1IPTABLES(8)                     iptables 1.8.8                     IPTABLES(8)
2
3
4

NAME

6       iptables/ip6tables — administration tool for IPv4/IPv6 packet filtering
7       and NAT
8

SYNOPSIS

10       iptables [-t table] {-A|-C|-D|-V} chain rule-specification
11
12       ip6tables [-t table] {-A|-C|-D|-V} chain rule-specification
13
14       iptables [-t table] -I chain [rulenum] rule-specification
15
16       iptables [-t table] -R chain rulenum rule-specification
17
18       iptables [-t table] -D chain rulenum
19
20       iptables [-t table] -S [chain [rulenum]]
21
22       iptables [-t table] {-F|-L|-Z} [chain [rulenum]] [options...]
23
24       iptables [-t table] -N chain
25
26       iptables [-t table] -X [chain]
27
28       iptables [-t table] -P chain target
29
30       iptables [-t table] -E old-chain-name new-chain-name
31
32       rule-specification = [matches...] [target]
33
34       match = -m matchname [per-match-options]
35
36       target = -j targetname [per-target-options]
37

DESCRIPTION

39       Iptables and ip6tables are used to set up, maintain,  and  inspect  the
40       tables  of IPv4 and IPv6 packet filter rules in the Linux kernel.  Sev‐
41       eral different tables may be defined.  Each table contains a number  of
42       built-in chains and may also contain user-defined chains.
43
44       Each  chain  is a list of rules which can match a set of packets.  Each
45       rule specifies what to do with a packet that matches.  This is called a
46       `target',  which  may be a jump to a user-defined chain in the same ta‐
47       ble.
48

TARGETS

50       A firewall rule specifies criteria for a packet and a target.   If  the
51       packet  does  not  match, the next rule in the chain is examined; if it
52       does match, then the next rule is specified by the value of the target,
53       which  can  be the name of a user-defined chain, one of the targets de‐
54       scribed in iptables-extensions(8), or one of the special values ACCEPT,
55       DROP or RETURN.
56
57       ACCEPT  means to let the packet through.  DROP means to drop the packet
58       on the floor.  RETURN means stop traversing this chain  and  resume  at
59       the  next rule in the previous (calling) chain.  If the end of a built-
60       in chain is reached or a rule in a built-in chain with target RETURN is
61       matched,  the  target specified by the chain policy determines the fate
62       of the packet.
63

TABLES

65       There are currently five independent tables (which tables  are  present
66       at  any time depends on the kernel configuration options and which mod‐
67       ules are present).
68
69       -t, --table table
70              This option specifies the packet matching table which  the  com‐
71              mand  should operate on.  If the kernel is configured with auto‐
72              matic module loading, an attempt will be made to load the appro‐
73              priate module for that table if it is not already there.
74
75              The tables are as follows:
76
77              filter:
78                  This  is  the  default table (if no -t option is passed). It
79                  contains the built-in chains INPUT (for packets destined  to
80                  local  sockets),  FORWARD  (for packets being routed through
81                  the box), and OUTPUT (for locally-generated packets).
82
83              nat:
84                  This table is consulted when a packet  that  creates  a  new
85                  connection  is  encountered.  It consists of four built-ins:
86                  PREROUTING (for altering packets as soon as they  come  in),
87                  INPUT  (for  altering  packets  destined for local sockets),
88                  OUTPUT (for altering locally-generated packets before  rout‐
89                  ing),  and  POSTROUTING  (for  altering  packets as they are
90                  about to go out).  IPv6 NAT support is available since  ker‐
91                  nel 3.7.
92
93              mangle:
94                  This table is used for specialized packet alteration.  Until
95                  kernel 2.4.17 it had two built-in  chains:  PREROUTING  (for
96                  altering  incoming  packets  before routing) and OUTPUT (for
97                  altering locally-generated packets before  routing).   Since
98                  kernel  2.4.18,  three  other  built-in chains are also sup‐
99                  ported: INPUT (for packets coming into the box itself), FOR‐
100                  WARD  (for  altering  packets being routed through the box),
101                  and POSTROUTING (for altering packets as they are  about  to
102                  go out).
103
104              raw:
105                  This  table  is  used mainly for configuring exemptions from
106                  connection tracking in combination with the NOTRACK  target.
107                  It registers at the netfilter hooks with higher priority and
108                  is thus called before ip_conntrack, or any other IP  tables.
109                  It  provides  the following built-in chains: PREROUTING (for
110                  packets arriving via  any  network  interface)  OUTPUT  (for
111                  packets generated by local processes)
112
113              security:
114                  This  table  is used for Mandatory Access Control (MAC) net‐
115                  working rules, such as those  enabled  by  the  SECMARK  and
116                  CONNSECMARK  targets.   Mandatory  Access  Control is imple‐
117                  mented by Linux Security Modules such as SELinux.  The secu‐
118                  rity  table  is  called after the filter table, allowing any
119                  Discretionary Access Control (DAC) rules in the filter table
120                  to  take  effect  before MAC rules.  This table provides the
121                  following built-in chains: INPUT (for  packets  coming  into
122                  the  box  itself),  OUTPUT  (for  altering locally-generated
123                  packets before routing), and FORWARD (for  altering  packets
124                  being routed through the box).
125

OPTIONS

127       The  options  that  are recognized by iptables and ip6tables can be di‐
128       vided into several different groups.
129
130   COMMANDS
131       These options specify the desired action to perform. Only one  of  them
132       can be specified on the command line unless otherwise stated below. For
133       long versions of the command and option names, you  need  to  use  only
134       enough  letters  to  ensure that iptables can differentiate it from all
135       other options.
136
137       -A, --append chain rule-specification
138              Append one or more rules to the end of the selected chain.  When
139              the source and/or destination names resolve to more than one ad‐
140              dress, a rule will be added for each possible  address  combina‐
141              tion.
142
143       -C, --check chain rule-specification
144              Check  whether  a  rule matching the specification does exist in
145              the selected chain. This command uses the same logic  as  -D  to
146              find  a matching entry, but does not alter the existing iptables
147              configuration and uses its exit  code  to  indicate  success  or
148              failure.
149
150       -D, --delete chain rule-specification
151       -D, --delete chain rulenum
152              Delete one or more rules from the selected chain.  There are two
153              versions of this command: the rule can be specified as a  number
154              in  the  chain  (starting  at 1 for the first rule) or a rule to
155              match.
156
157       -I, --insert chain [rulenum] rule-specification
158              Insert one or more rules in the selected chain as the given rule
159              number.   So, if the rule number is 1, the rule or rules are in‐
160              serted at the head of the chain.  This is also the default if no
161              rule number is specified.
162
163       -R, --replace chain rulenum rule-specification
164              Replace a rule in the selected chain.  If the source and/or des‐
165              tination names resolve to multiple addresses, the  command  will
166              fail.  Rules are numbered starting at 1.
167
168       -L, --list [chain]
169              List  all rules in the selected chain.  If no chain is selected,
170              all chains are listed. Like every other iptables command, it ap‐
171              plies  to  the  specified  table (filter is the default), so NAT
172              rules get listed by
173               iptables -t nat -n -L
174              Please note that it is often used with the -n option,  in  order
175              to  avoid  long reverse DNS lookups.  It is legal to specify the
176              -Z (zero) option as well, in which case  the  chain(s)  will  be
177              atomically  listed  and zeroed.  The exact output is affected by
178              the other arguments given. The exact rules are suppressed  until
179              you use
180               iptables -L -v
181              or iptables-save(8).
182
183       -S, --list-rules [chain]
184              Print all rules in the selected chain.  If no chain is selected,
185              all chains are printed like iptables-save. Like every other ipt‐
186              ables  command, it applies to the specified table (filter is the
187              default).
188
189       -F, --flush [chain]
190              Flush the selected chain (all the chains in the table if none is
191              given).   This  is  equivalent  to deleting all the rules one by
192              one.
193
194       -Z, --zero [chain [rulenum]]
195              Zero the packet and byte counters in all  chains,  or  only  the
196              given  chain,  or only the given rule in a chain. It is legal to
197              specify the -L, --list (list) option as well, to see  the  coun‐
198              ters immediately before they are cleared. (See above.)
199
200       -N, --new-chain chain
201              Create  a  new user-defined chain by the given name.  There must
202              be no target of that name already.
203
204       -X, --delete-chain [chain]
205              Delete the chain specified.  There must be no references to  the
206              chain.   If  there are, you must delete or replace the referring
207              rules before the chain can be deleted.  The chain must be empty,
208              i.e.  not  contain  any rules.  If no argument is given, it will
209              delete all empty chains in the table. Empty builtin  chains  can
210              only be deleted with iptables-nft.
211
212       -P, --policy chain target
213              Set  the policy for the built-in (non-user-defined) chain to the
214              given target.  The policy target must be either ACCEPT or DROP.
215
216       -E, --rename-chain old-chain new-chain
217              Rename the user specified chain to the user supplied name.  This
218              is cosmetic, and has no effect on the structure of the table.
219
220       -h     Help.   Give a (currently very brief) description of the command
221              syntax.
222
223   PARAMETERS
224       The following parameters make up a rule specification (as used  in  the
225       add, delete, insert, replace and append commands).
226
227       -4, --ipv4
228              This  option has no effect in iptables and iptables-restore.  If
229              a rule using the -4 option is  inserted  with  (and  only  with)
230              ip6tables-restore,  it  will be silently ignored. Any other uses
231              will throw an error. This option allows IPv4 and IPv6 rules in a
232              single  rule  file for use with both iptables-restore and ip6ta‐
233              bles-restore.
234
235       -6, --ipv6
236              If a rule using the -6 option is inserted with (and  only  with)
237              iptables-restore,  it  will  be silently ignored. Any other uses
238              will throw an error. This option allows IPv4 and IPv6 rules in a
239              single  rule  file for use with both iptables-restore and ip6ta‐
240              bles-restore.  This option has no effect in ip6tables and ip6ta‐
241              bles-restore.
242
243       [!] -p, --protocol protocol
244              The  protocol of the rule or of the packet to check.  The speci‐
245              fied protocol can be one of tcp, udp, udplite, icmp, icmpv6,esp,
246              ah,  sctp,  mh  or the special keyword "all", or it can be a nu‐
247              meric value, representing one of these protocols or a  different
248              one.   A  protocol  name from /etc/protocols is also allowed.  A
249              "!" argument before the protocol inverts the test.   The  number
250              zero  is  equivalent to all. "all" will match with all protocols
251              and is taken as default when this option is omitted.  Note that,
252              in ip6tables, IPv6 extension headers except esp are not allowed.
253              esp and ipv6-nonext can be used with Kernel  version  2.6.11  or
254              later.   The  number zero is equivalent to all, which means that
255              you cannot test the protocol field for the value 0 directly.  To
256              match  on a HBH header, even if it were the last, you cannot use
257              -p 0, but always need -m hbh.
258
259       [!] -s, --source address[/mask][,...]
260              Source specification. Address can be either a  network  name,  a
261              hostname,  a  network IP address (with /mask), or a plain IP ad‐
262              dress. Hostnames will be resolved once only, before the rule  is
263              submitted  to  the kernel.  Please note that specifying any name
264              to be resolved with a remote query such as DNS is a  really  bad
265              idea.   The  mask  can be either an ipv4 network mask (for ipta‐
266              bles) or a plain number, specifying the number  of  1's  at  the
267              left  side of the network mask.  Thus, an iptables mask of 24 is
268              equivalent to 255.255.255.0.  A "!" argument before the  address
269              specification  inverts  the sense of the address. The flag --src
270              is an alias for this option.  Multiple addresses can  be  speci‐
271              fied,  but  this will expand to multiple rules (when adding with
272              -A), or will cause multiple rules to be deleted (with -D).
273
274       [!] -d, --destination address[/mask][,...]
275              Destination  specification.   See  the  description  of  the  -s
276              (source)  flag  for  a  detailed description of the syntax.  The
277              flag --dst is an alias for this option.
278
279       -m, --match match
280              Specifies a match to use, that  is,  an  extension  module  that
281              tests  for  a  specific property. The set of matches make up the
282              condition under which a target is invoked. Matches are evaluated
283              first  to  last  as  specified  on  the command line and work in
284              short-circuit fashion, i.e. if one extension yields false, eval‐
285              uation will stop.
286
287       -j, --jump target
288              This  specifies  the target of the rule; i.e., what to do if the
289              packet matches it.  The  target  can  be  a  user-defined  chain
290              (other than the one this rule is in), one of the special builtin
291              targets which decide the fate of the packet immediately,  or  an
292              extension  (see EXTENSIONS below).  If this option is omitted in
293              a rule (and -g is not used), then matching the rule will have no
294              effect  on  the packet's fate, but the counters on the rule will
295              be incremented.
296
297       -g, --goto chain
298              This specifies that the processing should  continue  in  a  user
299              specified  chain.  Unlike the --jump option return will not con‐
300              tinue processing in this chain but instead  in  the  chain  that
301              called us via --jump.
302
303       [!] -i, --in-interface name
304              Name  of  an interface via which a packet was received (only for
305              packets entering the  INPUT,  FORWARD  and  PREROUTING  chains).
306              When  the  "!"  argument  is used before the interface name, the
307              sense is inverted.  If the interface name ends in  a  "+",  then
308              any  interface  which begins with this name will match.  If this
309              option is omitted, any interface name will match.
310
311       [!] -o, --out-interface name
312              Name of an interface via which a packet is going to be sent (for
313              packets  entering  the  FORWARD, OUTPUT and POSTROUTING chains).
314              When the "!" argument is used before  the  interface  name,  the
315              sense  is  inverted.   If the interface name ends in a "+", then
316              any interface which begins with this name will match.   If  this
317              option is omitted, any interface name will match.
318
319       [!] -f, --fragment
320              This  means that the rule only refers to second and further IPv4
321              fragments of fragmented packets.  Since there is no way to  tell
322              the source or destination ports of such a packet (or ICMP type),
323              such a packet will not match any rules which specify them.  When
324              the  "!"  argument  precedes  the  "-f" flag, the rule will only
325              match head fragments, or unfragmented packets.  This  option  is
326              IPv4 specific, it is not available in ip6tables.
327
328       -c, --set-counters packets bytes
329              This enables the administrator to initialize the packet and byte
330              counters of a rule (during INSERT, APPEND, REPLACE operations).
331
332   OTHER OPTIONS
333       The following additional options can be specified:
334
335       -v, --verbose
336              Verbose output.  This option makes the list command show the in‐
337              terface name, the rule options (if any), and the TOS masks.  The
338              packet and byte counters are also listed, with the  suffix  'K',
339              'M' or 'G' for 1000, 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 multipliers re‐
340              spectively (but see the -x flag to change this).  For appending,
341              insertion, deletion and replacement, this causes detailed infor‐
342              mation on the rule or rules to be printed. -v may  be  specified
343              multiple  times to possibly emit more detailed debug statements:
344              Specified twice, iptables-legacy will dump table  info  and  en‐
345              tries  in libiptc, iptables-nft dumps rules in netlink (VM code)
346              presentation.  Specified three  times,  iptables-nft  will  also
347              dump any netlink messages sent to kernel.
348
349       -V, --version
350              Show program version and the kernel API used.
351
352       -w, --wait [seconds]
353              Wait for the xtables lock.  To prevent multiple instances of the
354              program from running concurrently, an attempt will  be  made  to
355              obtain  an  exclusive  lock  at launch.  By default, the program
356              will exit if the lock cannot be obtained.  This option will make
357              the  program  wait  (indefinitely or for optional seconds) until
358              the exclusive lock can be obtained.
359
360       -n, --numeric
361              Numeric output.  IP addresses and port numbers will  be  printed
362              in  numeric format.  By default, the program will try to display
363              them as host names, network names, or services (whenever  appli‐
364              cable).
365
366       -x, --exact
367              Expand  numbers.  Display the exact value of the packet and byte
368              counters, instead of only the rounded number in  K's  (multiples
369              of  1000)  M's (multiples of 1000K) or G's (multiples of 1000M).
370              This option is only relevant for the -L command.
371
372       --line-numbers
373              When listing rules, add line numbers to the  beginning  of  each
374              rule, corresponding to that rule's position in the chain.
375
376       --modprobe=command
377              When adding or inserting rules into a chain, use command to load
378              any necessary modules (targets, match extensions, etc).
379
380

LOCK FILE

382       iptables uses the /run/xtables.lock file to take an exclusive  lock  at
383       launch.
384
385       The  XTABLES_LOCKFILE  environment variable can be used to override the
386       default setting.
387
388

MATCH AND TARGET EXTENSIONS

390       iptables can use extended packet matching and target modules.   A  list
391       of these is available in the iptables-extensions(8) manpage.
392

DIAGNOSTICS

394       Various error messages are printed to standard error.  The exit code is
395       0 for correct functioning.  Errors which appear to be caused by invalid
396       or  abused  command  line parameters cause an exit code of 2, and other
397       errors cause an exit code of 1.
398

BUGS

400       Bugs?  What's this? ;-)  Well,  you  might  want  to  have  a  look  at
401       http://bugzilla.netfilter.org/
402

COMPATIBILITY WITH IPCHAINS

404       This  iptables  is very similar to ipchains by Rusty Russell.  The main
405       difference is that the chains INPUT and OUTPUT are only  traversed  for
406       packets  coming into the local host and originating from the local host
407       respectively.  Hence every packet only passes through one of the  three
408       chains  (except  loopback traffic, which involves both INPUT and OUTPUT
409       chains); previously a forwarded packet would pass through all three.
410
411       The other main difference is that -i refers to the input interface;  -o
412       refers  to the output interface, and both are available for packets en‐
413       tering the FORWARD chain.
414
415       The various forms of NAT have been separated out; iptables  is  a  pure
416       packet  filter when using the default `filter' table, with optional ex‐
417       tension modules.  This should simplify much of the  previous  confusion
418       over  the combination of IP masquerading and packet filtering seen pre‐
419       viously.  So the following options are handled differently:
420        -j MASQ
421        -M -S
422        -M -L
423       There are several other changes in iptables.
424

SEE ALSO

426       iptables-apply(8), iptables-save(8), iptables-restore(8),  iptables-ex‐
427       tensions(8),
428
429       The packet-filtering-HOWTO details iptables usage for packet filtering,
430       the NAT-HOWTO details NAT, the netfilter-extensions-HOWTO  details  the
431       extensions  that  are not in the standard distribution, and the netfil‐
432       ter-hacking-HOWTO details the netfilter internals.
433       See http://www.netfilter.org/.
434

AUTHORS

436       Rusty Russell originally wrote iptables,  in  early  consultation  with
437       Michael Neuling.
438
439       Marc  Boucher  made  Rusty  abandon  ipnatctl by lobbying for a generic
440       packet selection framework in iptables, then wrote  the  mangle  table,
441       the owner match, the mark stuff, and ran around doing cool stuff every‐
442       where.
443
444       James Morris wrote the TOS target, and tos match.
445
446       Jozsef Kadlecsik wrote the REJECT target.
447
448       Harald Welte wrote the ULOG and NFQUEUE target,  the  new  libiptc,  as
449       well as the TTL, DSCP, ECN matches and targets.
450
451       The  Netfilter  Core Team is: Jozsef Kadlecsik, Pablo Neira Ayuso, Eric
452       Leblond, Florian Westphal and  Arturo Borrero Gonzalez.  Emeritus  Core
453       Team  members  are:  Marc  Boucher, Martin Josefsson, Yasuyuki Kozakai,
454       James Morris, Harald Welte and Rusty Russell.
455
456       Man page originally written by Herve Eychenne <rv@wallfire.org>.
457

VERSION

459       This manual page applies to iptables/ip6tables 1.8.8.
460
461
462
463iptables 1.8.8                                                     IPTABLES(8)
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