mangle
table.
--ttl-set value
Set the TTL value to `value'.
--ttl-dec value
Decrement the TTL value `value' times.
--ttl-inc value
Increment the TTL value `value' times.
ULOG
This target provides userspace logging of matching packets. When this
target is set for a rule, the Linux kernel will multicast this packet
through a
netlink
socket. One or more userspace processes may then subscribe to various
multicast groups and receive the packets.
Like LOG, this is a "non-terminating target", i.e. rule traversal
continues at the next rule.
--ulog-nlgroup nlgroup
This specifies the netlink group (1-32) to which the packet is sent.
Default value is 1.
--ulog-prefix prefix
Prefix log messages with the specified prefix; up to 32 characters
long, and useful for distinguishing messages in the logs.
--ulog-cprange size
Number of bytes to be copied to userspace. A value of 0 always copies
the entire packet, regardless of its size. Default is 0.
--ulog-qthreshold size
Number of packet to queue inside kernel. Setting this value to, e.g. 10
accumulates ten packets inside the kernel and transmits them as one
netlink multipart message to userspace. Default is 1 (for backwards
compatibility).
XOR
Encrypt TCP and UDP traffic using a simple XOR encryption
--key string
Set key to "string"
--block-size
Set block size
DIAGNOSTICS
Various error messages are printed to standard error. The exit code
is 0 for correct functioning. Errors which appear to be caused by
invalid or abused command line parameters cause an exit code of 2, and
other errors cause an exit code of 1.
This
iptables
is very similar to ipchains by Rusty Russell. The main difference is
that the chains
INPUT
and
OUTPUT
are only traversed for packets coming into the local host and
originating from the local host respectively. Hence every packet only
passes through one of the three chains (except loopback traffic, which
involves both INPUT and OUTPUT chains); previously a forwarded packet
would pass through all three.
The other main difference is that
-i
refers to the input interface;
-o
refers to the output interface, and both are available for packets
entering the
FORWARD
chain.
iptables
is a pure packet filter when using the default `filter' table, with
optional extension modules. This should simplify much of the previous
confusion over the combination of IP masquerading and packet filtering
seen previously. So the following options are handled differently:
Rusty Russell originally wrote iptables, in early consultation with Michael
Neuling.
Marc Boucher made Rusty abandon ipnatctl by lobbying for a generic packet
selection framework in iptables, then wrote the mangle table, the owner match,
the mark stuff, and ran around doing cool stuff everywhere.
James Morris wrote the TOS target, and tos match.
Jozsef Kadlecsik wrote the REJECT target.
Harald Welte wrote the ULOG and NFQUEUE target, the new libiptc, as well as the TTL, DSCP, ECN matches and targets.
The Netfilter Core Team is: Marc Boucher, Martin Josefsson, Jozsef Kadlecsik,
Patrick McHardy, James Morris, Harald Welte and Rusty Russell.
Man page originally written by Herve Eychenne <rv@wallfire.org>.