PFCTL(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual PFCTL(8)
NAME
pfctl - control the packet filter (PF) device
SYNOPSIS
pfctl [-AdeghMmNnOPqRrvz] [-a anchor] [-D macro= value] [-F modifier]
[-f file] [-i interface] [-K host | network] [-k
host | network | label | id | gateway | nat] [-o level] [-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
configuration 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
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.conf(5).
When the variable pf_enable 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 sysctl.conf(5).
At least one option must be specified. 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, -s, and -T 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.conf(5).
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.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 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
To flush all rulesets and tables recursively, specify only `*' as
the anchor name:
# pfctl -a '*' -Fa
-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 ethernet Flush the Ethernet filter rules.
-F rules Flush the filter rules.
-F states 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 Reset Reset limits, timeouts and other options back to
default settings. See the OPTIONS section in
pf.conf(5) for details.
-F all Flush all of the above.
If -a is specified as well and anchor is terminated with a `*'
character, rules, Tables and all flush the given anchor
recursively.
-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 | label | id | key | gateway | nat
Kill all of the state entries matching the specified host,
network, label, id, key, gateway, or nat.
For example, to kill all of the state entries originating from
"host":
# pfctl -k host
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. 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
It is also possible to kill states by rule label, state key or
state ID. In this mode the first -k argument is used to specify
the type of the second argument. The following command would
kill all states that have been created from rules carrying the
label "foobar":
# pfctl -k label -k foobar
To kill one specific state by its key (protocol, host1, port1,
direction, host2 and port2 in the same format of pfctl -s state),
use the key modifier and as a second argument the state key. To
kill a state whose protocol is TCP and originating from
10.0.0.101:32123 to 10.0.0.1:80 use:
# pfctl -k key -k 'tcp 10.0.0.1:80 <- 10.0.0.101:32123'
To kill one specific state by its unique state ID (as shown by
pfctl -s state -vv), use the id modifier and as a second argument
the state ID and optional creator ID. To kill a state with ID
4823e84500000003 use:
# pfctl -k id -k 4823e84500000003
To kill a state with ID 4823e84500000018 created from a backup
firewall with hostid 00000002 use:
# pfctl -k id -k 4823e84500000018/2
It is also possible to kill states created from a rule with the
route-to/reply-to parameter set to route the connection through a
particular gateway. Note that rules routing via the default
routing table (not via a route-to rule) will have their rt_addr
set as 0.0.0.0 or ::. To kill all states using a gateway of
192.168.0.1 use:
# pfctl -k gateway -k 192.168.0.1
A network prefix length can also be specified. To kill all
states using a gateway in 192.168.0.0/24:
# pfctl -k gateway -k 192.168.0.0/24
States can also be killed based on their pre-NAT address:
# pfctl -k nat -k 192.168.0.1
-M Kill matching states in the opposite direction (on other
interfaces) when killing states. This applies to states killed
using the -k option and also will apply to the flush command when
flushing states. This is useful when an interface is specified
when flushing states. Example:
# pfctl -M -i interface -Fs
-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, overriding any rule file settings.
-o none Disable the ruleset optimizer.
-o basic Enable basic ruleset optimizations. This is the
default behaviour.
-o profile Enable basic ruleset optimizations with profiling.
For further information on the ruleset optimizer, see pf.conf(5).
-P Do not perform service name lookup for port specific rules,
instead display the ports numerically.
-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 and tables when displaying
them. -N and -r are mutually exclusive.
-s modifier [-R id]
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 ethernet Show the currently loaded Ethernet rules. When
used together with -v, the per-rule statistics
(number of evaluations, packets, and bytes) are
also shown.
-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 is not
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 states 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, the firewall's 32-bit hostid number
and the main ruleset's MD5 checksum for use with
pfsync(4) are also shown.
-s Running Show the running status and provide a non-zero
exit status when disabled.
-s labels Show per-rule statistics (label, evaluations,
packets total, bytes total, packets in, bytes in,
packets out, bytes out, state creations) 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 groups
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.
Counters shown with -s info are:
match explicit rule match
bad-offset currently unused
fragment invalid fragments dropped
short short packets dropped
normalize dropped by normalizer: illegal packets
memory memory could not be allocated
bad-timestamp bad TCP timestamp; RFC 1323
congestion network interface queue congested
ip-option bad IP/IPv6 options
proto-cksum invalid protocol checksum
state-mismatch packet was associated with a state entry, but
sequence numbers did not match
state-insert state insertion failure
state-limit configured state limit was reached
src-limit source node/connection limit
synproxy dropped by synproxy
map-failed address mapping failed
translate no free ports in translation port range
-S Do not perform domain name resolution. If a name cannot be
resolved without DNS, an error will be reported.
-t table -T command [address ...]
Specify the command (may be abbreviated) to apply to table.
Commands include:
-T add Add one or more addresses to a table.
Automatically create a persistent table if it
does not exist.
-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 flush Flush all addresses in a table.
-T kill Kill a table.
-T replace Replace the addresses of the table.
Automatically create a persistent table if it
does not exist.
-T show Show the content (addresses) of a table.
-T test Test if the given addresses match a table.
-T zero [address ...]
Clear all the statistics of a table, or only
for specified addresses.
-T reset Clear statistics only for addresses with non-
zero statistics. Addresses with counter values
at zero and their "Cleared" timestamp are left
untouched.
-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 `#' or `;' 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 (test operation only).
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 can maintain 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> counters { 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-C 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 does not 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 do not 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.
C This flag is set when per-address counters are enabled on
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 Do not 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), services(5), sysctl.conf(5),
authpf(8), ftp-proxy(8), rc(8), sysctl(8)
HISTORY
The pfctl program and the pf(4) filter mechanism appeared in OpenBSD 3.0.
They first appeared in FreeBSD 5.3 ported from the version in OpenBSD 3.5
FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD August 5, 2025 PFCTL(8)