IPTABLES(8)

📦
version 1.8.13 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.24, nixpkgs unstable

💅 iptables(8) — iptables 1.8.13, explained by your favorite unix bestie

okay so. this is the manual page for iptables(8), iptables version 1.8.13, and honestly? it's giving "the bouncer at the club of your network" energy. it's a lot, but we're gonna get through it together, no cap. grab a snack. 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

iptables/ip6tables — the administration tool for IPv4/IPv6 packet filtering and NAT. that's it. that's the whole name. iconic brevity. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the ~vibe~ of how you call it, verbatim, don't touch:

iptables [-t table] {-A|-C|-D|-V} chain rule-specification

ip6tables [-t table] {-A|-C|-D|-V} chain rule-specification

iptables [-t table] -I chain [rulenum] rule-specification

iptables [-t table] -R chain rulenum rule-specification

iptables [-t table] -D chain rulenum

iptables [-t table] -S [chain [rulenum]]

iptables [-t table] {-F|-L|-Z} [chain [rulenum]] [options...]

iptables [-t table] -N chain

iptables [-t table] -X [chain]

iptables [-t table] -P chain policy

iptables [-t table] -E old-chain-name new-chain-name

rule-specification := [matches...] [target]

match := -m matchname [per-match-options]

target := -j targetname [per-target-options]

like, yes, it's a wall of text, but it's our wall of text. 💜

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so iptables and ip6tables are the tools you use to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IPv4 and IPv6 packet filter rules inside the Linux kernel. literally the whole job. 🛠️

you can define several different tables. each table contains a number of built-in chains and may also contain user-defined chains.

each chain is a list of rules that can match a set of packets, and each rule specifies what to do with a packet that matches it. that "what to do" is called a target, and a target may be a jump to a user-defined chain in the same table. slay. ✨

🎯 TARGETS 🎯

a firewall rule is basically two things: criteria for a packet, and a target. matchmaking, but for packets. 💘

  • if the packet does not match → the next rule in the chain gets examined. moving on, nothing to see here.
  • if it does match → the next rule is specified by the value of the target. and that target can be:
    • the name of a user-defined chain,
    • one of the targets described in iptables-extensions(8),
    • or one of the special values ACCEPT, DROP or RETURN.

here's the special-value lore, bestie:

  • ACCEPT — let the packet through. be free, little packet. 🦋
  • DROP — drop the packet on the floor. no response, no explanation, just vibes (hostile ones). 💀
  • RETURN — stop traversing this chain and resume at the next rule in the previous (calling) chain. it's a "no thanks, back to where we came from" energy. ↩️

and if you hit the end of a built-in chain, or you match a rule in a built-in chain whose target is RETURN, then the target specified by the chain policy decides the fate of the packet. the policy is the final boss. 👑

🌈 TABLES 🌈

there are currently five independent tables (which tables are actually present at any given time depends on your kernel configuration options and which modules are present — so yeah, the lineup can vary, iykyk).

  • -t, --table table — picks which packet matching table the command should operate on. if your kernel is configured with automatic module loading, it'll try to load the appropriate module for that table if it isn't already there. so thoughtful. 🫶

the tables are as follows:

  • filter — the default table (the one you get if you pass no -t option at all). 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). the classic. the main character. ⭐
  • nat — consulted when a packet that creates a new connection is encountered. it consists of four built-ins: PREROUTING (for altering packets as soon as they come in), INPUT (for altering packets destined for local sockets), OUTPUT (for altering locally-generated packets before routing), and POSTROUTING (for altering packets as they are about to go out). 🌸 IPv6 NAT support is available since kernel 3.7, fun fact.
  • mangle — 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). glow-up arc. 🔥
  • raw — 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) and OUTPUT (for packets generated by local processes). early bird behavior. 🐦
  • security — used for Mandatory Access Control (MAC) networking rules, such as those enabled by the SECMARK and CONNSECMARK targets. Mandatory Access Control is implemented by Linux Security Modules such as SELinux. the security table is called after the filter table, which lets any Discretionary Access Control (DAC) rules in the filter table take effect before MAC rules. this table provides the following built-in chains: INPUT (for packets coming into the box itself), OUTPUT (for altering locally-generated packets before routing), and FORWARD (for altering packets being routed through the box). 🎀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

the options that iptables and ip6tables recognize can be divided into several different groups. let's go group by group, bestie, nobody gets left behind. 💅

🛠️ COMMANDS 🛠️

these are the "what do you actually want to do" options. only one of them can be specified on the command line unless otherwise stated below. and for long versions of the command and option names, you only need to use enough letters to make sure iptables can tell it apart from all the other options — abbreviation rights! ✂️

  • -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. more is more. 🎀
  • -C, --check chain rule-specification — check whether a rule matching the specification actually exists in the selected chain. this command uses the same logic as -D to find a matching entry, but it does not alter the existing iptables configuration, and it uses its exit code to tell you success or failure. peekaboo, no changes. 👀
  • -D, --delete chain rule-specification — or — -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 as a rule to match. pick your fighter. 🥊
  • -I, --insert chain [rulenum] rule-specification — insert one or more rules into the selected chain as the given rule number. so if the rule number is 1, the rule or rules get inserted at the head of the chain. this is also the default if no rule number is specified. front of the line, periodt. 💫
  • -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 — that's a hard no, sorry. 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. like 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 it's 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

or iptables-save(8). 🧾

  • -S, --list-rules [chain] — print all rules in the selected chain. if no chain is selected, all chains are printed like iptables-save. like every other iptables command, it applies to the specified table (filter is the default). 📜
  • -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. bye bye rules, one at a time. 🧹
  • -Z, --zero [chain [rulenum]] — zero the packet and byte counters in all chains, or only the given chain, or only the given rule in a chain. it is legal to specify the -L, --list option as well, to see the counters immediately before they get cleared (see above, bestie). 🔢
  • -N, --new-chain chain — create a new user-defined chain with the given name. there must be no target of that name already — no duplicates on this timeline. 🆕
  • -X, --delete-chain [chain] — delete the chain specified. there must be no references to the chain. if there are, you have to delete or replace the referring rules before the chain can be deleted. the chain must also be empty, i.e. not contain any rules. if no argument is given, it will delete all empty chains in the table. empty builtin chains can only be deleted with iptables-nft — noted, don't come for me. 🗑️
  • -P, --policy chain target — set the policy for the built-in (non-user-defined) chain to the given target. the policy target must be either ACCEPT or DROP. only two choices, but what a pair. ⚖️
  • -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. it's a name change, not a personality transplant. 💇
  • -h — help. gives a (currently very brief) description of the command syntax. short king. 🤏

🎛️ PARAMETERS 🎛️

the following parameters make up a rule specification (as used in the add, delete, insert, replace and append commands). this is the actual stuff of your rule, so pay attention. 👀

  • -4, --ipv4 — this option has no effect in iptables and iptables-restore. if a rule using the -4 option is inserted with (and only with) ip6tables-restore, it will be silently ignored. any other uses will throw an error. what this option is for is letting you keep IPv4 and IPv6 rules in a single rule file for use with both iptables-restore and ip6tables-restore. teamwork, but make it conditional. 🫶
  • -6, --ipv6 — if a rule using the -6 option is inserted with (and only with) iptables-restore, it will be silently ignored. any other uses will throw an error. this option allows IPv4 and IPv6 rules in a single rule file for use with both iptables-restore and ip6tables-restore. this option has no effect in ip6tables and ip6tables-restore. same deal, mirrored — symmetry slay. 🪞

okay that's the first chunk, and we're literally just getting started — more parts are loading, don't go anywhere 💜

  • [!] -p, --protocol protocol — this is the protocol of the rule or of the packet you're checking, bestie. The protocol can be one of tcp, udp, udplite, icmp, icmpv6, esp, ah, sctp, mh or the special keyword "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. Drop a ! argument before the protocol and the test gets inverted. The number zero is equivalent to all. "all" will match with all protocols and is taken as default when this option is omitted. Note that, in ip6tables, IPv6 extension headers except esp are not allowed. esp and ipv6-nonext can be used with Kernel version 2.6.11 or later. The number zero is equivalent to all, which means that you cannot test the protocol field for the value 0 directly. To match on a HBH header, even if it were the last, you cannot use -p 0, but always need -m hbh.
  • [!] -s, --source address[/mask][,...] — source specification, aka where the packet says it's from. Address can be either a network name, a hostname, a network IP address (with /mask), or a plain IP address. Hostnames will be resolved once only, before the rule is submitted to the kernel.
bestie, specifying any name to be resolved with a remote query such as DNS is a really bad idea. like, genuinely do not.

The mask can be either an ipv4 network mask (for iptables) or a plain number, specifying the number of 1's at the left side of the network mask. Thus, an iptables 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. Multiple addresses can be specified, but this will expand to multiple rules (when adding with -A), or will cause multiple rules to be deleted (with -D).

  • [!] -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.
  • -m, --match match — specifies a match to use, that is, an extension module that tests for a specific property. The set of matches make up the condition under which a target is invoked. Matches are evaluated first to last as specified on the command line and work in short-circuit fashion, i.e. if one extension yields false, evaluation will stop.
  • -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 MATCH AND TARGET 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 with 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 IPv4 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. This option is IPv4 specific, it is not available in ip6tables.
  • -c, --set-counters packets 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. -v may be specified multiple times to possibly emit more detailed debug statements: specified twice, iptables-legacy will dump table info and entries in libiptc, iptables-nft dumps rules in netlink (VM code) presentation. Specified three times, iptables-nft will also dump any netlink messages sent to kernel.
  • -V, --version — show program version and the kernel API used.
  • -w, --wait [seconds] — wait for the xtables lock. To prevent multiple instances of the program from running concurrently, an attempt will be made to obtain an exclusive lock at launch. By default, the program will exit if the lock cannot be obtained. This option will make the program wait (indefinitely or for optional seconds) until the exclusive lock can be obtained.
  • -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).

🔒 LOCK FILE 🔒

iptables uses the /run/xtables.lock file to take an exclusive lock at launch.

The XTABLES_LOCKFILE environment variable can be used to override the default setting.

🌈 MATCH AND TARGET EXTENSIONS 🌈

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

🩺 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. Errors which indicate an incompatibility between kernel and user space cause an exit code of 3. Errors which indicate a resource problem, such as a busy lock, failing memory allocation or error messages from kernel cause an exit code of 4. Finally, other errors cause an exit code of 1.

🐛 BUGS 🐛

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

iptables will exit immediately with an error code of 111 if it finds that it was called as a setuid-to-root program.

iptables cannot be used safely in this manner because it trusts the shared libraries (matches, targets) loaded at run time, the search path can be set using environment variables.

🕰️ COMPATIBILITY WITH IPCHAINS 🕰️

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.

The various forms of NAT have been separated out; iptables is a pure packet filter when using the default filter table, with optional extension modules. This should avoid much of the confusion over the combination of IP masquerading and packet filtering seen previously. So the following options are handled differently:

-j MASQ
-M -S
-M -L

There are several other changes in iptables.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

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 netfilter-hacking-HOWTO details the netfilter internals.

See https://www.netfilter.org/.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

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: Jozsef Kadlecsik, Pablo Neira Ayuso, Eric Leblond, Florian Westphal and Arturo Borrero Gonzalez. Emeritus Core Team members are: Marc Boucher, Martin Josefsson, Yasuyuki Kozakai, James Morris, Harald Welte and Rusty Russell.

Man page originally written by Herve Eychenne <rv@wallfire.org>.

⭐ VERSION ⭐

This manual page applies to iptables/ip6tables 1.8.13.

xoxo, bestie 💖 signing off from iptables 1.8.13 / IPTABLES(8) — that's the footer vibe, and we're out ✨💅

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