man iptables(8)

IPTABLES(8)                                                                iptables 1.6.0                                                               IPTABLES(8)

NAME
       iptables/ip6tables — administration tool for IPv4/IPv6 packet filtering and NAT

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

       ip6tables [-t table] {-A|-C|-D} 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 target

       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]

DESCRIPTION
       Iptables  and  ip6tables  are  used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IPv4 and 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 table.

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 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,  one  of  the  targets  described  in  iptables-exten‐
       sions(8), or one of the special values ACCEPT, DROP or RETURN.

       ACCEPT means to let the packet through.  DROP means to drop the packet on the floor.  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  five  independent  tables  (which  tables  are  present at any time depends on the kernel configuration options and which modules are
       present).

       -t, --table 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:

              filter:
                  This  is  the  default  table (if no -t option is passed). 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).

              nat:
                  This table is consulted when a packet that 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).  IPv6 NAT support is available since kernel 3.7.

              mangle:
                  This table is 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).

              raw:
                  This  table  is used mainly for configuring exemptions from connection tracking in combination with the NOTRACK target.  It registers at the net‐
                  filter 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) OUTPUT (for packets generated by local processes)

              security:
                  This  table is 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, allowing any  Dis‐
                  cretionary  Access  Control  (DAC) rules in the filter table to 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 are recognized by iptables and ip6tables can be divided into several different groups.

   COMMANDS
       These  options specify the desired action to perform. Only one of them can be specified on the command line unless otherwise stated below. For long versions
       of the command and option names, you need to use only enough letters to ensure that iptables 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 combination.

       -C, --check chain rule-specification
              Check  whether  a  rule matching the specification does exist in the selected chain. This command uses the same logic as -D to find a matching entry,
              but does not alter the existing iptables configuration and uses its exit code to indicate success or failure.

       -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 (start‐
              ing at 1 for the first rule) or a rule to match.

       -I, --insert chain [rulenum] rule-specification
              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 destination names resolve to multiple addresses, the command will fail.  Rules  are  num‐
              bered 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 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
               iptables -L -v

       -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.

       -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
              (list) option as well, to see the counters immediately before they are cleared. (See above.)

       -N, --new-chain chain
              Create a new user-defined chain by the given name.  There must be no target of that name already.

       -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.  The chain must be empty, i.e. not contain any rules.  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 built-in (non-user-defined) chain to the given target.  The policy target must be either ACCEPT or DROP.

       -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).

       -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. This option allows IPv4 and IPv6 rules in a single rule file for use with both ipta‐
              bles-restore and ip6tables-restore.

       -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.

       [!] -p, --protocol protocol
              The protocol of the rule or of the packet to check.  The specified 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.  A "!" argument before the protocol inverts the test.  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.  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.  Please note that specifying any name to be resolved with a remote query such as  DNS
              is a really bad idea.  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  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 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 desti‐
              nation 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 coun‐
              ters 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.

       -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 (multi‐
              ples 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 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, and other errors cause an exit code of 1.

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

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 traf‐
       fic, 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 FOR‐
       WARD 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 simplify much of the previous 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
       iptables-apply(8), iptables-save(8), iptables-restore(8), iptables-extensions(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 netfilter-hacking-HOWTO details the netfilter internals.
       See http://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, Patrick McHardy, Pablo Neira Ayuso, Eric Leblond and Florian Westphal. 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 1.6.0.

iptables 1.6.0                                                                                                                                          IPTABLES(8)