2.5.0 New Features and Changes¶

pfSense® software version 2.5.0 brings a major OS version upgrade, OpenSSL upgrades, PHP and Python upgrades, and numerous bug fixes.

Warning

The original plan was to include a RESTCONF API in pfSense version 2.5.0, which for security reasons would have required hardware AES-NI or equivalent support. Plans have since changed, and pfSense 2.5.0 does not contain the planned RESTCONF API, thus pfSense version 2.5.0 WILL NOT require AES-NI.

Tip

For those who have not yet updated to 2.4.4-p3 or 2.4.4, consult the previous release notes and blog posts for those releases to read all important information and warnings before proceeding.

Operating System / Architecture changes¶

Base OS upgraded to FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE-p10
OpenSSL upgraded to 1.1.1a-freebsd
PHP upgraded to 7.3 #9365
Python upgraded to 3.6 #9360

Security / Errata¶

Deprecated the built-in relayd Load Balancer #9386
- relayd does not function with OpenSSL 1.1.x
- The relayd FreeBSD port has been changed to require libressl – There is no apparent sign of work to make it compatible with OpenSSL 1.1.x
- The HAProxy package may be used in its place; It is a much more robust and more feature-complete load balancer and reverse proxy
- For more information on implementing HAProxy, see HAProxy package and the Hangout

Warning

See the FreeBSD 12.0 Release Notes for information on deprecated hardware drivers that may impact firewalls upgrading to pfSense version 2.5.0. Some of these were renamed or folded into other drivers, others have been removed, and more are slated for removal in FreeBSD 13 in the future.

Known Issues¶

During development of pfSense version 2.5.0, there is a significant chance that packages will be unstable until closer to the release. Most of this is due to OpenSSL changes. This will stabilize as development progresses.

Aliases/Tables¶

Fixed URL-based Alias only storing last-most entry in the configuration #9074
Fixed an issue with PF tables remaining active after they had been deleted #9790

Authentication¶

Set RADIUS NAS Identifier to include webConfigurator and the firewall hostname when logging in the GUI #9209
Added LDAP extended query for groups in RFC2307 containers #9527

Backup/Restore¶

Changed crypt_data() to use stronger key derivation #9421
Updated crypt_data() syntax for OpenSSL 1.1.x #9420 #10178
Disabled AutoConfigBackup manual backups when AutoConfigBackup is disabled #9785

Captive Portal¶

Changed Captive Portal vouchers to use phpseclib so it can generate keys natively in PHP, and to work around OpenSSL deprecating key sizes needed for vouchers #9443
Added trim() to the submitted username, so that spaces before/after in input do not cause authentication errors #9274
Optimized Captive Portal authentication attempts when using multiple authentication servers #9255
Fixed Captive Portal session timeout values for RADIUS users who do not have a timeout returned from the server #9208
Changed Captive Portal so that users no longer get disconnected when changes are made to Captive Portal settings #8616
Added an option so that Captive Portals may choose to remove or retain logins across reboot #5644

Certificates¶

Fixed OCSP stapling detection for OpenSSL 1.1.x #9408
Fixed GUI detection of revoked status for certificates issued and revoked by an intermediate CA #9924
Added an option to globally trust local CA manager entries #4068
Added support for randomized certificate serial numbers when creating or signing certificates with local internal CAs #9883
Added validation for CA/CRL serial numbers #9883 #9869
Added support for importing ECDSA keys in certificates and when completing signing requests #9745
Added support for creating and signing certificates using ECDSA keys #9843
Added detailed certificate information block to the CA list, using code shared with the Certificate list #9856
Added Certificate Lifetime to certificate information block #7332
Added CA validity checks when attempting to pre-fill certificate fields from a CA #3956
Added a daily certificate expiration check and notice, with settings to control its behavior and notifications (Default: 27 days) #7332
Added CA/Certificate renewal functionality #9842
- This allows a CA or certificate to be renewed using its current settings (or a more secure profile), replacing the entry with a fresh one, and optionally retaining the existing key.
Added an “Edit” screen for Certificate entries
- This view allows editing the Certificate Descriptive name field #7861
- This view also adds a (not stored) password field and buttons for exporting encrypted private keys and PKCS#12 archives #1192
Improved default GUI certificate strength and handling of weak values #9825
- Reduced the default GUI web server certificate lifetime to 825 days to prevent errors on Apple platforms #9825
- Added notes on CA/Cert pages about using potentially insecure parameter choices
- Added visible warnings on CA/Cert pages if parameters are known to be insecure or not recommended
Revamped CRL management to be easier to use and more capable
- Added the ability to revoke certificates by serial number #9869
- Added the ability to revoke multiple entries at a time #3258
- Decluttered the main CRL list screen
- Moved to a single CRL create control to the bottom under the list rather than multiple buttons
Optimized CA/Cert/CRL code in various ways, including:
- Actions are now performed by refid rather than array index, which is more accurate and not as prone to being affected by parallel changes
- Improved configuration change descriptions as shown in the GUI and configuration history/backups
- Miscellaneous style and code re-use improvements
- Changed CA/Cert date calculations to use a more accurate method, which ensures accuracy on ARM past the 2038 date barrier #9899

Dashboard¶

Added PPP uptime to the Dashboard Interfaces Widget #9426

DHCP¶

Fixed handling of spaces in DHCP lease hostnames by dhcpleases #9758
Fixed DHCP leases hostname parsing problems which prevented some hostnames from being displayed in the GUI #3500
Added OMAPI settings to the DHCP Server #7304
Added options to disable pushing IPv6 DNS servers to clients via DHCP6 #9302

Diagnostics¶

Added Reroot and Reboot with Filesystem Check options to GUI Reboot page #9771
Added option to control wait time between ICMP echo request (ping) packets diag_ping.php #9862

DNS¶

Added TCP_RFC7413 in kernel, required for the BIND package #7293

Dynamic DNS¶

Fixed Dynamic DNS Dashboard Widget address parsing for entries with split hostname/domain (e.g. Namecheap) #9564

Interfaces¶

Fixed issues with PPPoE over a VLAN failing to reconnect #9148
Changed the way interface VLAN support is detected so it does not rely on the VLANMTU flag #9548
Added a PHP shell playback script restartallwan which restarts all WAN-type interfaces #9688

IPsec¶

Added 25519 curve-based IPsec DH and PFS groups 31 and 32 #9531
Enabled the strongSwan PKCS#11 plugin #6775
Added support for ECDSA certificates to IPsec for IKE #4991
Renamed IPsec “RSA” options to “Certificate” since both RSA and ECDSA certificates are now supported, and it is also easier for users to recognize #9903
Converted IPsec configuration code from ipsec.conf ipsec/stroke style to swanctl.conf swanctl/vici style #9603
- Split up much of the single large IPsec configuration function into multiple functions as appropriate.
- Optimized code along the way, including reducing code duplication and finding ways to generalize functions to support future expansion.
- For IKEv1 and IKEv2 with Split Connections enabled, P2 settings are properly respected for each individual P2, such as separate encryption algorithms #6263
  - N.B.: In rare cases this may expose a previous misconfiguration which allowed a Phase 2 SA to connect with improper settings, for example if a required encryption algorithm was enabled on one P2 but not another.
- New GUI option under VPN > IPsec, Mobile Clients tab to enable RADIUS Accounting which was previously on by default. This is now disabled by default as RADIUS accounting data will be sent for every tunnel, not only mobile clients, and if the accounting data fails to reach the RADIUS server, tunnels may be disconnected.
- Additional developer & advanced user notes:
  - For those who may have scripts which touched files in /var/etc/ipsec, note that the structure of this directory has changed to the new swanctl layout.
  - Any usage of /usr/local/sbin/ipsec or the stroke plugin must also be changed to /usr/local/sbin/swanctl and VICI. Note that some commands have no direct equivalents, but the same or better information is available in other ways.
  - IPsec start/stop/reload functions now use /usr/local/sbin/strongswanrc
  - IPsec-related functions were converged into ipsec.inc, removed from vpn.inc, and renamed from vpn_ipsec_<name> to ipsec_<name>
- Reworked how reauthentication and rekey behavior functions, giving more control to the user compared to previous options #9983
Reformatted status_ipsec.php to include more available information (rekey timer, encryption key size, IKE SPIs, ports) #9979
Added support for PKCS#11 authentication (e.g. hardware tokens such as Yubikey) for IPsec #9878

Logging¶

Changed system logging to use plain text logging and log rotation, the old binary clog format has been deprecated #8350
Updated firewall log daemon to match data structure changes for FreeBSD 12.x #9411
Updated firewall log parsing to match new format of logs in FreeBSD 12.x #9415
Updated default log size (512k + rotated copies), default lines to display (500, was 50), and max line limits (200k, up from 2k) #9734
Added log tabs for nginx, userlog, utx/lastlog, and some other previously hidden logs #9714
Relocated Package Logs into a tab under System Logs and standardized display/filtering of package logs #9714
Added GUI options to control log rotation #9711
Added code for packages to set their own log rotation parameters #9712
Removed the redundant nginx-error.log file #7198
Fixed some instances where logs were mixed into the wrong log files/tabs (Captive Portal/DHCP/squid/php/others) #1375
Reorganized/restructured several log tabs #9714
Added a dedicated authentication log #9754
Added an option for RFC 5424 format log messages which have RFC 3339 timestamps #9808

Notifications¶

Deprecated & Removed Growl Notifications #8821
Added a daily certificate expiration notification with settings to control its behavior #7332

NTPD¶

Added GUI options for NTP sync/poll intervals #6787

OpenVPN¶

Updated OpenVPN local auth to handle changes in fcgicli output #9460
Added connection count to OpenVPN status and widget #9788
Enabled the OpenVPN x509-alt-username build option #9884
Added an option to enable/disable OpenVPN username-as-common-name #8289
Restructured the OpenVPN settings directory layout
- Changed from /var/etc/openvpn[-csc]/<mode><id>.<file> to /var/etc/openvpn/<mode><id>/<x>
  - This keeps all settings for each client and server in a clean structure
Moved to CApath style CA structure for OpenVPN CA/CRL usage #9915
Added support for OCSP verification of client certificates #7767

Routing¶

Enabled the RADIX_MPATH kernel option for multi-path routing #9544
Fixed automatic static routes set for DNS gateway bindings not being removed when no longer necessary #8922
Fixed route removal to always specify the gateway #10001

Translations¶

Added Italian translation #9716

Upgrade / Installation¶

Fixed issues with checking for updates from the GUI behind a proxy with authentication #9478
Created separate Auto (UFS) UEFI and Auto (UFS) BIOS installation options to avoid problems on hardware which boots differently on USB and non-USB disks #8638

User Manager / Privileges¶

Added menu entry for User Password Manager if the user does not have permission to reach the User Manager #9428
Improved consistency of SSL/TLS references in LDAP authentication servers #10172

Web Interface¶

Increased the number of colors available for the login screen #9706
Added TLS 1.3 to GUI and Captive Portal web server configuration, and removed older versions (TLS 1.0 removed from Captive Portal, TLS 1.1 removed from GUI) #9607
Fixed empty lines in various forms throughout the GUI #9449
Improved validation of FQDNs #9023
Added poly1305-chacha20 to nginx cipher list #9896

Wireless¶

Added support for the athp(4) wireless interface driver #9538 #9600

Development¶

Added a “periodic” style framework to allow for daily/weekly/monthly tasks from the base system or packages by way of plugin calls #7332
Added a central file download function for internal use throughout the GUI