OPNsense is an open source, FreeBSD-based firewall and routing software developed by Deciso, a company in the Netherlands that makes hardware and sells support packages for OPNsense.

Launched in 2015, it is a fork of pfSense, which in turn was forked from m0n0wall built on FreeBSD. When m0n0wall closed down in February 2015 its creator, Manuel Kasper, referred its developer community to OPNsense.

Features OPNsense has a web-based interface and can be used on the x86-64 platform. Along with acting as a firewall, it has traffic shaping, load balancing, captive portal and virtual private network capabilities, and others can be added via plugins.

The software also offers next-generation firewall capabilities utilizing Zenarmor, a NGFW plugin developed by OPNsense partner Sunny Valley Networks.

Domain dispute In November 2017, a World Intellectual Property Organization panel found that Netgate, the copyright holder of pfSense, used the domain opnsense.com in bad faith to discredit OPNsense, and obligated Netgate to transfer domain ownership to Deciso.

Releases The OPNsense version naming system consists of year.month. Since the first release took place in January 2015, it was named release 15.1. OPNsense typically uses a 6 month major release cycle with new releases in January and July of each year. OPNsense Release HistoryVersionCode nameGeneral availabilityLatest minor versionLatest release dateMajor changes15.1Ascending Albatross2015-01-0515.1.122015-06-17 Initial release15.7Brave Badger2015-07-0215.7.252016-01-18 Base proxy and IDS support pfSense config importer FreeBSD 10.116.1Crafty Coyote2016-01-2816.1.182016-06-30 Firmware mirror location and crypto selection IPS FreeBSD 10.216.7Dancing Dolphin2016-07-2816.7.142017-01-25 RFC 4638 support (MTU > 1492 in PPPoE) HTTPS proxy support Active Queue Management (AQM): Controlled delay (CoDel) and FlowQueue-CoDel Two factor authentication using RFC 6238 HardenedBSD's ASLR implementation UEFI/GPT boot FreeBSD 10.317.1Eclectic Eagle2017-01-3117.1.112017-07-25 PHP 7.0 Lets Encrypt plugin Pluggable firewall rules Load Balancer, UPnP, SNMP, IGMP, WOL as plugins FreeBSD 1117.7Free Fox2017-07-3117.7.122018-01-18 HardenedBSD SafeStack for base applications and selected ports HardenedBSD procfs hardening Interface code speedup18.1Groovy Gecko2018-01-2918.1.132018-07-24 Debug kernel support PHP 7.1 pluggable NAT rules FreeBSD 11.118.7Happy Hippo2018-07-3118.7.102019-01-07 Meltdown and Spectre V2 mitigations Intel NIC driver updates IDS/IPS application detection rules FreeBSD 11.219.1Inspiring Iguana2019-01-3119.1.102019-07-03 Firewall NAT rule logging support WPAD / PAC and parent proxy support in the web proxy 2FA via LDAP-TOTP combination Dnsmasq DNSSEC support HardenedBSD 11.219.7Jazzy Jaguar2019-07-1719.7.102020-01-09 PHP 7.2 LibreSSL 2.9 WireGuard plugin Firewall rule statistics20.1Keen Kingfisher2020-01-3020.1.92020-07-23 Google backup API 2.4.0 LibreSSL 3.0 Support elliptic curve TLS certificate creation VXLAN support Support for additional loopback interfaces20.7Legendary Lion2020-07-3020.7.82021-01-19 Basic firewall API support (via additional plugin) Suricata 5 Unbound + DHCPDv4: Properly support expired leases PHP expand code styling to PSR-12 HardenedBSD 12.121.1Marvelous Meerkat2021-01-2821.1.92021-07-27 Fix stability and reliability issues with regard to vmx(4), vtnet(4), ixl(4), ix(4) and em(4) Ethernet drivers LibreSSL 3.2 New and improved live traffic report IDPS: New policy definition using metadata tags (e.g. drop all critical events aimed at the perimeter)21.7Noble Nightingale2021-07-2821.7.82022-01-27 Migrate bsdinstaller to bsdinstall AXGBE 10 Gbps network card driver inclusion PHP 7.4 NTPD client mode Firmware Update Revamp Firewall states diagnostic API/GUI22.1Observant Owl2022-01-2722.1.102022-07-07 Authentication / LDAP automatic user creation on login Improve alias hostname resolve performance Improved firewall statistics Support overload table on max new connections FreeBSD 1322.7Powerful Panther2022-07-2822.7.112023-01-18 Intel QuickAssist (QAT) support Add stacked VLAN support (IEEE 802.1ad / QinQ) Advanced DDoS protection using syncookies PHP 8.0 FreeBSD 13.123.1Quintessential Quail2023-01-1323.1.112023-06-28 Firewall alias BGP ASN type support DNS insights dashboard PHP 8.1 WireGuard kernel module LibreSSL discontinued23.7Restless Roadrunner2023-07-3123.7.122024-01-16 Support for Importing Encrypted Configuration Files During OPNsense Installation RADIUS Authentication - Add MSCHAPv2 support Intrusion Detection: Suricata Netmap API version 14 enabled PHP 8.2 FreeBSD 13.224.1Savvy Shark2024-01-3024.1.10_82024-07-25 Suricata 7 OpenSSL 3 ports migration NPTv6 migrate to MVC VXLAN: add support for non standard port numbers os-firewall plugin inclusion to ease API usage Improve WireGuard kernel plugin and implement it in core Add Kea DHCP server option as an alternative to ISC DHCP which will eventually be deprecated24.7Thriving Tiger2024-07-2524.7.122025-01-15 Python 3.11 FreeBSD 14.1 PHP 8.3 Modern dashboard UI improvements Several MVC migrations (GIF, GRE, NAT, dhcrelay) WireGuard VPN performance improvements WireGuard client QR code generation ISC dhcrelay deprecated Captive portal fixes and improvements25.1Ultimate Unicorn2025-01-2925.1.122025-07-22 FreeBSD 14.2 PHP 8.3 ZFS snapshot support Updated UI with new dark theme Several MVC/API migrations25.7Visionary Viper2025-07-2325.7.112026-01-15 FreeBSD 14.3 Updated firewall automation GUI Frontend overhaul Alias performance enhancement Dnsmasq DHCP support (default DHCP server switched from ISC to Dnsmasq) Kea DHCPv6 support SFTP backup plugin26.1Witty Woodpecker2026-01-2826.1.112026-07-01 Updated firewall live view UI Redesigned firewall rules + MVC/API overhaul Automatic Host Discovery Improved Dnsmasq IPv6 handling Suricata 8 Python 3.1326.7Xenial Xenops2026-07-1526.7.52026-09-30 FreeBSD 15.1 OpenVPN 2.7 PHP 8.5 MVC based firewall rules now default Improved IPv6 support Dashboard and UI improvementsLegend:

See also

List of router and firewall distributions

References

Further reading

Jack Wallen (18 April, 2019) "How to install the OPNsense Firewall/Router distribution". TechRepublic.

External links