Future of pf in FreeBSD ? - does it have one ?

Mike. the.lists at mgm51.com
Wed Jul 9 15:51:53 UTC 2014


On 7/9/2014 at 12:32 AM Kristian K. Nielsen wrote:

|Hi all,
|
|I am a happy user of the pf-firewall module and have been for years
and 
|think it is really great but lately its getting a bit dusty.
|
|The last few years, however, it seem that pf in FreeBSD got a long
way 
|away from pf in OpenBSD where it originated and I am also
continually 
|watching where FreeBSD goes with ipfilter (ipf) and ipfw (dead?).
|
|So I am curious if any on the mailing could elaborate about what the

|future of pf in FreeBSD is.
|
|a) First of all - are any actively developing pf in FreeBSD?
|
|b) We are a major release away from OpenBSD (5.6 coming soon) - is 
|following OpenBSD's pf the past?
|
|c) We never got the new syntax from OpenBSD 4.7's pf - is that still

|blocking us?
|
|d) Anyone working on bringing FreeBSD up to 5.6?
|
|e) OpenBSD is retiring ALTQ entirely - any thoughts on that?
|http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20140419151959
|
|f) IPv6 support?- it seem to be more and more challenged in the
current 
|version of pf in FreeBSD and I am (as well as others) introducing
more 
|and more IPv6 in networks.
|E.x. Bugs #179392, #172648, #130381, #127920 and more seriously
#124933, 
|which is the bug on not handling IPv6 fragments which have been open

|since 2008 and where the workaround is necessity to leave an open
hole 
|in your firewall ruleset to allow all fragments. Occoring to comment
in 
|the bug, this have been long gone in OpenBSD.
|
|Hope to heard from you all,
|
|Best regards,
|
|Kristian Kræmmer Nielsen,
|Odense, Denmark
 =============


I would like to see FreeBSD's pf get back to more closely tracking
the OpenBSD pf.

It seems like there was a major fork in order to implement the
SMP-friendly FreeBSD version. While the increase in processing
capability in the FreeBSD version is good, the falling behind in most
of the other features (as noted on this thread) has been a pretty
severe price to pay.   For me, the newer syntax and features of the
current OpenBSD pf.conf file, and better IPv6 support need to be
reflected in the FreeBSD version of pf.

It currently appears that the one SMP-friendly project on the FreeBSD
version of pf has pretty much killed the ease with which FreeBSD pf
can move forward, because the FreeBSD pf momentum has been lost by
the removal of easier incorporation of the ongoing OpenBSD
improvements to pf.







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