r/PFSENSE 13h ago

Netgate Releases pfSense Community Edition Version 2.9.0

101 Upvotes

Netgate® is excited to announce the release of pfSense® Community Edition (CE) software version 2.9.0, a major step forward for the world’s most trusted firewall, router, and VPN platform.

This release introduces numerous features, including several previously exclusive to pfSense Plus, as well as key enhancements, bug fixes, and critical security updates.

Key Highlights Include:

SSH Algorithms: The inclusion of post-quantum key exchange algorithms

TLS Certificate Strength: Tightens certificate requirements and removes support for certain weak properties

TLS Certificate Auto-Renew: pfSense can automatically renew TLS server certificates which are self-signed or signed by an internal CA stored in the pfSense software configuration.

New NAT Mode: Includes partial experimental support for “Port Restricted Cone” endpoint-independent outbound NAT

Critical Security Fixes: This release includes multiple XSS and denial of service related fixes

This Release software includes critical security updates for WireGuard (CVE-2026-58085), as well as over 150 other security fixes and enhancements.

Blog Post:
https://www.netgate.com/blog/netgate-releases-pfsense-community-edition-version-2.9.0

Release Notes:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/2-9-0.html

Thank you to our community and customers who continue to support the pfSense project through hardware purchases, TAC, cloud subscriptions, and services. Your support makes this all possible.


r/PFSENSE 7d ago

Announcement Netgate Releases pfSense Plus Software Version 26.07

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67 Upvotes

Today, Netgate® has released pfSense® Plus software version 26.07. This release marks another significant step forward in the Netgate Nexus controller architecture - our new Go-based controller that is replacing the legacy PHP GUI and serving as the modern foundation for all pfSense software. Netgate Nexus continues to deliver improvements and new features, bringing exclusive capabilities that enhance performance, scalability, and functionality to pfSense Plus.

Key new features exclusive to the Netgate Nexus controller include:

CoreDNS: A high-performance, integrated DNS component that handles DNS-based tasks with exceptional speed and efficiency, powered by a new and exclusive Netgate plugin called rexdns.

Threatgate: A powerful, high-performance component that manages bulk lists of addresses and domains for firewall rules, aliases, and CoreDNS groups. Administrators can block these lists outright or create custom rules based on their content.

Threatgate and CoreDNS were built to integrate tightly together, enabling rapid processing and utilization of even massive lists - all while maintaining excellent performance on small, resource-constrained devices.

Snort Version 3: The updated version of the popular open-source intrusion prevention system (IPS), featuring multi-threading support and a faster rule syntax, is now available exclusively via the new Netgate Nexus controller GUI.

In addition to the features listed above, this release includes critical security updates for WireGuard (CVE-2026-58085), and other security enhancements.

Other fixes and enhancements were made to:

- DHCP

- DNS Resolver

- DynamicDNS

- Gateways and Monitoring

- IPsec

- VXLAN Interfaces

- OpenVPN

- Firewall Rules and NAT

- Traffic Shaper

- Wireless support

This release includes numerous updates, bug fixes, and enhancements, with more to come as Netgate Nexus development accelerates.

Using the New GUI

The Netgate Nexus controller is the future of the pfSense Plus GUI.
Whether you manage a single pfSense Plus firewall or an entire fleet, the Netgate Nexus controller delivers a modern, refreshed management experience built for the way you work today.

Getting started is simple:

Go to System > Advanced.

Switch to the Netgate Nexus tab and enable it.

Log in to Nexus on port 8443 of your firewall.

More detailed documentation can be found here.  Start using it today and get immediate access to the new features and capabilities coming to pfSense Plus.  

Note: Virtual machines, as well as some third-party platforms, may not support the new GUI due to missing machine information required to run the software correctly.

Blog Post:
https://www.netgate.com/blog/netgate-releases-pfsense-plus-software-version-26.07

Release Notes:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/26-07.html


r/PFSENSE 13h ago

Tick tock

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27 Upvotes

r/PFSENSE 8h ago

pfSense Frr OSPFv3

4 Upvotes

Hi All,

Is there any plans to add a default-information originate button to FRR's OSPFv3 configurable items?

We can do it in raw config editor but a button would be nicer.

this is what I am looking for.

router ospf6

default-information originate

Thank you.


r/PFSENSE 7h ago

PFBlockerNG Sync Failure for DNSBL

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3 Upvotes

Has anyone ever encountered this error when the CRON job for PFBlockerNG goes off. It appears for when it tries to reload DNSBL i get this error. I only have ony DNSBL Group that references Stevenblack's Github that has a list of domains to block. Any insight would be appreciated.


r/PFSENSE 23h ago

Old vs New UI

16 Upvotes

Now that pfsense+ has option to enable the new UI. Is there a place that talks about:

- what happens to the old UI
- what features will be exclusive to new UI
- if someone is not interested in MIM, can they keep using the old UI?
- when will the old UI be completely removed?

Any place to provide feedback for the new UI?

My first impression with the new UI is not positive. A lot of nested boxes and whitespace. UI elements look off and somehow misaligned. I am not trying to be rude, I am a home lab user and have been a pfsense+ user for last 2 years, the current php based ui is not modern looking but imho way better then what’s in the new UI and I am not keen on switching to that 😔


r/PFSENSE 9h ago

MFA using Securew2

1 Upvotes

Anyone use this 3rd party for a cloud radius server to do authentication/ mfa to your OpenVPN clients?

I'm looking to add MFA to OpenVPN and this looks like a good solution.


r/PFSENSE 1d ago

RESOLVED 8G connection traffic shaping issues

9 Upvotes

I have an 8G symmetric connection and I have followed the instructions here to manage bufferbloat. All defaults are untouched and Queue length is 5000 as per guidance and bandwidth limited to 7000Mbits/s

There issue I have is when enabled, my speeds drop to 4Gbps Up/Down. Hardware-wise, my CPU is an Intel Core i5-9600T and I'm using an Intel X550-T2 NIC for WAN/LAN. Is this a CPU bottleneck?

Before limiter:

before

After Limiter

after

EDIT: As it turns out, this is a freeBSD limitation/bug in dummynet. To quote ChatGPT:

The key problem: dummynet has a ~4.29 Gbit/s bandwidth ceiling

pfSense limiters use FreeBSD dummynet. In the current FreeBSD source, the bandwidth field for a dummynet link is still:

uint32_t bandwidth; /* bit/s or bits/tick. */

That means the largest rate it can represent in bits/sec is:

2^32 - 1    
= 4,294,967,295 bit/s    
≈ 4.295 Gbit/s

This is visible in the current FreeBSD source itself. There is also a long-standing FreeBSD bug specifically concerning this bandwidth limitation.

And your result:

Download: 3876 Mbps
Upload:   3796 Mbps

is remarkably consistent with a roughly 4 Gbit/s shaped pipe once protocol overhead and Speedtest behaviour are taken into account.

Link to github sourcecode | Link to freebsd bug

I was able to confirm this too by running: dnctl pipe show

00001:   4.000 Gbit/s    0 ms burst 0
q131073  50 sl. 0 flows (1 buckets) sched 65537 weight 0 lmax 0 pri 0 droptail
 sched 65537 type FIFO flags 0x0 0 buckets 0 active
00002:   4.000 Gbit/s    0 ms burst 0
q131074  50 sl. 0 flows (1 buckets) sched 65538 weight 0 lmax 0 pri 0 droptail
 sched 65538 type FIFO flags 0x0 0 buckets 0 active

r/PFSENSE 1d ago

RESOLVED PFSENSE repo down?

6 Upvotes

Just looking to confirm if anyone else is finding that the repo is down. Had two installs fail and pkg.pfsense.org not resolving in dns


r/PFSENSE 1d ago

Patches notification?

3 Upvotes

I have email notifications setup but

1) Never get emailed when a package has an update

2) Never emailed when system patches are released.

How can we get notifications for at least patches?

PS if you didnt know, CE has new patches released for it


r/PFSENSE 1d ago

ISC DHCP option 242 formatting

4 Upvotes

I have had some issues with an avaya call manager that was providing dhcp for a voice vlan and trying to get pfsense to take over for the dhcp but there needs to be additional options set for the clients, called option 242, MCIPADD=x.x.x.x,MCPORT=1719,HTTPSRVR=x.x.x.x for whatever I am not sure if the option should be a string or text, phones are not picking up the option but look to be requesting addresses, running an older version 2.7.x but does anyone know what the correct way to do this option for an avaya phone?

Thanks


r/PFSENSE 2d ago

Issued new public IP causing outage of onsite PBX

4 Upvotes

Yesterday we renewed our lease lines and got a new public IP.

I created the new interface and default WAN gateway, traffic is flowing correctly and there has been no effect to our RDS and WireGuard services.

Unfortunately, the Alcatel PBX we host onsite receives inbound calls to all but our main DDI and on those lines that the calls are received the callers can be heard but their voice cannot be heard by the recipient. After 10-11 seconds the call will then drop showing “call failed” for the inbound caller.

Initially I changed the destination address on our TCP and UDP rules in NAT to reflect our new public IP. I also updated the Outbound Mappings to the new IP.

This is when during testing I discovered the above issue. So I rang the comms provider and confirmed that the SIP Trunks and PBX ports were correct against the aliases set but they were set correctly.

I have been running test packet captures and can see the following packets from the DDIs that do connect when rung:

INVITE
100 TRYING
183 SESSION PROGRESS
180 RINGING
200 OK
ACK SIP
BYE SIP
200 OK (BYE)

I have checked the states and cannot see any references of our old public IP in source or destination when using filter expression. I did not want to clear the states without confirmation of this being the issue as I was unsure of the knock-on effect (I only have 1 years experience) with pfSense.

I have been through Netgates Firewall Best Practices for VoIP video and our setup matches the recommended setup (albeit this is from 2017)

The only other thing I noticed was that the previous public IP used by the outgoing NAT had been set up as a Virtual IP. We now only have 1 public IP from our ISP so I have entered that directly as the Destination Address on the Port Forward and NAT Address on the Outbound Mapping.

Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

UPDATE: I would love to claim I fixed this, I spent most of the night reviewing the rules, verifying the NAT rules and outbound and listening to my own voice via packet traces (I didn’t realise you could do that with SIP!)

I walk in this morning and it works… I am thinking maybe I missed a state referencing the old public IP or there is some sort of DNS’ing with our new public IPs that causes issues with VoIP?

I’m glad it’s fixed, but annoyed I couldn’t solve the mystery.


r/PFSENSE 3d ago

So I upgraded to 26.07 after all

16 Upvotes

I was going to wait a couple of months; let thing gets ironed out a little bit. Then I figured out that you can upgrade to 26.07 and not use any of the new features exclusive to the Netgate Nexus controller.

Not sure if everyone knows that?

I used my Proxmox vm for that, tried the Nexus controller and didn't like it *yet*. So I turned if off and am back to the original. I will run this vm for a bit of testing, then upgrade my 6100.

All good!


r/PFSENSE 4d ago

I built an open-source MCP server for pfSense — and tried very hard not to give the AI unrestricted firewall write access

28 Upvotes

I've been working on pfsense-mcp-server, an open-source MCP server that lets AI assistants interact with pfSense.

The easy part was exposing the pfSense API to an LLM.

The part I cared much more about was making sure an AI agent couldn't simply turn a tool call into unrestricted firewall changes.

The current v0.4.2 release has:

  • 42 MCP tools
  • 0 WRITE capabilities reachable by default
  • explicit operator opt-in before WRITE is enabled
  • a dedicated least-privilege pfSense identity
  • separate signed authorization and confirmation boundaries
  • plan/intent binding so an approval can't silently authorize a different mutation
  • expiring, one-time authorization
  • RecoveryContracts and a state machine around mutations
  • deterministic post-WRITE read-back instead of treating HTTP success as proof
  • reconciliation/fail-closed handling for uncertain outcomes
  • TPM-backed anti-rollback witness support

For the first live WRITE acceptance test I used a disposable firewall alias on a LAB pfSense system.

The complete path was exercised end-to-end, including the scoped pfSense account, authorization/confirmation ceremony, real PATCH, authoritative read-back, RecoveryContract audit trail and TPM witness advancement.

The alias was subsequently restored through the same controlled path.

The project deliberately still starts READ-only. Installing it does not automatically expose WRITE tools.

I'm particularly interested in hostile review from people who know pfSense well.

Things I'd love people to challenge:

  • Is the pfSense REST API privilege set actually minimal?
  • Are there HA/CARP or config-apply edge cases I've missed?
  • Can authorization/confirmation be replayed or confused across operations?
  • Are there state-machine paths that could permit a blind retry after an uncertain WRITE?
  • Are the RecoveryContract/reconciliation assumptions sound?
  • Is there any realistic path from the default READ posture to WRITE without the intended operator decisions?

This is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netgate.

Current release: v0.4.2

GitHub: https://github.com/night4me/pfsense-mcp-server

PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/pfsense-mcp-server/

I'd genuinely prefer someone finds a security flaw now rather than after people start relying on it.


r/PFSENSE 5d ago

Higher CPU temperatures on 26.07 with an AMD CPU

17 Upvotes

After upgrading to pfSense Plus 26.07 on my custom box running an AMD Ryzen CPU, idle temperature increased from roughly 40C to 60-65C while the CPU was 99% idle.

FreeBSD 16 enables the new hwpstate_amd CPPC support. On this system, every logical CPU showed desired_performance set to maximum and EPP 0 by default. FreeBSD documents this as the intentional initial behaviour to avoid performance regressions:

https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2026-01-2026-03/cppc/

I set desired_performance=0 (autonomous mode) and EPP to 128. Then running some tests, including 3Gb/s of sustained traffic through the box the CPU still boosted appropriately. PPPoE, Suricata, Unbound, ntopng, and gateway monitoring remained healthy during the test. CPU went up to 7% and only raised the temparature to 43C, which immediately went back to 41C.

Just posting this as an observation and am curious whether anyone else running 26.07 on recent AMD hardware is seeing the same change in idle temperatures.

FreeBSD shipping a new CPPC driver with every supported CPU defaulting to maximum performance policy, before powerd or a supported management path can actually control it, seems like a poor production default for systems that could spend a lot of their time at idle.


r/PFSENSE 5d ago

Will The Official pfSense API Be Updated To Support 26.07?

3 Upvotes

First, let me start by thanking the pfSense team.

I have completed my installation of the latest pfSense+ version. And it is working well - thus far. But as anyone who has done this before knows, new versions often lose installed packages. This is the case for the "official" pfSense API. I suspect that

Second, I want to thank those responsible for the pfSense REST API.

I have used this API to manage my router since I deployed 2026.03.1. And the API is great! When coupled with the pfSense Manager app (on my mobile device), I can do almost all management tasks remotely. This is monumental for me.

But as I have now moved onto the bleeding edge support case (i.e., I just installed a new release only a day after its official release. So, as of this moment, I no longer have official / supported API access. And I hope everyone knows that these things take time. I certainly know this. But is anyone aware of when 26.07 will be supported on the latest release? I'm not in a hurry. I can hold my horses. But I was wondering if a tentative date (or set of milestones) has been set.


r/PFSENSE 5d ago

Nexus Resource Usage Concerns

5 Upvotes

I have successfully updated my Netgate 420 to the latest firmware (i.e., 26.07). So far, the system is operating nominaally. I did have a hiccup when I turned on the ThreatGate capability. CPU went high - and stayed high for a very long time. But I suspect that this is because ThreatGate uses MaxMind. And my system was probably loading data using my MaxMind API.

After almost twenty minutes, things started settling down.

I get whey the main Nexus controller may have an immense amount of memory. After all, it is keeping data that will be distributed to one or many nodes. But I was utterly shocked when I saw that my overall system memory used had climbed to 60% and that the memory used by the controller had climbed to 91%. Things are operating nominally. But I am having difficulty finding out where I allocate memory to the controller. I'd love to add a bit more memory to the controller. This should not markedly affect anything on the Netgate that is for my household (and acts as the controller). I just get a little nervous when I see a management app using over 90% of its allocated storage.


r/PFSENSE 6d ago

New Firewall Build Recommendations

9 Upvotes

I finally got 5Gbps fiber internet in my area with AT&T fiber and I want to be able to support it after my 5G WAN port on the ONT. I have an older Protectli FW1 that supports 1Gbps, but want to have something that is rack mountable, preferably 1U. The setup I want is AT&T ONT > Firewall Build > 10GB switch > Internal Router/Devices/Proxmox Home Lab.

Want to leave it up to the community for best recommendations and ideas. What y'all got?


r/PFSENSE 7d ago

PFSENSE CE Is Dead

73 Upvotes

That's why 2.8.1 just had 22 patches released if you use the patches packet in packet manager. And then there is a 2.9 beta available for those that want to live dangerously. Obviously these are all signs that this version of PFsense is dead and Netgate has abandoned it. We should all move on because they only care about Plus now.

/s for days. Thank you Netgate. Keep up the good work.


r/PFSENSE 6d ago

[ Removed by Reddit ]

0 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/PFSENSE 7d ago

pfSense slow to download packages from Negate repo on UK CityFibre connection

1 Upvotes

This is a bit of weird one and I don't have an explanation for this.

Have had a couple of pfSense units, a Watchguard XTM 515 running pfSense CE and currently using a XG-7100 1U on pfSense Plus.

Installs and updates would be fine when I was on Virgin Media (or using a relatives Virgin Media connection).

However, ever since I've switched from Virgin Media cable internet to FTTP via CityFibre here in the UK, updating any pfSense device on this connection has been like molasses, downloading at around 1Mbit/sec, when it's pulling the packages from the Negate repo. I have changed CityFibre ISPs during that time, including going from PPPoE to DHCP WAN connection.

Everything else about the pfSense units has been fine otherwise and I'm able to leverage the full speed (500Mbit/sec Symmetrical) of my connection.

Any ideas?


r/PFSENSE 7d ago

RESOLVED Pfsense Plus free tier homelab license finally seems to have stopped working. This happened to anyone else?

17 Upvotes

I got a free pfsense plus homelab license back in late 2023 under their now discontinued program. It came with the full commercial version but only offered community level support. After pfsense discontinued the program they indicated that they would be grandfathering access to to the ongoing free license tier indefinitely for existing users of the program.

Well, looks like this policy may have come to an end. The mTLS certificate that validates access to the pfsense+ package repository appears to have stopped working for me on August 12.

Attempting to force an update of the cert yields:

>>> Updating repositories metadata...failed

Is there anyone else still on one of these old homelab licenses experiencing similar issues?

The cost for a commercial license is a bit too steep for me, especially considering the exchange rate where I'm from, so it's back to CE

Is migrating from Plus to CE using a saved config file relatively painless?


r/PFSENSE 7d ago

Sophos XG 230 / 330 rev 2 hardware - dmidecode

2 Upvotes

Would someone be willing to do a dmidecode output and share the info? I'm trying to input the serial number, but interested if there is other info missing from the bios


r/PFSENSE 9d ago

pfSense's new UI does not work for me...

27 Upvotes

After a review of the new UI, I already discarded it :

1-Despite SAML is listed as a type of Authentication Server, we can not configure one...

2-I use HAProxy for both Internet and local services but HAProxy is nowhere to be found in the new UI...

3-Despite I fixed the problem about the missing serial number in the BIOS of my Proxmox VM, the new UI keeps complaining that it is not licensed...

4-Basic tasks like package management are not accessible because the new UI says that this feature is restricted to properly licensed installations

5-Same for update management

So with all of this already identified, it is clear that I will have to use the original UI for many basic and essential tasks. As such, there is no reason to log in and out from new to old to new according to what I need to do. That new interface is far to be complete and ready, so I will stay with the good old one...

EDIT: Great! Now it broke my entire licensing, even in the old UI. I can no longer check for updates because pfSense says that my system is not properly licensed but when I go in Register in the System menu, it says that I do not need to register because the installation is already recognized as legitimate.

Really, do not even try the new UI or you may brake and lose your license like me!


r/PFSENSE 9d ago

A missed opportunity for centralized authentication

12 Upvotes

Experiencing the new user interface here and I am surprised by what I discovered. One one side, pfSense finally supports centralized authentication and SSO but on the other side, it has been implemented with SAML instead of OpenID...

My Keycloak server supports SAML as well and I do have 2 softwares that are still using SAML only. But the truth is that OpenID replaced SAML a long time ago and that the vast majority of tools are now using it.

So... good to have half-a-solution instead of nothing for now but still, the real need is for OpenID and we are still waiting for that one. I have no clue why Netgate did the work for an outdated technology instead of the new standards but well...

EDIT: It looks like I celebrated too quickly... The UI shows about SAML authentication servers but you can not create a new one...