🟠 High   ⏱ 5–30 min  Last verified: 19 May 2026
Affected versions: FreeBSD 13

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

pf can appear active on FreeBSD 13 while unexpected block rules still deny required application traffic.

Environment & Reproduction

Service ports remain unreachable despite pfctl showing rules loaded and interface counters incrementing.

Root Cause Analysis

Rule order, quick keyword misuse, missing pass state clauses, or anchor shadowing commonly cause this.

Quick Triage

Use pfctl -sr, pfctl -ss, tcpdump on target interface, and compare expected path with actual matched rule.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Capture current live ruleset and state table snapshot. image_ref=0

Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — terminal_or_shell
Inspecting active pf rules and states in terminal — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

Correct rule ordering in /etc/pf.conf, validate with pfctl -nf, then load using pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf. image_ref=1

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Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — log_or_config
Reviewing /etc/pf.conf anchors and macros — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Ensure boot persistence via sysrc pf_enable=”YES” and manage runtime with service pf restart when appropriate.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Use explicit interface macros and anchor sections to keep inbound, outbound, and NAT logic deterministic.

Rollback Plan

Confirm NAT and rdr rules align with active interface names and avoid stale identifiers after NIC changes.

Prevention & Hardening

Run nc and curl tests from trusted hosts, then verify pass counters with pfctl -vvsr.

Version control pf.conf, lint before deploy, and baseline counters for critical pass rules.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for freebsd-13.

View all freebsd-13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Check man pf.conf, man pfctl, and FreeBSD PF examples for production-safe rule patterns.

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