BLACKLISTD(8)           FreeBSD System Manager's Manual          BLACKLISTD(8)

NAME
     blacklistd - block and release ports on demand to avoid DoS abuse

SYNOPSIS
     blacklistd [-dfrv] [-C controlprog] [-c configfile] [-D dbfile]
                [-P sockpathsfile] [-R rulename] [-s sockpath] [-t timeout]

DESCRIPTION
     blacklistd is a daemon similar to syslogd(8) that listens to sockets at
     paths specified in the sockpathsfile for notifications from other daemons
     about successful or failed connection attempts.  If no such file is
     specified, then it only listens to the socket path specified by sockspath
     or if that is not specified to /var/run/blacklistd.sock.  Each
     notification contains an (action, port, protocol, address, owner) tuple
     that identifies the remote connection and the action.  This tuple is
     consulted against entries in configfile with syntax specified in
     blacklistd.conf(5).  If an entry is matched, a state entry is created for
     that tuple.  Each entry contains a number of tries limit and a duration.

     If the action is "add" and the number of tries limit is reached, then a
     control script controlprog is invoked with arguments:

           control add <rulename> <proto> <address> <mask> <port>

     and should invoke a packet filter command to block the connection
     specified by the arguments.  The rulename argument can be set from the
     command line (default blacklistd).  The script could print a numerical id
     to stdout as a handle for the rule that can be used later to remove that
     connection, but that is not required as all information to remove the
     rule is kept.

     If the action is "remove" Then the same control script is invoked as:

           control remove <rulename> <proto> <address> <mask> <port> <id>

     where id is the number returned from the "add" action.

     blacklistd maintains a database of known connections in dbfile.  On
     startup it reads entries from that file, and updates its internal state.

     blacklistd checks the list of active entries every timeout seconds
     (default 15) and removes entries and block rules using the control
     program as necessary.

     The following options are available:

     -C controlprog
             Use controlprog to communicate with the packet filter, usually
             /usr/libexec/blacklistd-helper.  The following arguments are
             passed to the control program:

             action    The action to perform: add, rem, or flush to add,
                       remove or flush a firewall rule.

             name      The rule name.

             protocol  The optional protocol name (can be empty): tcp, tcp6,
                       udp, udp6.

             address   The IPv4 or IPv6 numeric address to be blocked or
                       released.

             mask      The numeric mask to be applied to the blocked or
                       released address

             port      The optional numeric port to be blocked (can be empty).

             id        For packet filters that support removal of rules by
                       rule identifier, the identifier of the rule to be
                       removed.  The add command is expected to return the
                       rule identifier string to stdout.

     -c configuration
             The name of the configuration file to read, usually
             /etc/blacklistd.conf.

     -D dbfile
             The Berkeley DB file where blacklistd stores its state, usually
             /var/db/blacklistd.db.

     -d      Normally, blacklistd disassociates itself from the terminal
             unless the -d flag is specified, in which case it stays in the
             foreground.

     -f      Truncate the state database and flush all the rules named
             rulename are deleted by invoking the control script as:

                   control flush <rulename>

     -P sockspathsfile
             A file containing a list of pathnames, one per line that
             blacklistd will create sockets to listen to.  This is useful for
             chrooted environments.

     -R rulename
             Specify the default rule name for the packet filter rules,
             usually blacklistd.

     -r      Re-read the firewall rules from the internal database, then
             remove and re-add them.  This helps for packet filters that do
             not retain state across reboots.

     -s sockpath
             Add sockpath to the list of Unix sockets blacklistd listens to.

     -t timeout
             The interval in seconds blacklistd polls the state file to update
             the rules.

     -v      Cause blacklistd to print diagnostic messages to stdout instead
             of syslogd(8).

SIGNAL HANDLING
     blacklistd deals with the following signals:

     HUP   Receipt of this signal causes blacklistd to re-read the
           configuration file.

     INT, TERM & QUIT
           These signals tell blacklistd to exit in an orderly fashion.

     USR1  This signal tells blacklistd to increase the internal debugging
           level by 1.

     USR2  This signal tells blacklistd to decrease the internal debugging
           level by 1.

FILES
     /usr/libexec/blacklistd-helper  Shell script invoked to interface with
                                     the packet filter.
     /etc/blacklistd.conf            Configuration file.
     /var/db/blacklistd.db           Database of current connection entries.
     /var/run/blacklistd.sock        Socket to receive connection
                                     notifications.

SEE ALSO
     blacklistd.conf(5), blacklistctl(8), pfctl(8), syslogd(8)

HISTORY
     blacklistd first appeared in NetBSD 7.  FreeBSD support for blacklistd
     was implemented in FreeBSD 11.

AUTHORS
     Christos Zoulas

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6         October 5, 2018        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6