nftables
The facts below are what the maker publishes about nftables, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
The facts
Each one read from nftables's own pages, with the date it was checked.
Where it runs
- Application rules
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
What it does
- Compatibility
- A backward compatibility layer lets users run iptables and ip6tables with the same syntax over the nftables infrastructure.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Connection alerts
- Nochecked 22 Sep 2026
- Dependencies
- The nft command-line tool requires libmnl, libnftnl, and the nft tool itself to run.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Documentation and support
- The project points users to the nftables HOWTO, a man page, and Netfilter mailing lists.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Kernel requirement
- nftables is available upstream since Linux kernel 3.13, and the project recommends newer kernel versions.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Library
- libnftables is a high-level userspace library that includes JSON support.checked 8 Oct 2026
- License
- The Netfilter licensing page describes netfilter/iptables as free software distributed under GNU GPLv2 only, with possible exceptions stated in individual source-file headers.checked 8 Oct 2026
- License and verification
- The Netfilter project describes its software as free software under GNU GPLv2 or later and says its core team signs project releases with a PGP key.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Maintainers
- The Netfilter Core Team makes project decisions, has commit access to the master source control tree, and can make releases.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Netfilter integration
- nftables reuses Netfilter’s hook infrastructure, connection tracking system, NAT, userspace queueing, and logging subsystem.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Network functions
- The project documentation lists packet matching, rate limiting, counters, logging, NAT, load balancing and userspace queueing among its capabilities.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Outbound control
- advancedchecked 22 Sep 2026
- Performance
- Maps and concatenations can reduce the number of rule inspections needed to determine a packet's action.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Performance feature
- Maps and concatenations can structure rulesets to reduce the number of rule inspections needed to determine a packet’s action.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- nftables replaces iptables, ip6tables, arptables, and ebtables with an in-kernel packet classification framework and the nft command-line tool.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Release downloads
- The releases page offers source tarballs with GPG signatures and SHA-256 checksums; it lists nftables 1.1.7 dated 2026-Sep-01.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Release security
- The Netfilter Core Team says it uses a PGP key to sign all software released by the project; the listed key is valid until October 12, 2028.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Rule direction
- bothchecked 22 Sep 2026
- Rule processing
- The nft tool compiles rulesets into VM bytecode for the kernel and decompiles retrieved bytecode back into ruleset form.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Ruleset processing
- The nft command-line tool compiles rulesets into VM bytecode for the kernel and decompiles retrieved bytecode back into ruleset form.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs questions to mailing lists and bug reports to its tracker; it says the small core team cannot help individual users configure firewalls.checked 8 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 1999checked 28 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
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