Download OPNsense 18.7

The package OPNsense is a firewall with extensive possibilities. It is based on the FreeBSD operating system and was originally a fork of m0n0wall and pfSense. The package can be set up completely via a web interface and has support for 2fa, openvpn, ipsec, carp and captive portal, among others. In addition, it can apply packet filtering and has a traffic shaper. The developers have released OPNsense 18.7 with the following announcement:

OPNsense 18.7 released

Dear friends and followers,

For 3 and a half years now, OPNsense is driving innovation through modularising and hardening the open source firewall, with simple and reliable firmware upgrades, multi-language support, HardenedBSD security, fast adoption of upstream software updates as well as clear and stable 2- Clause BSD licensing.

Another 6 months passed by ever so quickly! The main goal for 18.7, nicknamed “Happy Hippo”, is stability so we have not yet begun to adopt FreeBSD 11.2, but there are several of its Intel NIC driver updates included to bridge the gap until 19.1 comes out. The upgrade also includes a tremendous amount of IPv6 improvements including 6RD support as well as authentication and backup framework consolidation. Please also take note that QinQ is no longer included in this release.

These are the most prominent changes since version 18.1:

• improved WAN DHCPv6 and SLAAC connectivity and tracking
• functional IPv6 Rapid Deployment (6RD) support
• improved default route handling and gateway switching
• OpenVPN default setup improvements for IPv6 and RADIUS attribute support
• Dpinger gateway monitoring integration
• password policies for local authentication and coupled TOTP
• Monit core integration to eventually replace the legacy notifications
• OpenSSH access via group and shell selection instead of privilege
• pluggable backup framework with new Nextcloud option
• sytem tunables are now also used as loader tunables
• unrestricted VLAN usage for eg Xen
• QinQ interface removal
• firmware GUI speedup, improved error parsing and console reboot hint
• ZFS on root boot support (installer support is pending, but opnsense-bootstrap works)
• ZFS and MSDOS config import support
• ISC DHCP version moves from 4.3 to 4.4
• RRDtool version moves from 1.2 to 1.7
• rework rc.syshook facility to use drop-in directories instead of suffixes
• backports or FreeBSD 11.2 Intel NIC drivers
• standalone frontend UI development tools
• language updates for Czech, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil)
• UI header security and SSL cipher hardening
• extensive UI cleanups and menu consolidation
• new and rewritten plugins: os-cache, os-lcdproc-sdeclcd, os-net-snmp, os-nut, os-openconnect, os-relayd 2.0, os-shadowsocks, os-theme-cicada, os-theme-rebellion, ox-theme-tukan, ox-wool 2.0

We thank all of you for helping test, shape and contribute to the project! We know it wouldn’t be the same without you.

Migration notes and minor incompatibilities to look out for:

• SSH access is now bound to the “wheel” group which is automatically added to “admins” group, which “root” is a member of. “root” is the only user that has a default shell, namely opnsense-shell, which is the root console menu.
• SSH access can be set for an arbitrary group as well under System: Administration for non-members of “admins” group. However, in both cases only SCP works due to a request in the forum to be more proactive regarding yielding of shell access rights. If you want a user to gain true SSH access you need to change their shell from “nologin” to an installed shell in their respective settings.
• Web GUI HTTPS ciphers have been hardened. To gain access please use a recent browser.
• The authentication fallback for the GUI/system has been removed in favor of selecting multiple authentication servers at once. Reassign your fallback as a primary authentication method or now use more than two methods.
• It has been found that although WAN interfaces require gateways to function, they do not necessarily have to be assigned in single-WAN scenarios to avoid interfering with WAN reply behavior. The “none” selection was therefore changed to “auto-detect” to reflect this and now is the recommended setting unless multi-WAN is used.
• In preparation for the firewall alias API the per-item descriptions have been removed along with support for the deprecated types urltable_ports and url_ports.
• OpenVPN /31 tunnel network calculation changed to use the first and last address as network address and broadcast address do not exist. If you are affected, adjust your clients or export their configuration again which includes the configuration fix. Additionally, /32 tunnel networks are now prohibited.

stay safe and happy,
Your OPNsense team