pflogd
is a background daemon which reads packets logged by
pf(4)
to a
pflog(4)
interface, normally
pflog0
and writes the packets to a logfile (normally
/var/log/pflog
in
tcpdump(1)
binary format.
These logs can be reviewed later using the
-r
option of
tcpdump(1),
hopefully offline in case there are bugs in the packet parsing code of
tcpdump(1).
pflogd
closes and then re-opens the log file when it receives
SIGHUP
permitting
newsyslog(8)
to rotate logfiles automatically.
SIGALRM
causes
pflogd
to flush the current logfile buffers to the disk, thus making the most
recent logs available.
The buffers are also flushed every
delay
seconds.
If the log file contains data after a restart or a
SIGHUP
new logs are appended to the existing file.
If the existing log file was created with a different snaplen,
pflogd
temporarily uses the old snaplen to keep the log file consistent.
pflogd
tries to preserve the integrity of the log file against I/O errors.
Furthermore, integrity of an existing log file is verified before
appending.
If there is an invalid log file or an I/O error, the log file is moved
out of the way and a new one is created.
If a new file cannot be created, logging is suspended until a
SIGHUP
or a
SIGALRM
is received.
The options are as follows:
-D
Debugging mode.
pflogd
does not disassociate from the controlling terminal.
-d delay
Time in seconds to delay between automatic flushes of the file.
This may be specified with a value between 5 and 3600 seconds.
If not specified, the default is 60 seconds.
-f filename
Log output filename.
Default is
/var/log/pflog
-i interface
Specifies the
pflog(4)
interface to use.
By default,
pflogd
will use
pflog0
-s snaplen
Analyze at most the first
snaplen
bytes of data from each packet rather than the default of 116.
The default of 116 is adequate for IP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP headers but may
truncate protocol information for other protocols.
Other file parsers may desire a higher snaplen.
-x
Check the integrity of an existing log file, and return.
expression
Selects which packets will be dumped, using the regular language of
tcpdump(1).
FILES
/var/run/pflogd.pid
Process ID of the currently running
.
/var/log/pflog
Default log file.
EXAMPLES
Log specific tcp packets to a different log file with a large snaplen
(useful with a log-all rule to dump complete sessions):
# pflogd -s 1600 -f suspicious.log port 80 and host evilhost
Log from another
pflog(4)
interface, excluding specific packets:
# pflogd -i pflog3 -f network3.log "not (tcp and port 23)"
Display binary logs:
# tcpdump -n -e -ttt -r /var/log/pflog
Display the logs in real time (this does not interfere with the
operation of
)
# tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0
Tcpdump has been extended to be able to filter on the pfloghdr
structure defined in
Aq Ar net/if_pflog.h .
Tcpdump can restrict the output
to packets logged on a specified interface, a rule number, a reason,
a direction, an IP family or an action.
ip
Address family equals IPv4.
ip6
Address family equals IPv6.
ifname kue0
Interface name equals "kue0".
on kue0
Interface name equals "kue0".
ruleset authpf
Ruleset name equals "authpf".
rulenum 10
Rule number equals 10.
reason match
Reason equals match.
Also accepts "bad-offset", "fragment", "bad-timestamp", "short",
"normalize", "memory", "congestion", "ip-option", "proto-cksum",
"state-mismatch", "state-insert", "state-limit", "src-limit",
and "synproxy".
action pass
Action equals pass.
Also accepts "block".
inbound
The direction was inbound.
outbound
The direction was outbound.
Display the logs in real time of inbound packets that were blocked on
the wi0 interface:
# tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0 inbound and action block and on wi0