iptables.8

.TH IPTABLES 8 "Mar 20, 2000" "" ""
.\"
.\" Man page written by Herve Eychenne <eychenne@info.enserb.u-bordeaux.fr>
.\" It is based on ipchains man page.
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.\" ipchains page by Paul ``Rusty'' Russell March 1997
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.SH NAME
iptables \- IP packet filter administration
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BR "iptables -[ADC] " "chain rule-specification [options]"
.br
.BR "iptables -[RI] " "chain rulenum rule-specification [options]"
.br
.BR "iptables -D " "chain rulenum [options]"
.br
.BR "iptables -[LFZ] " "[chain] [options]"
.br
.BR "iptables -[NX] " "chain"
.br
.BR "iptables -P " "chain target [options]"
.br
.BR "iptables -E " "old-chain-name new-chain-name"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Iptables
is used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IP packet
filter rules in the Linux kernel.  There are several different tables
which may be defined, and each table contains a number of built-in
chains, and may 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 which matches.  This is called
a `target', which may be a jump to a user-defined chain in the same
table.

.SH 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 
.IR ACCEPT ,
.IR DROP ,
.IR QUEUE ,
or
.IR RETURN .
.PP
.I ACCEPT 
means to let the packet through.
.I DROP
means to drop the packet on the floor.
.I QUEUE
means to pass the packet to userspace.
.I 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
.I RETURN
is matched, the target specified by the chain policy determines the
fate of the packet.
.SH TABLES
There are current three tables (which tables are present at any time
depends on the kernel configuration options and which modules are
present).
.TP
.B "-t, --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:
.BR "filter"
This is the default table, and contains the built-in chains INPUT (for
packets coming into the box itself), FORWARD (for packets being routed
through the box), and OUTPUT (for locally-generated packets).
.BR "nat"
This table is consulted when a packet which is 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).
.BR "mangle"
This table is used for specialized packet alteration.  It has two
built-in chains: PREROUTING (for altering incoming packets before
routing) and OUTPUT (for altering locally-generated packets before
routing).
.SH OPTIONS
The options that are recognized by
.B iptables
can be divided into several different groups.
.SS 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
only need to use enough letters to ensure that 
.B iptables
can differentiate it from all other options.
.TP
.BR "-A, --append"
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.
.TP
.BR "-D, --delete"
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.
.TP
.B "-R, --replace"
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.
.TP
.B "-I, --insert"
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.
.TP
.B "-L, --list"
List all rules in the selected chain.  If no chain is selected, all
chains are listed.  It is legal to specify the
.B -Z
(zero) option as well, in which case the chain(s) will be atomically
listed and zeroed.  The exact output is effected by the other
arguments given.
.TP
.B "-F, --flush"
Flush the selected chain.  This is equivalent to deleting all the
rules one by one.
.TP
.B "-Z, --zero"
Zero the packet and byte counters in all chains.  It is legal to
specify the
.B "-L, --list"
(list) option as well, to see the counters immediately before they are
cleared; see above.
.TP
.B "-N, --new-chain"
Create a new user-defined chain of the given name.  There must be no
target of that name already.
.TP
.B "-X, --delete-chain"
Delete the specified user-defined chain.  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).  If no argument is given, it
will attempt to delete every non-builtin chain.
.TP
.B "-P, --policy"
Set the policy for the chain to the given target.  See the section
.TP
.B "-E, --rename-chain"
Rename the user specified chain to the user supplied name; this is
cosmetic, and has no effect on the structure of the table.
.B TARGETS
for the legal targets.  Only non-userdefined chains can have policies,
and neither built-in nor user-defined chains can be policy targets.
.TP
.B -h
Help.
Give a (currently very brief) description of the command syntax.
.SS PARAMETERS
The following parameters make up a rule specification (as used in the
add, delete, replace, append and check commands).
.TP
.BR "-p, --protocol " "[!] \fIprotocol\fP"
The protocol of the rule or of the packet to check.
The specified protocol can be one of
.IR tcp ,
.IR udp ,
.IR icmp ,
or
.IR all ,
or it can be a numeric value, representing one of these protocols or a
different one.  Also a protocol name from /etc/protocols is allowed.
A "!" argument before the protocol inverts the
test.  The number zero is equivalent to
.IR all .
Protocol
.I all
will match with all protocols and is taken as default when this
option is omitted.
.I All
may not be used in in combination with the check command.
.TP
.BR "-s, --source " "[!] \fIaddress\fP[/\fImask\fP]"
Source specification.
.I Address
can be either a hostname, a network name, or a plain IP address.
The
.I 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
.I 24
is equivalent to
.IR 255.255.255.0 .
A "!" argument before the address specification inverts the sense of
the address. The flag
.B --src
is a convenient alias for this option.
.TP
.BR "-d, --destination " "[!] \fIaddress\fP[/\fImask\fP]"
Destination specification. 
See the description of the
.B -s
(source) flag for a detailed description of the syntax.  The flag
.B --dst
is an alias for this option.
.TP
.BI "-j, --jump " "target"
This specifies the target of the rule; ie. what to do if the packet
matches it.  The target can be a user-defined chain (not the one this
rule is in), one of the special builtin targets which decide the fate
of the packet immediately, or an extension (see 
.B EXTENSIONS
below).  If this
option is omitted in a rule, then matching the rule will have no
effect on the packet's fate, but the counters on the rule will be
incremented.
.TP
.BR "-i, --in-interface " "[!] [\fIname\fP]"
Optional name of an interface via which a packet is received (for
packets entering the 
.BR INPUT ,
.B FORWARD
and
.B 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, the string "+" is assumed, which will match with any
interface name.
.TP
.BR "-o, --out-interface " "[!] [\fIname\fP]"
Optional name of an interface via which a packet is going to
be sent (for packets entering the
.BR FORWARD ,
.B OUTPUT
and
.B 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, the string "+" is assumed, which will match with any
interface name.
.TP
.B "[!] " "-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 sense is inverted.
.SS "OTHER OPTIONS"
The following additional options can be specified:
.TP
.B "-v, --verbose"
Verbose output.  This option makes the list command show the interface
address, 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
.B -x
flag to change this).
For appending, insertion, deletion and replacement, this causes
detailed information on the rule or rules to be printed.
.TP
.B "-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).
.TP
.B "-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 
.B -L
command.
.TP
.B "--line-numbers"
When listing rules, add line numbers to the beginning of each rule,
corresponding to that rule's position in the chain.
.SH MATCH EXTENSIONS
iptables can use extended packet matching modules.  The following are
included in the base package, and most of these can be preceded by a
.B !
to invert the sense of the match.
.SS tcp
These extensions are loaded if `--protocol tcp' is specified, and no
other match is specified. It provides the following options:
.TP
.BR "--source-port " "[!] [\fIport[:port]\fP]"
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
.IR 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
.B --sport
is an alias for this option.
.TP
.BR "--destination-port " "[!] [\fIport[:port]\fP]"
Destination port or port range specification. The flag
.B --dport
is an alias for this option.
.TP
.BR "--tcp-flags " "[!] \fImask\fP \fIcomp\fP"
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: 
.BR "SYN ACK FIN RST URG PSH ALL NONE" .
Hence the command
.br
 iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,ACK,FIN,RST SYN
.br
will only match packets with the SYN flag set, and the ACK, FIN and
RST flags unset.
.TP
.B "[!] --syn"
Only match TCP packets with the SYN bit set and the ACK 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 \fB--tcp-flags SYN,RST,ACK SYN\fP.
If the "!" flag precedes the "--syn", the sense of the
option is inverted.
.TP
.BR "--tcp-option " "[!] \fInumber\fP"
Match if TCP option set.
.SS udp
These extensions are loaded if `--protocol udp' is specified, and no
other match is specified. It provides the following options:
.TP
.BR "--source-port " "[!] [\fIport[:port]\fP]"
Source port or port range specification.
See the description of the
.B --source-port
option of the TCP extension for details.
.TP
.BR "--destination-port " "[!] [\fIport[:port]\fP]"
Destination port or port range specification.
See the description of the
.B --destination-port
option of the TCP extension for details.
.SS icmp
This extension is loaded if `--protocol icmp' is specified, and no
other match is specified. It provides the following option:
.TP
.BR "--icmp-type " "[!] \fItypename\fP"
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
.br
 iptables -p icmp -h
.br
.SS mac
.TP
.BR "--mac-source " "[!] \fIaddress\fP"
Match source MAC address.  It must be of the form XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.
Note that this only makes sense for packets entering the
.BR PREROUTING ,
.B FORWARD
or
.B INPUT
chains for packets coming from an ethernet device.
.SS limit
This module matches at a limited rate using a token bucket filter: it
can be used in combination with the LOG target to give limited
logging.  A rule using this extension will match until this limit is
reached (unless the `!' flag is used).
.TP
.BI "--limit " "rate"
Maximum average matching rate: specified as a number, with an optional
`/second', `/minute', `/hour', or `/day' suffix; the default is
3/hour.
.TP
.BI "--limit-burst " "number"
The 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.
.SS multiport
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
.B "-p tcp"
or
.BR "-p udp" .
.TP
.BR "--source-port" " [\fIport[,port]\fP]"
Match if the source port is one of the given ports.
.TP
.BR "--destination-port" " [\fIport[,port]\fP]"
Match if the destination port is one of the given ports.
.TP
.BR "--port" " [\fIport[,port]\fP]"
Match if the both the source and destination ports are equal to each
other and to one of the given ports.
.SS mark
This module matches the netfilter mark field associated with a packet
(which can be set using the
.B MARK
target below).
.TP
.BI "--mark " "value[/mask]"
Matches packets with the given unsigned mark value (if a mask is
specified, this is logically ANDed with the mark before the
comparison).
.SS owner
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.
.TP
.BI "--uid-owner " "userid"
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
effective user id.
.TP
.BI "--gid-owner " "groupid"
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
effective group id.
.TP
.BI "--pid-owner " "processid"
Matches if the packet was created by a process with the given
process id.
.TP
.BI "--sid-owner " "sessionid"
Matches if the packet was created by a process in the given session
group.
.SS state
This module, when combined with connection tracking, allows access to
the connection tracking state for this packet.
.TP
.BI "--state " "state"
Where state is a comma separated list of the connection states to
match.  Possible states are 
.B INVALID
meaning that the packet is associated with no known connection,
.B ESTABLISHED
meaning that the packet is associated with a connection which has seen
packets in both directions,
.B 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
.B 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.
.SS unclean
This module takes no options, but attempts to match packets which seem
malformed or unusual.  This is regarded as experimental.
.SS tos
This module matches the 8 bits of Type of Service field in the IP
header (ie. including the precedence bits). 
.TP
.BI "--tos " "tos"
The argument is either a standard name, (use
.br
 iptables -m tos -h
.br
to see the list), or a numeric value to match.
.SH TARGET EXTENSIONS
iptables can use extended target modules: the following are included
in the standard distribution.
.SS 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
.IR printk ().
.TP
.BI "--log-level " "level"
Level of logging (numeric or see \fIsyslog.conf\fP(5)).
.TP
.BI "--log-prefix " "prefix"
Prefix log messages with the specified prefix; up to 14 letters long,
and useful for distinguishing messages in the logs.
.TP
.B --log-tcp-sequence
Log TCP sequence numbers. This is a security risk if the log is
readable by users.
.TP
.B --log-tcp-options
Log options from the TCP packet header.
.TP
.B --log-ip-options
Log options from the IP packet header.
.SS MARK
This is used to set the netfilter mark value associated with the
packet.  It is only valid in the
.B mangle
table.
.TP
.BI "--set-mark " "mark"
.SS REJECT
This is used to send back an error packet in response to the matched
packet: otherwise it is equivalent to 
.BR DROP .
This target is only valid in the
.BR INPUT ,
.B FORWARD
and
.B OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains.  Several options control the nature of the error packet
returned:
.TP
.BI "--reject-with " "type"
The type given can be 
.BR icmp-net-unreachable ,
.BR icmp-host-unreachable ,
.BR icmp-port-unreachable ,
.BR icmp-proto-unreachable ,
.BR icmp-net-prohibited or
.BR icmp-host-prohibited ,
which return the appropriate ICMP error message (port-unreachable is
the default).  The option 
.B echo-reply
is also allowed; it can only be used for rules which specify an ICMP
ping packet, and generates a ping reply.  Finally, the option
.B tcp-reset
can be used on rules in (or called from) the 
.B INPUT
chain which only match the TCP protocol: this causes a TCP RST packet
to be sent back.
.SS TOS
This is used to set the 8-bit Type of Service field in the IP header.
It is only valid in the
.B mangle
table.
.TP
.BI "--set-tos " "tos"
You can use a numeric TOS values, or use
.br
 iptables -j TOS -h
.br
to see the list of valid TOS names.
.SS 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
.BR INPUT ,
.B FORWARD
and 
.B OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those chains.
.SS SNAT
This target is only valid in the 
.B nat
table, in the 
.B 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 option:
.TP
.BI "--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
.B "-p tcp"
or
.BR "-p udp" ).
If no port range is specified, then source ports below 512 will be
mapped to other ports below 512: those between 1024 will be mapped to
ports below 1024, and other ports will be mapped to 1024 or above.
Where possible, no port alteration will occur.
.SS DNAT
This target is only valid in the 
.B nat
table, in the 
.B PREROUTING
and
.B 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
option:
.TP
.BI "--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
.B "-p tcp"
or
.BR "-p udp" ).
If no port range is specified, then the destination port will never be
modified.
.SS MASQUERADE
This target is only valid in the 
.B nat
table, in the 
.B 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 
.I 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:
.TP
.BI "--to-ports " "<port>[-<port>]"
This specifies a range of source ports to use, overriding the default 
.B SNAT
source port-selection heuristics (see above).  This is only valid with
if the rule also specifies
.B "-p tcp"
or
.BR "-p udp" ).
.SS REDIRECT
This target is only valid in the 
.B nat
table, in the 
.B PREROUTING
and
.B OUTPUT
chains, and user-defined chains which are only called from those
chains.  It alters the destination IP address to send the packet to
the machine itself (locally-generated packets are mapped to the
127.0.0.1 address).  It takes one option:
.TP
.BI "--to-ports " "<port>[-<port>]"
This specifies a destination port or range or ports to use: without
this, the destination port is never altered.  This is only valid with
if the rule also specifies
.B "-p tcp"
or
.BR "-p udp" ).
.TP
.SH 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.
.SH BUGS
Check is not implemented (yet).
.SH COMPATIBILITY WITH IPCHAINS
This 
.B iptables
is very similar to ipchains by Rusty Russell.  The main difference is
that the chains 
.B INPUT
and
.B 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; previously a forwarded packet
would pass through all three.
.PP
The other main difference is that 
.B -i
refers to the input interface;
.B -o
refers to the output interface, and both are available for packets
entering the
.B FORWARD
chain.
.PP The various forms of NAT have been separated out; 
.B 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:
.br
 -j MASQ
.br
 -M -S
.br
 -M -L
.br
There are several other changes in iptables.
.SH SEE ALSO
The iptables-HOWTO, which details more iptables usage, and the
netfilter-hacking-HOWTO which details the internals.
.SH AUTHORS
Rusty Russell wrote iptables, in early consultation with Michael
Neuling.
.PP
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.
.PP
James Morris wrote the TOS target, and tos match.
.PP
Jozsef Kadlecsik wrote the REJECT target.
.PP
The Netfilter Core Team is: Marc Boucher, Rusty Russell.
.\" .. and did I mention that we are incredibly cool people?