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    how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • johnpozJ Offline
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Mission-Ghost
      last edited by johnpoz

      @Mission-Ghost said in how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?:

      fills up the firewall log with nothing useful

      exactly - a full log, makes it hard to spot problems that could/should be addressed, etc.

      And with seeing traffic on multiple interfaces that shouldn't be there - its clear your network is not running optimally that is for sure. In a proper setup you should never see such traffic.. There should be no way traffic from X network shows up as source into the Y network interface..

      With that much multicast - I can't believe your wifi is running the best it could.. Multicast/Broadcast is not wifi friend.. This sort traffic runs at much lower speed (basic rate). Which slows down the whole wifi network..

      If you looking for the best wifi - you would look to minimize/remove any multicast or broadcast that is not actually required. This is why many wifi AP have the ability to actually block multicast, or convert multicast to unicast..

      While you might not notice it on a wired network if you have a ton of multicast - you will notice it on your wifi that is for sure.

      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
      SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

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      • M Offline
        Mission-Ghost
        last edited by

        Interesting end to this chapter: unbidden logging stopped early this morning when Starlink forced a reboot of our dish. At the same second pfsense killed the states during failover to the THMI backup.

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        • johnpozJ Offline
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Mission-Ghost
          last edited by johnpoz

          @Mission-Ghost I would still look into why your seeing traffic on different interfaces, even if not logged. Just not logging noise doesn't mean its still not happening. You should never see traffic from vlan X as source into vlan Y interface.. Unless vlan Y interface was a transit/connector network and you had a router downstream that these networks were attached too.

          And that wouldn't be multicast that is for sure.

          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
          SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

          dennypageD M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • dennypageD Offline
            dennypage @johnpoz
            last edited by

            @johnpoz said in how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?:

            I would still look into why your seeing traffic on different interfaces, even if not logged. Just not logging noise doesn't mean it's still not happening. You should never see traffic from vlan X as source into vlan Y interface..

            Absolutely. Until that is understood and fixed, from a security pov I would assume that VLAN segregation is not working, and everything is just one big happy network... 🤕

            Unless vlan Y interface was a transit/connector network and you had a router downstream that these networks were attached too.

            On Netgear? 🤔

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              The special issue with igmp is what's discussed here: https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/15400

              If the traffic is blocked because ip options are not allowed it will always log that. So if it hits that policy routing rule it will log a block. That is the expected behaviour. Even if most users don't expect it! (including me).

              Try adding a pass rule for that traffic without logging and make sure that prevents the logs.

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              • J Offline
                JeremyJ 0 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 following the trail from the referenced issue we find a commit to the pfSense repo: commit link.

                This includes code and configuration changes to allow the user to inhibit these log entries directly and explicitly.

                I don't know what pfSense release this applies to or whether it can be applied as a patch to 25.07.1.

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                • stephenw10S Offline
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  It's in the 25.11-beta images if you're able to test that. Let me check the patch....

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                  • dennypageD Offline
                    dennypage @JeremyJ 0
                    last edited by

                    @JeremyJ-0 In the context of IGMP, that is obviated by this which automatically enables IP options when the rule is for IGMP.

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                    • stephenw10S Offline
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      You can apply that commit against 25.07.1 and you can just fetch it using the commit ID. If you want to test that.

                      J M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S Offline
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        With that new option unchecked you should not longer see the traffic logged as dropped by the pass policy routing rule. If it hits that.

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                        • johnpozJ Offline
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
                          last edited by johnpoz

                          @stephenw10 said in how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?:

                          If the traffic is blocked because ip options are not allowed it will always log that

                          if blocked because of options on an allow rule that doesn't have allow options.. I think the way you phrased that is not quite right - or maybe I am just being dense.

                          But see my post from above - I set a block rule for igmp above my allow (that was logging it because of the IP options) and no more logging of of the igmp becase ip option and allow doesn't allow that.

                          My block rule just blocks igmp completely, no matter what dest IP, or if options would be on it or not. The block rule just says hey you from this network, and you are igmp - your blocked, and its not logged.. So the allow rule would never see any igmp traffic.

                          I just do not see a reason to allow it - what would pfsense be doing with igmp traffic, I am not thinking of really any scenario.. Unless you were doing something with avahi, etc. which goes to 224.0.0.251, which you could just allow this block, or in a floating to that specific destination IP.

                          edit:
                          The ability to not log such blocks with a checkbox is nice, just like you can say don't log bogon/rfc1818, default, etc. To be honest such an option should of been included when they first started blocking ip options with an allow rule ;)

                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                          SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

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                          • stephenw10S Offline
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Mmm, if it's blocked before it hits the pass rule then it should never hit it and hence you shouldn't see it blocked because of IP Options. As I understand it at least!

                            I recall being blown away seeing a log entry for traffic blocked by a pass rule. And fully expected confusion from users.

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                            • dennypageD Offline
                              dennypage @johnpoz
                              last edited by

                              @johnpoz said in how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?:

                              I just do not see a reason to allow it - what would pfsense be doing with igmp traffic, I am not thinking of really any scenario.. Unless you were doing something with avahi, etc. which goes to 224.0.0.251, which you could just allow this block, or in a floating to that specific destination IP.

                              You might not use it, but others do. If you have a switch that does snooping, and block all IGMP traffic, you will loose everything in the Local Network Control Block with the exception of 224.0.0.1. This includes several routing protocols, HSRP & VRRP, mDNS & LLMNR. This may not be desirable for everyone.

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                              • J Offline
                                JeremyJ 0 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 I'm no longer a good test case due to the workaround I chose last year: replacing the APs which generated the IGMP packets!

                                Maybe someone involved in this new flare-up can do it.

                                Glad to see new options on the table so admins can configure to suit local needs.

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                                • M Offline
                                  Mission-Ghost
                                  last edited by

                                  Mmmmkay...I made a new thread about the Multicast functions of the Netgear Access points and what to do about them, here.

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                                  • johnpozJ Offline
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @dennypage
                                    last edited by

                                    @dennypage not saying it doesn't have uses - what are you doing specifically on pfsense with it? Sure you can do all kinds of stuff with at your switches - what does pfsense do with it?

                                    What is pfsense going to do with traffic to 224.0.0.2?

                                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                    SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

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                                    • M Offline
                                      Mission-Ghost @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      @johnpoz I did a pcap on igco.50 this evening after shutting off all the Multicast stuff on the WAX610s including mDNS Gateway function and did not see any subnets other than the .50 and the multicast destinations.

                                      Is this indicative of the traffic no longer showing up on the other interfaces as prescribed, or am I missing something in the Wireshark analysis of the pcap file?

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                                      • M Offline
                                        Mission-Ghost @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 I've applied the patch to my 25.07.1 and disabled the logging from the logging config page.

                                        However, logging had stopped anyway early this morning when the primary internet service, Starlink, rebooted, and had not resumed.

                                        So, I can't tell if it works or not but it's enabled and if the logging never resumes then I could be working! Thank you!

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                                        • dennypageD Offline
                                          dennypage @johnpoz
                                          last edited by

                                          @johnpoz said in how to stop logging blocked LAN IGMP?:

                                          what are you doing specifically on pfsense with it? Sure you can do all kinds of stuff with at your switches - what does pfsense do with it?

                                          What is pfsense going to do with traffic to 224.0.0.2?

                                          Wait one...

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