Boot fallback, flowtable devices that come and go, healthz, renames
The boot unit fails closed: if ruleset.nft doesn't load, it loads ruleset-fallback.nft (render.Fallback), saved beside it from the same configuration: nothing new in from external zones, established, the ICMPv6 IPv6 needs and DHCPv6 replies let in, the inside left alone and masqueraded, and the unit marked failed with a critical message. housecarld replaces it when it applies; status, the dashboard and /healthz say while it is in force. no_external_zone now also says the fallback closes everything without an external zone. The boot ruleset has no flowtable: nftables on Debian 13's kernel refuses one naming a device that doesn't exist yet (ppp0 before PPPoE), and with it the whole file. internal/linkwatch listens to rtnetlink link messages; housecarld applies again when a flowtable device appears or comes back as a new interface (by ifindex), under the engine's lock. docs/flowtable.md: what it does, when to use it and when not, how. GET /healthz reports firewall (applied, unconfigured, fallback, missing), changes on probation and the machine's warnings, with 503 unless in force, read at most every five seconds. Renaming a zone, set or service changes what names it in the same change (one history entry, one undo); dynamic sets keep their names. The importer keeps a chain's head in order: once a would-be built-in stays a rule, the ones after it do too, so the maintainer's ICMPv6 accepts stay behind the invalid drop as written. hc settings set --flowtable none empties the list. make test (nft 1.1.3) and make e2e (242 checks, with VLAN sub-interfaces, the fallback and the flowtable) pass. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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# The flowtable: a fast path for forwarded traffic
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The flowtable is a shortcut inside the kernel for traffic the firewall
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**forwards** (between the internet and your LAN, between zones). It
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speeds up routing on a machine whose CPU can't keep up with its line.
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It doesn't make the firewall any safer or less safe, but it changes what
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some features can see, so read [when not to use it](#when-not-to-use-it)
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before you turn it on.
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It is off until you name its devices.
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## What it does
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Without a flowtable, every forwarded packet takes the whole way through
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the kernel: the prerouting hooks, the routing decision, Housecarl's
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forward chain (the built-ins, then your rules) and postrouting with NAT.
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For an established connection almost all of that work only ends in the
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`established` built-in accepting it again, packet after packet.
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With a flowtable, Housecarl adds one built-in to the forward chain:
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```
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meta l4proto { tcp, udp } flow add @ft
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```
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A TCP or UDP connection takes the whole way for its first packets, as
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always: your rules decide whether it is allowed at all. Once the kernel
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has seen it established (and your rules let it through), it is added
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to the flowtable. From then on its packets are caught as soon as they
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arrive on one of the flowtable's devices (the *ingress* hook) and sent
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straight out on the other side: NAT is still applied, the TTL still
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counts down, but every chain in between is skipped.
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```
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first packets every packet after
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in ─► prerouting ─► routing ─► forward ─► postrouting ─► out
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│ ▲
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└────────────── flowtable (ingress) ─────────────────────┘
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```
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It is the software flowtable, run by the CPU. Offloading to the network
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card's hardware isn't supported ([design.md](design.md#not-in-01)).
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## When to use it
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Turn it on when **the router's CPU is what limits your speed**:
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* a speed test through the router gets less than your line gives (or
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less than the same test from the router itself), and
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* during it, one CPU core is busy with network work: in `top`, press `1`
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for every core, and look at `si` (softirq) near 100 % on a core.
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Typical cases: a small or old machine (Atom, Celeron, a Raspberry Pi, an
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old Core 2) on a fast line (500 Mbit/s and up), lots of small packets
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(gaming, VoIP, many downloads at once), or a machine that is busy with
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other work besides routing. The gain is CPU time per packet: often well
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over half of the forwarding cost, which shows up as speed only when the
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CPU was the limit, and otherwise as a cooler, quieter, more responsive
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machine.
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## When not to use it
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**When the CPU keeps up anyway.** If the speed test already reaches your
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line and `si` stays low, the flowtable buys you nothing you'd notice,
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and costs you the figures below. Most modern x86 machines route a
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gigabit line without it.
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**When you count or limit traffic in the forward chain.** The fast path
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skips the forward chain, so whatever must see *every* packet of a
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connection only sees the first few. Housecarl warns about each:
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| Feature | With the flowtable | Warning |
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|---|---|---|
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| quotas and byte-rate limits on forward rules | only count first packets: a device can go far past its allowance | `flowtable_traffic` |
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| forward rules with "every packet" (`--every-packet`) | only see first packets | `flowtable_traffic` |
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| statistics' traffic per device (`stats_per_device`) | only count first packets | `stats_flowtable` |
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| hit counters of the `established` built-in (forward) | stop rising once a connection is offloaded | |
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Rate limits by packets (`--limit 10/second`) and connection limits act
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on new connections, so they work the same.
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**When other tables must see forwarded traffic.** Offloaded packets skip
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the forward hooks of *every* table, not only Housecarl's: Docker's,
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Incus', libvirt's or a table of your own. Those normally only judge new
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connections, which still pass through them, but a table that counts or
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shapes established traffic in its forward chain won't see it.
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What keeps working as before:
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* **Your rules** decide every new connection: nothing gets offloaded
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that your rules didn't let through. A rule you add later doesn't stop
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a connection already open, but that is true without the flowtable too
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(the `established` built-in accepts it).
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* **NAT**: port forwards, hairpin NAT, masquerading and SNAT.
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* **The input and output chains**: traffic to and from the firewall
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itself never uses the flowtable.
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* **Closing connections** (`hc connections close`, Traffic →
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Connections) ends their fast path too: the kernel drops a flow with
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its tracking entry.
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* **Interface statistics** (traffic per zone and interface) come from the
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interfaces' own counters, which count every packet.
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* **Traffic shaping with `tc`** on the outgoing interface still applies.
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* **The log** and **the packet tracer** see what goes through the rules:
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new connections, as always. The tracer doesn't see the packets of an
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offloaded connection; trace a new one.
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* ICMP, and protocols other than TCP and UDP (GRE, ESP, SCTP), always
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take the normal way.
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## How to turn it on
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Name the devices whose traffic should take the fast path, **both
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sides**: the interface connections come in on and the one their replies
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come in on. For a router that means the external interface and the
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inside ones:
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```sh
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hc settings set --flowtable wan --flowtable enp2s0
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hc settings # Flowtable: wan, enp2s0
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```
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In the web UI: Settings → Flowtable, add each device. The fast path
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only catches packets arriving on a listed device, so a connection to or
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from an unlisted one gains little or nothing: leave a device out only on
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purpose (say, a WireGuard interface whose traffic you'd rather keep on
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the normal way).
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* Use **exact device names**, not wildcards (`incusbr*` is refused):
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the kernel attaches the flowtable to each device by name.
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* With **PPPoE**, name the PPP interface (`ppp0`, or the name your
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`ppp@` unit gives it), the one in your external zone.
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* `--flowtable` replaces the whole list; `hc settings set --flowtable
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none` turns the flowtable off.
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The change is applied (and on probation, if made over the network) like
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any other.
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### Devices that come and go
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PPP and WireGuard interfaces don't exist until their service brings
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them up, and PPPoE makes a new `ppp0` each time it reconnects. Housecarl
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handles that:
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* A device that doesn't exist yet is left out of the flowtable, with the
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warning `flowtable_device_missing`, instead of failing the whole
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ruleset.
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* housecarld watches the kernel's interface changes: when a flowtable
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device appears, or comes back as a new interface after a reconnect,
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it applies the ruleset again with it, a couple of seconds later. The
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journal says `interfaces changed: applied the ruleset again`.
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Applying again keeps the counters, dynamic sets and quotas, as any
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change does, and adds no history entry.
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* The ruleset saved for boot has no flowtable at all: it loads before
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the network is up, when `ppp0` and `wg0` can't exist yet, and
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nftables on Debian 13's kernel refuses a flowtable naming a device
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that doesn't exist (and with it the whole file). housecarld adds the
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flowtable once it starts. Until then, traffic takes the normal way,
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through the same rules.
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## Checking it works
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```sh
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sudo nft list flowtables # the devices it is attached to
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sudo conntrack -L | grep OFFLOAD # connections on the fast path
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```
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`conntrack` is in Debian's `conntrack` package. A long download through
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the router should show up as `[OFFLOAD]`. Compare a speed test, and `si`
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in `top`, before and after.
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If nothing gets offloaded, check that both of the connection's devices
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are listed, that `flowtable_device_missing` isn't in `hc status`, and
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that the connection is TCP or UDP and established.
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## Turning it off
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```sh
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hc settings set --flowtable none
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```
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Connections on the fast path go back to the normal way with their next
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packet.
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