opensense-docs/source/manual/aliases.rst

=============
Aliases
=============
Aliases are named lists of networks, hosts or ports that can be used as one entity
by selecting the alias name in the various supported sections of the firewall.
These aliases are particularly useful to condense firewall rules and minimize
changes.

Aliases can be added, modified and removed via :menuselection:`Firewall --> Aliases`.

-----------
Alias Types
-----------
OPNsense offers the following alias types:

+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Type             | Description                                          |
+==================+======================================================+
| Hosts            | Single hosts by IP or Fully Qualified Domain Name    |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Networks         | Entire network p.e. 192.168.1.1/24                   |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Ports            | Port numbers or a port range like 20:30              |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| URL (IPs)        | A table of IP addresses that are fetched once        |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| URL Tables (IPs) | A table of IP addresses that are fetched on regular  |
|                  | intervals.                                           |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| GeoIP            | Select countries or whole regions                    |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Network group    | Combine different network type aliases into one      |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| External         | Externally managed alias, this only handles the      |
| (advanced)       | placeholder. Content is set from another source      |
|                  | (plugin, api call, etc)                              |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+

..................
Hosts
..................

Hosts can be entered as a single IP address or a fully qualified domain name.
When using a fully qualified domain name, the name will we resolved periodically
(default is each 300 seconds).

Sample
  Let's say we want to create an alias table for **www.youtube.com**

  .. image:: images/aliases_host.png
      :width: 100%

**Apply changes** and look at the content of our newly created pf table.

Go to :menuselection:`Firewall --> Diagnostics --> pfTables` and select our newly created youtube table.

.. image:: images/pftable_youtube.png
    :width: 100%

As you can see there are multiple IP addresses for this domain.

.. Tip::

    To change the alias domain resolve interval, go to :menuselection:`Firewall --> Settings --> Advanced` and
    set **Aliases Resolve Interval** to the number of seconds to refresh.

..................
Networks
..................
Networks are specified in Classless Inter-Domain Routing format (CIDR). Use the
the correct CIDR mask for each entry. For instance a /32 specifies a single IPv4 host,
or /128 specifies a single IPv6 host, whereas /24 specifies 255.255.255.0 and
/64 specifies a normal IPv6 network.

..................
Ports
..................
Ports can be specified as a single number or a range using a colon **:**.
For instance to add a range of 20 to 25 one would enter 20:25 in the **Port(s)**
section.

..................
URL Tables
..................
URL tables can be used to fetch a list of IP addresses from a remote server.
There are several IP lists available for free, most notably are the "Don't Route
Or Peer" lists from Spamhaus.



..................
GeoIP
..................
With GeoIP alias you can select one or more countries or whole continents to block
or allow. Use the *toggle all* checkbox to select all countries within the given
region.

  .. image:: images/firewall_geoip_alias.png
      :width: 100%

To use GeoIP, you need to configure a source in the :menuselection:`Firewall --> Aliases -> GeoIP settings` tab, the most commonly
used source is MaxMind, for which we have a how-to available : :doc:`how-tos/maxmind_geo_ip`

The configured url should point to a zip file containing the following csv files:

.. list-table:: Title
   :widths: 50 25 25 25
   :header-rows: 1

   * - Filename
     - Purpose
     - Format
     - Example
   * - %prefix%-locations-en.csv
     - maps geo locations to iso countries
     - geoname_id,,,,country_iso_code
     - 1,,,,NL
   * - %prefix%-IPv4.csv
     - IPv4 networks
     - network,geoname_id
     - 2.21.241.0/28,1
   * - %prefix%-IPv6.csv
     - IPv6 networks
     - network,geoname_id
     - 2001:470:1f15:210::/64,1

The :code:`%prefix%` can be used to identify the product and/or vendor, in MaxMind's case these files are named
:code:`GeoLite2-Country-Locations-en.csv`, :code:`GeoLite2-Country-Blocks-IPv4.csv`, :code:`GeoLite2-Country-Blocks-IPv6.csv` for example.

.. Tip::

    Geo ip lists can be rather large, especially when using IPv6. When creating rules, always try to minimize the number of
    addresses needed in your selection. A selection of all countries in the world not being the Netherlands can usually be
    rewritten as only addresses from the Netherlands for example.


.. Tip::

    If the number of items is larger than the allocated alias size, you can assign more memory to aliases.
    :menuselection:`Firewall --> Settings --> Advanced : Firewall Maximum Table Entries`


..................
Network group
..................

Combine different network type aliases into one, this type of alias accepts other host type aliases (networks, hosts, ...).
Although nesting is possible with other alias types as well, this type only displays valid aliases easing administration, functionally
a :code:`Networks` type alias can do the same but uses a different presentation.

..................
External
..................

The contents for external alias types is not administered via our normal alias service and can be practical
in scenarios where you want to push new entries from external programs. Such as specific lockout features or
external tools feeding access control to your firewall.

In :menuselection:`Firewall --> Diagnostics --> pfTables` you can always inspect the current contents of the external
alias and add or remove entries immediately.

.. Tip::

    When changing alias contents which are used on firewall rules with state tracking enabled, you might need to
    remove the specific state before the new rule turns active. (see :menuselection:`Firewall --> Diagnostics --> States Dump` )

.. Tip::

    Since external alias types won't be touched by OPNsense, you can use :code:`pfctl` directly in scripts to manage
    its contents. (e.g. :code:`pfctl -t MyAlias -T add 10.0.0.3` to add **10.0.0.3** to **MyAlias**)



----------------------------------
Using Aliases in pf Firewall Rules
----------------------------------
Aliases can be used in firewall rules to ease administration of large lists.
For instance we might need a list of remote IP addresses that should have access to
certain services, when anything changes we only need to update the list.

Let's create a simple alias to allow 3 remote IP addresses access to an ipsec server for a site to site tunnel connection:

* 192.168.100.1
* 192.168.200.2
* 192.168.202.2

.. image:: images/alias_remote_ipsec.png
    :width: 100%

We call our list remote_ipsec and update our firewall rules accordingly.

.. image:: images/alias_firewall_rules.png
    :width: 100%

.. Note::

    The list icon identifies a rule with an alias.

---------------------------------
Export / Import
---------------------------------

The alias admin page (:menuselection:`Firewall --> Aliases`) contains a download and an upload button in the footer of the table, with this feature you can
merge aliases into the configuration and download a :code:`json` formatted list of all aliases in the system.

Since data is validated before insertion, it shouldn't be possible to import defective data (if the import fails, a list of errors is presented).

.. Tip::

      When performing migrations, sometimes its easier to change multiple items at once in a text editor. This feature can easily
      be used to facilitate that, with limiting risk of a broken configuration (since items are validated equally as single item input would do).


---------------------------------
Add new entries using our API
---------------------------------

The endpoints from the alias_util can easily be used to push new entries into an alias (or remove existing ones). In case of an external alias
these items won't be persistent over reboots, which can be practical in some use-cases (large frequent changing lists for example).

The document ":doc:`/development/how-tos/api`" contains the steps needed to create an api key and secret, next you can just call
the same endpoint the user interface would.

Below you see how to add **10.0.0.2** to an alias named **MyAlias** using an insecure connection (self-signed cert) on
the host **opnsense.firewall** with :code:`curl`. The verbose option provides more details about the data exchanged between the
two machines.

::

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --basic \
      --user "key:secret" \
      --request POST \
      --insecure \
      --verbose \
      --data  '{"address":"10.0.0.2"}' \
      https://opnsense.firewall/api/firewall/alias_util/add/MyAlias


.. Note::

      Adding aliases using :code:`/api/firewall/alias_util/add/` is only supported for Host, Network and External type aliases


--------
Nesting
--------
For host and network alias types nesting is possibility, this can simplify management a lot since single items can
be named properly and grouped into sections for administration.

For example, we define 4 servers among 2 critical using different rulesets:

* server_a {10.0.1.1}
* server_b {10.0.1.2}
* server_c {10.0.1.100}
* server_d {10.0.1.200}
* critical_servers {server_a , server_b}
* other_servers {server_c , server_d}
* servers { critical_servers , other_servers}.

The alias :code:`servers` will contain all 4 addresses after configuration.

---------------------------------
Spamhaus
---------------------------------

The Spamhaus Don't Route Or Peer Lists DROP (Don't Route Or Peer) and EDROP are advisory "drop all traffic" lists,
consisting of netblocks that are "hijacked" or leased by professional spam or
cyber-crime operations (used for dissemination of malware, trojan downloaders,
botnet controllers). The DROP and EDROP lists are a tiny subset of the SBL,
designed for use by firewalls and routing equipment to filter out the malicious
traffic from these netblocks.

*Source :* https://www.spamhaus.org/drop/

Downloads
 * `DROP list <https://www.spamhaus.org/drop/drop.txt>`__
 * `EDROP list <https://www.spamhaus.org/drop/edrop.txt>`__

To setup the DROP and EDROP lists in combination with the firewall rules, read:
:doc:`how-tos/edrop`