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Version number: v1.8.2 (nf_tables) (on Debian 10)
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Short description:
The manual page and help for the ip6tables Linux command. The ip6tables command is used to set, maintain, and verify IPv6 packet filtering rule tables in the Linux kernel. Several different tables can be defined. Each table contains a number of built-in chains and can also contain user-defined chains.
Man page output
man ip6tablesIPTABLES(8) iptables 1.8.2 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-de‐
fined 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 exam‐
ined; 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-extensions(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 au‐
tomatic 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 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.
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 netfilter hooks with higher priority and is thus called before ip_conntrack, or any other IP ta‐
bles. 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 Discretionary 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 suc‐
cess 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 (starting 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 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 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 af‐
fected 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.
-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 iptables-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 ad‐
dress. 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 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 opera‐
tions).
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 multi‐
pliers 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 op‐
tion will make the program wait (indefinitely or for optional seconds) until the exclusive lock can be obtained.
-W, --wait-interval microseconds
Interval to wait per each iteration. When running latency sensitive applications, waiting for the xtables lock for ex‐
tended durations may not be acceptable. This option will make each iteration take the amount of time specified. The de‐
fault interval is 1 second. This option only works with -w.
-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 (mul‐
tiples 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 AND TARGET EXTENSIONS
iptables can use extended packet matching and target modules. A list of these is available in the iptables-extensions(8) man‐
page.
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 traffic, which involves both INPUT and OUTPUT chains); previously a for‐
warded 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 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 inter‐
nals.
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, 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 1.8.2.
iptables 1.8.2 IPTABLES(8)
Help output
sudo ip6tables --helpip6tables v1.8.2
Usage: ip6tables -[ACD] chain rule-specification [options]
ip6tables -I chain [rulenum] rule-specification [options]
ip6tables -R chain rulenum rule-specification [options]
ip6tables -D chain rulenum [options]
ip6tables -[LS] [chain [rulenum]] [options]
ip6tables -[FZ] [chain] [options]
ip6tables -[NX] chain
ip6tables -E old-chain-name new-chain-name
ip6tables -P chain target [options]
ip6tables -h (print this help information)
Commands:
Either long or short options are allowed.
--append -A chain Append to chain
--check -C chain Check for the existence of a rule
--delete -D chain Delete matching rule from chain
--delete -D chain rulenum
Delete rule rulenum (1 = first) from chain
--insert -I chain [rulenum]
Insert in chain as rulenum (default 1=first)
--replace -R chain rulenum
Replace rule rulenum (1 = first) in chain
--list -L [chain [rulenum]]
List the rules in a chain or all chains
--list-rules -S [chain [rulenum]]
Print the rules in a chain or all chains
--flush -F [chain] Delete all rules in chain or all chains
--zero -Z [chain [rulenum]]
Zero counters in chain or all chains
--new -N chain Create a new user-defined chain
--delete-chain
-X [chain] Delete a user-defined chain
--policy -P chain target
Change policy on chain to target
--rename-chain
-E old-chain new-chain
Change chain name, (moving any references)
Options:
--ipv4 -4 Nothing (line is ignored by ip6tables-restore)
--ipv6 -6 Error (line is ignored by iptables-restore)
[!] --proto -p proto protocol: by number or name, eg. `tcp'
[!] --source -s address[/mask][...]
source specification
[!] --destination -d address[/mask][...]
destination specification
[!] --in-interface -i input name[+]
network interface name ([+] for wildcard)
--jump -j target
target for rule (may load target extension)
--goto -g chain
jump to chain with no return
--match -m match
extended match (may load extension)
--numeric -n numeric output of addresses and ports
[!] --out-interface -o output name[+]
network interface name ([+] for wildcard)
--table -t table table to manipulate (default: `filter')
--verbose -v verbose mode
--wait -w [seconds] maximum wait to acquire xtables lock before give up
--wait-interval -W [usecs] wait time to try to acquire xtables lock
default is 1 second
--line-numbers print line numbers when listing
--exact -x expand numbers (display exact values)
[!] --fragment -f match second or further fragments only
--modprobe=<command> try to insert modules using this command
--set-counters PKTS BYTES set the counter during insert/append
[!] --version -V print package version.
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