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DESCRIPTION

The natd utility normally runs in the background as a daemon. It is passed raw IP packets as they travel into and out of the machine, and will possibly change these before re-injecting them back into the IP packet stream.

It changes all packets destined for another host so that their source IP number is that of the current machine. For each packet changed in this manner, an internal table entry is created to record this fact. The source port number is also changed to indicate the table entry applying to the packet. Packets that are received with a target IP of the current host are checked against this internal table. If an entry is found, it is used to determine the correct target IP number and port to place in the packet.

The following command line options are available:

-log | -l

Log various aliasing statistics and information to the file /var/log/alias.log. This file is truncated each time natd is started.

-deny_incoming | -d

Do not pass incoming packets that have no entry in the internal translation table.

If this option is not used, then such a packet will be altered using the rules in -target_address below, and the entry will be made in the internal translation table.

-log_denied

Log denied incoming packets via syslog(3) (see also -log_facility).

-log_facility facility_name

Use specified log facility when logging information via syslog(3). Argument facility_name is one of the keywords specified in syslog.conf(5).

-use_sockets | -s

Allocate a socket(2) in order to establish an FTP data or IRC DCC send connection. This option uses more system resources, but guarantees successful connections when port numbers conflict.

-same_ports | -m

Try to keep the same port number when altering outgoing packets. With this option, protocols such as RPC will have a better chance of working. If it is not possible to maintain the port number, it will be silently changed as per normal.

-verbose | -v

Do not call daemon(3) on startup. Instead, stay attached to the controlling terminal and display all packet alterations to the standard output. This option should only be used for debugging purposes.

-unregistered_only | -u

Only alter outgoing packets with an unregistered source address. According to RFC 1918, unregistered source addresses are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16.

-redirect_port proto targetIP:targetPORT[-targetPORT] [aliasIP:aliasPORT[-aliasPORT]] [remoteIP[:remotePORT[-remotePORT]]]

Redirect incoming connections arriving to given port(s) to another host and port(s). Argument proto is either tcp or udp, targetIP is the desired target IP number, targetPORT is the desired target port number or range, aliasPORT is the requested port number or range, and aliasIP is the aliasing address. Arguments remoteIP and remotePORT can be used to specify the connection more accurately if necessary. The targetPORT range and aliasPORT range need not be the same numerically, but must have the same size. If remotePORT is not specified, it is assumed to be all ports. If remotePORT is specified, it must match the size of targetPORT, or be 0 (all ports). For example, the argument

tcp inside1:telnet 6666

means that incoming TCP packets destined for port 6666 on this machine will be sent to the telnet port on the inside1 machine.

tcp inside2:2300-2399 3300-3399

will redirect incoming connections on ports 3300-3399 to host inside2, ports 2300-2399. The mapping is 1:1 meaning port 3300 maps to 2300, 3301 maps to 2301, etc.

-redirect_proto proto localIP [publicIP [remoteIP]]

Redirect incoming IP packets of protocol proto (see protocols(5)) destined for publicIP address to a localIP address and vice versa.

If publicIP is not specified, then the default aliasing address is used. If remoteIP is specified, then only packets coming from/to remoteIP will match the rule.

-redirect_address localIP publicIP

Redirect traffic for public IP address to a machine on the local network. This function is known as static NAT. Normally static NAT is useful if your ISP has allocated a small block of IP addresses to you, but it can even be used in the case of single address:

redirect_address 10.0.0.8 0.0.0.0

The above command would redirect all incoming traffic to machine 10.0.0.8.

If several address aliases specify the same public address as follows

redirect_address 192.168.0.2 public_addr
redirect_address 192.168.0.3 public_addr
redirect_address 192.168.0.4 public_addr

the incoming traffic will be directed to the last translated local address (192.168.0.4), but outgoing traffic from the first two addresses will still be aliased to appear from the specified public_addr.

-redirect_address localIP[,localIP[,...]] publicIP

These forms of -redirect_port and -redirect_address are used to transparently offload network load on a single server and distribute the load across a pool of servers. This function is known as LSNAT (RFC 2391). For example, the argument

tcp www1:http,www2:http,www3:http www:http

means that incoming HTTP requests for host www will be transparently redirected to one of the www1, www2 or www3, where a host is selected simply on a round-robin basis, without regard to load on the net.

-dynamic

If the -n or -interface option is used, natd will monitor the routing socket for alterations to the interface passed. If the interface's IP number is changed, natd will dynamically alter its concept of the alias address.

-in_port | -i port

Read from and write to divert(4) port port, treating all packets as “incoming”.

-out_port | -o port

Read from and write to divert(4) port port, treating all packets as “outgoing”.

-port | -p port

Read from and write to divert(4) port port, distinguishing packets as “incoming” or “outgoing” using the rules specified in divert(4). If port is not numeric, it is searched for in the services(5) database. If this option is not specified, the divert port named natd will be used as a default.

-alias_address | -a address

Use address as the aliasing address. If this option is not specified, the -interface option must be used. The specified address is usually the address assigned to the “public” network interface.

All data passing out will be rewritten with a source address equal to address. All data coming in will be checked to see if it matches any already-aliased outgoing connection. If it does, the packet is altered accordingly. If not, all -redirect_port, -redirect_proto and -redirect_address assignments are checked and actioned. If no other action can be made and if -deny_incoming is not specified, the packet is delivered to the local machine using the rules specified in -target_address option below.

-t | -target_address address

Set the target address. When an incoming packet not associated with any pre-existing link arrives at the host machine, it will be sent to the specified address.

The target address may be set to 255.255.255.255, in which case all new incoming packets go to the alias address set by -alias_address or -interface.

If this option is not used, or called with the argument 0.0.0.0, then all new incoming packets go to the address specified in the packet. This allows external machines to talk directly to internal machines if they can route packets to the machine in question.

-interface | -n interface

Use interface to determine the aliasing address. If there is a possibility that the IP number associated with interface may change, the -dynamic option should also be used. If this option is not specified, the -alias_address option must be used.

The specified interface is usually the “public” (or “external”) network interface.

-config | -f file

Read configuration from file. A file should contain a list of options, one per line, in the same form as the long form of the above command line options. For example, the line

alias_address 158.152.17.1

would specify an alias address of 158.152.17.1. Options that do not take an argument are specified with an argument of yes or no in the configuration file. For example, the line

log yes

is synonymous with -log.

Trailing spaces and empty lines are ignored. A ‘#’ sign will mark the rest of the line as a comment.

-reverse

This option makes natd reverse the way it handles “incoming” and “outgoing” packets, allowing it to operate on the “internal” network interface rather than the “external” one.

This can be useful in some transparent proxying situations when outgoing traffic is redirected to the local machine and natd is running on the internal interface (it usually runs on the external interface).

-proxy_only

Force natd to perform transparent proxying only. Normal address translation is not performed.

-proxy_rule [type encode_ip_hdr | encode_tcp_stream] port xxxx server a.b.c.d:yyyy

Enable transparent proxying. Outgoing TCP packets with the given port going through this host to any other host are redirected to the given server and port. Optionally, the original target address can be encoded into the packet. Use encode_ip_hdr to put this information into the IP option field or encode_tcp_stream to inject the data into the beginning of the TCP stream.

-punch_fw basenumber:count

This option directs natd to “punch holes” in an ipfirewall(4) based firewall for FTP/IRC DCC connections. This is done dynamically by installing temporary firewall rules which allow a particular connection (and only that connection) to go through the firewall. The rules are removed once the corresponding connection terminates.

A maximum of count rules starting from the rule number basenumber will be used for punching firewall holes. The range will be cleared for all rules on startup.

-log_ipfw_denied

Log when a packet cannot be re-injected because an ipfw(8) rule blocks it. This is the default with -verbose.

-exit_delay ms

Specify delay in ms before daemon exit after signal. The default is 10000.