PfBlockerNG

JuantonJohn

I may start my own thread, but I'll give my experience.
I'm newer to pfsense.
I had pfBlockerNG setup and working great. Site had a power outage and after pfsense came back online, nothing would route / talk to the outside world. Firewall Logs showed no blocking. If I disabled pfBlocker (tick box), everything started working perfectly.
Not sure what to think.
Any advice on approaching this to diagnose it?

doktornotor

@JuantonJohn:

Site had a power outage and after pfsense came back online, nothing would route / talk to the outside world. Firewall Logs showed no blocking.

Reinstall
Restore configuration backup
Get UPS

BBcan177

Try a "Force Reload". If that has issues, then uncheck "keep settings" in the general tab, then disable pfBlockerNG. This should clear all of the downloaded files. Then re-check "keep", re-enable pfBlockerNG and run a "Force Update".

McFuzz

Hello!

Trying to (re)install pfBlockerNG from scratch - but the package does not appear in the package manager…? Any ideas?

Thanks!

BBcan177

If you have it installed it won't appear in the "Available" tab as its already installed… You can goto "Installed Packages" Tab and click the "Pkg" Icon for pfBNG...

McFuzz

@BBcan177:

If you have it installed it won't appear in the "Available" tab as its already installed… You can goto "Installed Packages" Tab and click the "Pkg" Icon for pfBNG...

Very odd - I uninstalled it and it confirmed uninstallation, removed it from the installed package view but then I did not think to refresh the page… I just so happened to click on the installed package list and lo-and-behold, it was still there!

Uninstalled it again... Reinstalled - now all appears to be well!

LinuxTracker

My Alerts -> Auto-Resolve quit auto-resolving a bit back.
It's a small thing among pfBlockerNG greatness, yet I miss it.

IPs are still resolving in the Firewall logs when I click !. That seems a good sign.

What I tried:
I've reviewed pfBlockerNG settings and don't see anything amiss.
I've tried adjusting interfaces and other options in the DNS resolver
I've tried telling pfSense to only use the DNS servers listed in General
I've reinstalled pfBlocker package.

What I have:
pfSense 2.2.2 x64 running on a Dell quad core Xeon w/ 4GB RAM
Lots of lists in pfBlockerNG, some really large.
Also running Snort, Squid3+Squidguard

Any thoughts anyone?
Appreciated.

digdug3

How long is your alert list?

LinuxTracker

@digdug3:

How long is your alert list?

Dang. You've hit on it.

I had tried with different deny sizes - between 30 and 100 but I always left the Match at 30.
After your reply I set match to 0 and deny to 30 and it works again.

Thanks dude!

BBcan177

pfBlockerNG v1.09 Release Notes:

Several under-the-hood code changes.
Added a 'Cron Interval' setting in the 'General' Tab. Previously Cron would run each hour.
Added function to check if the Cron task has changed, and only update if required (reduce config backups)
The 'Update Tab' uses the new Cron Interval setting to show the Next Cron task and Time remaining.
Improved the logging to the pfblockerng.log (Reduce empty lines and some other tweaks)
The parsing of IPs on downloads has been adjusted to remove the '/32' CIDRs (and leave just the IP address). Also parse for Ranges before parsing for CIDR or Single IP addresses.
Next release will move away from a Regex Style function to a faster, more efficient string functions.
Input Validation has been added to the IPv4/6 Tabs. Unfortunately, if there is an error, it doesn't save the last inputted settings, and you will need to re-enter all of the input data.
GUI changes to combine like-fields together. ie - 'General' Tab, Inbound Ports options, and the Continent pages now have the IPv4/6 Tables side-by-side.
Added ability to move Aliases in the IPv4/6 Tabs. 'Click+hold' and move the Alias to any line position required.
Widget has been overhauled to make it more efficient. Added 'Wrench Icon' which will allow for some customization's.
Widget now allows pivoting from the Packet Count column to the Alerts Tab, and it will load the approproate filters to show the associated Alerts. Please note that if the the pfSense Firewall Log has been cleared, old Alerts will not show in the 'Alerts Tab'.

Also added an 'Advanced' Inbound Firewall Rules Settings':

This will allow you to create pfSense 'Port' and 'Destination' Aliases which can be used with the Auto-Rules created by pfBlockerNG.

Since pfSense is a stateful firewall by design, a 'Deny Inbound' or 'Deny Both' will create an Inbound rule in the WAN Firewall Rules tab. Previously it will log Alerts for Packets that are already being blocked by the pfSense Default implicit Deny rule.

This new feature will allow fine-tuning of the Inbound Rules to Alert only on the Open Ports that you have configured in these new settings. If you require a more complicated rule, please continue to use the 'Alias Type' Rules instead.

Here is a screenshot, showing some Port and Destination Aliases.
NOTE: Please DO NOT use "pfB_" or 'pfb_' in the start of the Alias name!!

For the IP aliases, please use the "IP Network Type" alias.

Screenshot showing the Adv. Inbound Settings using the pfSense Aliases created above:

Screenshot showing the Auto-Created Firewall rules using the pfSense Aliases:

cauthier

I have a local blocklist that I add to several times a day. It is stored in /var/db/pfblockerng/MyBlocklist.txt
I have set it to update every hour, however, the cron job fails to update:

**Remote timestamp: Mon, 01 Jun 2015 19:03:19 GMT
Local timestamp: Mon, 01 Jun 2015 19:03:19 GMT
Remote file unchanged. Download Terminated

No Updates required.
CRON PROCESS ENDED
UPDATE PROCESS ENDED**

What am I missing? It is obviously comparing timestamps… I edited the original file this morning.
Is it looking at a different file?

Any help is appreciated

Chris

cauthier

Problem solved by BBcan177 with a minor edit to the following file:

/usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php

Line 192

if (file_exists($local_file)) {
// Determine if URL is Remote or Local
if ($host['host'] == "127.0.0.1" || $host['host'] == $pfb['iplocal'] || empty($host['host'])) {
$remote_tds = gmdate ("D, d M Y H:i:s T", filemtime($local_file));
} else {

Original:
$remote_tds = gmdate ("D, d M Y H:i:s T", filemtime($local_file));

NEW:
$remote_tds = gmdate ("D, d M Y H:i:s T", filemtime($list_url));

Thanks!

To be very clear, change the variable $local_file to $list_url

pfcode

Hi,

iptodomain.com (198.50.147.11) was blocked by the pfBlockerNG (ToastedSpam 198.50.128.0/17), so I clicked the Suppression Icon (+) from the Alerts tab, to add the IP to the pfBlockerNGSuppress Alias automatically(198.50.147.11/32, not manually), the 'Enable Suppression' in the General tab is ticked, the rule order is 'pfSense Pass|pfB_Pass|pfB_Block', I did a force update, but pfBlockerNG still block it (the reason was the same: ToastedSpam 198.50.128.0/17), I checked all the setting, and found that nowhere in the pfBlobckerNG settings is using this Alias, other than the 'Enable Suppression' is ticked. What am I missing? Why I can't access the URL where its ip is in the pfBlockerNGSuppress alias?

BTW, when doing an force update/force cron, I didn't see the pgBlockerNGSuppress shown in the Log View screen, also I made the change posted by cauthier on Page 47

BBcan177

Hi pfcode,

You cannot suppress an IP that is in a /17 CIDR… Suppression is only for IPs that are either /32 or /24... Hover-over the Suppression (+) icon, or the List column, and it will give you further instructions...

Basically, you will need to create a new alias ie : "Whitelist" and set the list to "Permit Outbound", then add any IPs that you want to allow outbound in the Custom Box at the bottom of the Alias.

power_matz

Hi,

after reading this thread I installed the current version yetserday on my 2.2 system.
After doing some config everything was doing fine.

I just was wondering that the CPU is all the time at 50% or above. Reduction of the frequency is not happening like before.
On the machine SNORT is / was running and the CPU was at 300 MHz most of the time, now the CPU ist at least at 1000MHz.
Any idea what is so consuming?

After running over night this morning the pfsense box wasn't reachable any more. Wether via GUI nor via ssh terminal.
I had to reboot / switch off and on again.

The box was running very stable since months.

Any idea? Are there some known issues? Are any logs required? I don't know if there were written.

Matthias

doktornotor

Certainly not pfBlockerNG. Beyond the cron jobs running every X hours, this only creates aliases and firewall rules.

Check the CPU usage with something like top and start your own thread in proper forum section.

tim.mcmanus

I'm too lazy to look through 48 pages of discussion to find the link where I can donate to the developer's beer fund for this project?

I want to give back to the coders in the form of foamy suds where I can.

rodymcamp

I had this Happen when i first started adding block lists, I have just upgraded my pfsense over time from way back and there was some temp memory issue that was filling up and causing a crash, I did a clean install and now Everything works great. I really did not get to much into it, I had been wanting to do a clean install for a while and this was just a good excuse.

@power_matz:

Hi,

after reading this thread I installed the current version yetserday on my 2.2 system.
After doing some config everything was doing fine.

I just was wondering that the CPU is all the time at 50% or above. Reduction of the frequency is not happening like before.
On the machine SNORT is / was running and the CPU was at 300 MHz most of the time, now the CPU ist at least at 1000MHz.
Any idea what is so consuming?

After running over night this morning the pfsense box wasn't reachable any more. Wether via GUI nor via ssh terminal.
I had to reboot / switch off and on again.

The box was running very stable since months.

Any idea? Are there some known issues? Are any logs required? I don't know if there were written.

Matthias

power_matz

Thanks for the information. After a restart the system now runs like before.
Maybe its a good thing to restart after adding all the rules.

Matthias

LinuxTracker

@tim.mcmanus:

I'm too lazy to look through 48 pages of discussion to find the link where I can donate to the developer's beer fund for this project?

I want to give back to the coders in the form of foamy suds where I can.

I just went though the same thing.
I have a 2nd issue that I waned to donate w/o logging into Paypal.

Short answer is I put this url in my browser and successfully donated my pittance.

https://paypal.com/xclick/business=BBCan177@gmail.com

(email addres is one from the pfBlockerNG->General tab)