ip6tables (8)
NAME
ip6tables - IPv6 packet filter administration
SYNOPSIS
ip6tables [-t table] -[ADC] chain rule-specification [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -I chain [rulenum] rule-specification [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -R chain rulenum rule-specification [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -D chain rulenum [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -[LFZ] [chain] [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -N chain
ip6tables [-t table] -X [chain]
ip6tables [-t table] -P chain target [options]
ip6tables [-t table] -E old-chain-name new-chain-name
DESCRIPTION
Ip6tables is used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IPv6
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 ta-
ble.
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 tar-
get, which can be the name of a user-defined chain or one of the spe-
cial 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 (if sup-
ported by the kernel). 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 two independent tables (which tables are present at
any time depends on the kernel configuration options and which modules
are present), as nat table has not been implemented yet.
-t, --table table
This option specifies the packet matching table which the com-
mand should operate on. If the kernel is configured with auto-
matic module loading, an attempt will be made to load the appro-
priate 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 con-
ets 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).
OPTIONS
The options that are recognized by ip6tables can be divided into sev-
eral 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 ip6tables 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 combina-
tion.
-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
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 des-
tination 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
ip6tables -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.
-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. 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 sec-
tion 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 speci-
fied protocol can be one of tcp, udp, ipv6-icmp|icmpv6, or all,
or it can be a numeric value, representing one of these proto-
cols 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 hostname (please
note that specifying any name to be resolved with a remote query
such as DNS is a really bad idea), a network IPv6 address (with
/mask), or a plain IPv6 address. (the network name isn't sup-
ported now). 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 64 is equivalent to
ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0000:0000:0000:0000. 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
"+", 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 and OUTPUT chains). When the "!"
argument is used before the interface name, the sense is
inverted. If the interface name ends in a "+", then any inter-
face which begins with this name will match. If this option is
omitted, any interface name will match.
-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 multipli-
ers 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 appli-
cable).
-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
ip6tables 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 mod-
ules 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
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 [!] mask comp
Match when the TCP flags are as specified. The first argument
is the flags which we should examine, written as a comma-sepa-
rated 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
ip6tables -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 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 SYN. If the "!" flag precedes the "--syn",
the sense of the option is inverted.
--tcp-option [!] number
Match if TCP option set.
udp
These extensions are loaded if `--protocol udp' is specified. It pro-
vides 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 descrip-
tion of the --destination-port option of the TCP extension for
details.
ipv6-icmp
This extension is loaded if `--protocol ipv6-icmp' or `--protocol
icmpv6' is specified. It provides the following option:
--icmpv6-type [!] typename
This allows specification of the ICMP type, which can be a
numeric IPv6-ICMP type, or one of the IPv6-ICMP type names shown
by the command
ip6tables -p ipv6-icmp -h
mac
--mac-source [!] address
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.
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 -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.
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 com-
parison).
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. This is regarded as experimen-
tal.
--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.
Turn on kernel logging of matching packets. When this option is set
for a rule, the Linux kernel will print some information on all match-
ing packets (like most IPv6 IPv6-header fields) via the kernel log
(where it can be read with dmesg or syslogd(8)). This is a "non-termi-
nating 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).
--log-level level
Level of logging (numeric or see syslog.conf(5)).
--log-prefix prefix
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 IPv6 packet header.
MARK
This is used to set the netfilter mark value associated with the
packet. It is only valid in the mangle table.
--set-mark mark
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 TAR-
GET, 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 icmp6-no-route, no-route, icmp6-adm-pro-
hibited, adm-prohibited, icmp6-addr-unreachable, addr-unreach,
icmp6-port-unreachable, port-unreach, which return the appropri-
ate IPv6-ICMP error message (port-unreach is the default).
Finally, 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).
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.
BUGS
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. There are several other changes in
ip6tables.
SEE ALSO
ip6tables-save(8), ip6tables-restore(8), iptables(8), iptables-save(8),
iptables-restore(8).
The packet-filtering-HOWTO details iptables usage for packet filtering,
the NAT-HOWTO details NAT, the netfilter-extensions-HOWTO details the
extensions that are not in the standard distribution, and the netfil-
ter-hacking-HOWTO details the netfilter internals.
See http://www.netfilter.org/.
AUTHORS
Rusty Russell wrote iptables, in early consultation with Michael Neul-
ing.
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 every-
where.
James Morris wrote the TOS target, and tos match.
Jozsef Kadlecsik wrote the REJECT target.
Harald Welte wrote the ULOG target, TTL match+target and libipulog.
The Netfilter Core Team is: Marc Boucher, Jozsef Kadlecsik, James Mor-
ris, Harald Welte and Rusty Russell.
ip6tables man page created by Andras Kis-Szabo, based on iptables man
page written by Herve Eychenne <rv@wallfire.org>.
Mar 09, 2002 ip6tables(8)