# Ipset

Related articles

- Firewalls
- Iptables

ipset is a companion application for the iptables Linux firewall. It allows you to setup rules to quickly and easily block a set of IP addresses, among other things.

## Installation

Install ipset from the official repositories.

## Configuration

### Blocking a list of addresses

Start by creating a new "set" of network addresses. This creates a new "hash" set of "net" network addresses named "myset".

    # ipset create myset hash:net

Add any IP address that you'd like to block to the set.

    # ipset add myset 14.144.0.0/12
    # ipset add myset 27.8.0.0/13
    # ipset add myset 58.16.0.0/15

Finally, configure iptables to block any address in that set. This command will add a rule to the top of the "INPUT" chain to "-m" match the set named "myset" from ipset (--match-set) when it's a "src" packet and "DROP", or block, it.

    # iptables -I INPUT -m set --match-set myset src -j DROP

### Making ipset persistent

ipset you have created is stored in memory and will be gone after reboot. To make the ipset persistent you have to do the followings:

First save the ipset to /etc/ipset.conf:

    # ipset save > /etc/ipset.conf

Then enable `ipset.service`, which works similarly to `iptables.service` for restoring iptables rules.

### Blocking With PeerGuardian and Other Blocklists

The pg2ipset-gitAUR tool by the author of maeyanie.com, coupled with the ipset-update.sh script can be used with cron to automatically update various blocklists. Currently, by default country blocking, tor exit node blocking, and pg2 list blocking from Bluetack are implemented.

## Other Commands

To view the sets:

    # ipset list

To delete a set named "myset":

    # ipset destroy myset

To delete all sets:

    # ipset destroy

Please see the man page for ipset for further information.

## Optimization

The iprangeAUR tool can help to reduce entries in ipset.conf by merging adjacent ranges or eliminating overlapped ranges. This can improve the router/firewall performance if the table size is huge. This tool can also convert a list of hostnames to IPs.

Category:

- Firewalls