Firewall distribution
Operating system
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.
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
Version
Code name
General availability
Latest minor version
Latest release date
Major changes
15.1[ 12]
Ascending Albatross
2015-01-05
15.1.12
2015-06-17
15.7[ 13]
Brave Badger
2015-07-02
15.7.25[ 14]
2016-01-18
Base proxy and IDS support
pfSense config importer
FreeBSD 10.1
16.1[ 15]
Crafty Coyote
2016-01-28
16.1.18[ 16]
2016-06-30
Firmware mirror location and crypto selection
IPS
FreeBSD 10.2
16.7[ 17]
Dancing Dolphin
2016-07-28
16.7.14[ 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 Eagle
2017-01-31
17.1.11
2017-07-25
PHP 7.0
Lets Encrypt plugin
Pluggable firewall rules
Load Balancer, UPnP, SNMP, IGMP, WOL as plugins
FreeBSD 11
17.7[ 20]
Free Fox
2017-07-31
17.7.12[ 21]
2018-01-18
HardenedBSD SafeStack for base applications and selected ports
HardenedBSD procfs hardening
Interface code speedup
18.1[ 22]
Groovy Gecko
2018-01-29
18.1.13[ 23]
2018-07-24
Debug kernel support
PHP 7.1
pluggable NAT rules
FreeBSD 11.1
18.7[ 24]
Happy Hippo
2018-07-31
18.7.10[ 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 Iguana
2019-01-31
19.1.10[ 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 Jaguar
2019-07-17
19.7.10[ 29]
2020-01-09
PHP 7.2
LibreSSL 2.9
WireGuard plugin
Firewall rule statistics
20.1[ 30]
Keen Kingfisher
2020-01-30
20.1.9[ 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 Lion
2020-07-30
20.7.8[ 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 Meerkat
2021-01-28
21.1.9[ 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 Nightingale
2021-07-28
21.7.8[ 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 Owl
2022-01-27
22.1.10[ 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 Panther
2022-07-28
22.7.11[ 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 Quail
2023-01-13
23.1.11[ 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 Roadrunner
2023-07-31
23.7.12[ 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 Shark
2024-01-30
24.1.10_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 Tiger
2024-07-25
24.7.7[ 49]
2024-10-23
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
References
Further reading
External links