OPNsense

Last updated
OPNsense
OPNsenseNewLogo.svg
ScreenShot OPNSense.png
Developer Deciso B.V.
OS family FreeBSD (14.1-RELEASE)
Working stateCurrent
Source model Open source
Initial release5 January 2015;9 years ago (2015-01-05)
Latest release 24.7.11 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 17 December 2024;0 days ago (17 December 2024)
Repository
Platforms x86-64
Kernel type Monolithic kernel
Influenced by M0n0wall. pfSense
License Simplified BSD / FreeBSD License [2]
Official website opnsense.org
Support status
Community & Commercial

OPNsense is an open source, FreeBSD-based firewall and routing software developed by Deciso, a company in the Netherlands that makes hardware and sells support packages for OPNsense.

Contents

Launched in 2015, [2] it is a fork of pfSense, which in turn was forked from m0n0wall built on FreeBSD. [3] When m0n0wall closed down in February 2015 its creator, Manuel Kasper, referred its developer community to OPNsense. [4]

Features

OPNsense has a web-based interface and can be used on the x86-64 platform. [5] Along with acting as a firewall, it has traffic shaping, load balancing, captive portal and virtual private network capabilities, and others can be added via plugins. [6] [7]

The software also offers next-generation firewall capabilities utilizing Zenarmor, a NGFW plugin developed by OPNsense partner [8] Sunny Valley Networks. [9]

Domain dispute

In November 2017, a World Intellectual Property Organization panel found that Netgate, the copyright holder of pfSense, used the domain opnsense.com in bad faith to discredit OPNsense, and obligated Netgate to transfer domain ownership to Deciso. [10]

Releases

The OPNsense version naming system consists of year.month, since the first release took place in January 2015, it was named release 15.1. OPNsense typically uses a 6 month major release cycle with new releases in January and July of each year. [11]

OPNsense Release History
VersionCode nameGeneral availabilityLatest minor versionLatest release dateMajor changes
15.1 [12] Ascending Albatross2015-01-0515.1.122015-06-17
  • Initial release
15.7 [13] Brave Badger2015-07-0215.7.25 [14] 2016-01-18
  • Base proxy and IDS support
  • pfSense config importer
  • FreeBSD 10.1
16.1 [15] Crafty Coyote2016-01-2816.1.18 [16] 2016-06-30
  • Firmware mirror location and crypto selection
  • IPS
  • FreeBSD 10.2
16.7 [17] Dancing Dolphin2016-07-2816.7.14 [18] 2017-01-25
  • RFC 4638 support (MTU > 1492 in PPPoE)
  • HTTPS proxy support
  • Active Queue Management (AQM): Controlled delay (CoDel) and FlowQueue-CoDel
  • Two factor authentication using RFC 6238
  • HardenedBSD's ASLR implementation
  • UEFI/GPT boot
  • FreeBSD 10.3
17.1 [19] Eclectic Eagle2017-01-3117.1.112017-07-25
  • PHP 7.0
  • Lets Encrypt plugin
  • Pluggable firewall rules
  • Load Balancer, UPnP, SNMP, IGMP, WOL as plugins
  • FreeBSD 11
17.7 [20] Free Fox2017-07-3117.7.12 [21] 2018-01-18
  • HardenedBSD SafeStack for base applications and selected ports
  • HardenedBSD procfs hardening
  • Interface code speedup
18.1 [22] Groovy Gecko2018-01-2918.1.13 [23] 2018-07-24
  • Debug kernel support
  • PHP 7.1
  • pluggable NAT rules
  • FreeBSD 11.1
18.7 [24] Happy Hippo2018-07-3118.7.10 [25] 2019-01-07
  • Meltdown and Spectre V2 mitigations
  • Intel NIC driver updates
  • IDS/IPS application detection rules
  • FreeBSD 11.2
19.1 [26] Inspiring Iguana2019-01-3119.1.10 [27] 2019-07-03
  • Firewall NAT rule logging support
  • WPAD / PAC and parent proxy support in the web proxy
  • 2FA via LDAP-TOTP combination
  • Dnsmasq DNSSEC support
  • HardenedBSD 11.2
19.7 [28] Jazzy Jaguar2019-07-1719.7.10 [29] 2020-01-09
  • PHP 7.2
  • LibreSSL 2.9
  • WireGuard plugin
  • Firewall rule statistics
20.1 [30] Keen Kingfisher2020-01-3020.1.9 [31] 2020-07-23
  • Google backup API 2.4.0
  • LibreSSL 3.0
  • Support elliptic curve TLS certificate creation
  • VXLAN support
  • Support for additional loopback interfaces
20.7 [32] Legendary Lion2020-07-3020.7.8 [33] 2021-01-19
  • Basic firewall API support (via additional plugin)
  • Suricata 5
  • Unbound + DHCPDv4: Properly support expired leases
  • PHP expand code styling to PSR-12
  • HardenedBSD 12.1
21.1 [34] Marvelous Meerkat2021-01-2821.1.9 [35] 2021-07-27
  • Fix stability and reliability issues with regard to vmx(4), vtnet(4), ixl(4), ix(4) and em(4) Ethernet drivers
  • LibreSSL 3.2
  • New and improved live traffic report
  • IDPS: New policy definition using metadata tags (e.g. drop all critical events aimed at the perimeter)
21.7 [36] Noble Nightingale2021-07-2821.7.8 [37] 2022-01-27
  • Migrate bsdinstaller to bsdinstall
  • AXGBE 10 Gbps network card driver inclusion
  • PHP 7.4
  • NTPD client mode
  • Firmware Update Revamp
  • Firewall states diagnostic API/GUI
22.1 [38] Observant Owl2022-01-2722.1.10 [39] 2022-07-07
  • Authentication / LDAP automatic user creation on login
  • Improve alias hostname resolve performance
  • Improved firewall statistics
  • Support overload table on max new connections
  • FreeBSD 13
22.7 [40] Powerful Panther2022-07-2822.7.11 [41] 2023-01-18
  • Intel QuickAssist (QAT) support
  • Add stacked VLAN support (IEEE 802.1ad / QinQ)
  • Advanced DDoS protection using syncookies
  • PHP 8.0
  • FreeBSD 13.1
23.1 [42] Quintessential Quail2023-01-1323.1.11 [43] 2023-06-28
  • Firewall alias BGP ASN type support
  • DNS insights dashboard
  • PHP 8.1
  • WireGuard kernel module
  • LibreSSL discontinued
23.7 [44] Restless Roadrunner2023-07-3123.7.12 [45] 2024-01-16
  • Support for Importing Encrypted Configuration Files During OPNsense Installation
  • RADIUS Authentication - Add MSCHAPv2 support
  • Intrusion Detection: Suricata Netmap API version 14 enabled
  • PHP 8.2
  • FreeBSD 13.2
24.1 [46] Savvy Shark2024-01-3024.1.10_8 [47] 2024-07-25
  • Suricata 7
  • OpenSSL 3 ports migration
  • NPTv6 migrate to MVC
  • VXLAN: add support for non standard port numbers
  • os-firewall plugin inclusion to ease API usage
  • Improve WireGuard kernel plugin and implement it in core
  • Add Kea DHCP server option as an alternative to ISC DHCP which will eventually be deprecated
24.7 [48] Thriving Tiger2024-07-2524.7.11 [49] 2024-12-17
  • Python 3.11
  • FreeBSD 14.1
  • PHP 8.3
  • Modern dashboard UI improvements
  • Several MVC migrations (GIF, GRE, NAT, dhcrelay)
  • WireGuard VPN performance improvements
  • WireGuard client QR code generation
  • ISC dhcrelay deprecated
  • Captive portal fixes and improvements
Legend:   No longer supported versions  Latest supported release

See also


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References

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Further reading