Netgrimoire/Ward-Grimoire/Firewall/Blocklists.md
2026-04-12 09:53:51 -05:00

7.7 KiB

title description published date tags editor dateCreated
Opnsense - Additional Blocklists Blocklists true 2026-02-23T21:54:13.019Z markdown 2026-02-23T21:46:39.562Z

OPNsense Additional Blocklists

Service: Firewall Aliases — URL Table blocklists Host: OPNsense firewall Applies To: WAN and ATT interfaces Update Frequency: Daily (automatic)


Overview

Your firewall already uses Spamhaus DROP and EDROP as IP blocklists. These three additional lists fill specific gaps that Spamhaus does not cover:

List What It Blocks Why It's Needed
Feodo Tracker Botnet command & control IPs Stops malware on your network phoning home
Abuse.ch SSLBL IPs with malicious SSL certificates Catches malware that uses HTTPS to hide C2 traffic
Emerging Threats Confirmed active attack IPs Broad coverage of IPs currently conducting scans and exploits

These work at the firewall alias level — the same mechanism as your existing Spamhaus lists. Traffic from/to these IPs is blocked before it reaches any service.

✓ These lists are also used by Suricata internally. Adding them as firewall aliases provides a second, independent enforcement point at the packet filter level — meaning blocks happen even if Suricata is restarted or temporarily inactive.


Current Blocklist State

From your configuration, these lists are already present and working:

Alias List Status
SpamHaus_Drop Spamhaus DROP ⚠ Alias active, rule disabled
Spamhaus_edrop Spamhaus EDROP ⚠ Alias active, rule disabled
crowdsec_blacklists CrowdSec IPv4 ✓ Active
crowdsec6_blacklists CrowdSec IPv6 ✓ Active

First priority: Before adding new blocklists, re-enable the existing Spamhaus block rules. See the Re-enable Existing Rules section at the bottom of this document.


Step 1 — Add Feodo Tracker Alias

Navigate to Firewall → Aliases → Add

Field Value
Name Feodo_Tracker
Type URL Table (IPs)
Description Abuse.ch Feodo Tracker — Botnet C2 IPs
URL https://feodotracker.abuse.ch/downloads/ipblocklist.txt
Refresh Frequency 1 day
Enabled

Click Save, then Apply Changes.

Verify the list loaded: Go to Firewall → Diagnostics → Aliases, select Feodo_Tracker — you should see a list of IP addresses populated.


Step 2 — Add Abuse.ch SSLBL Alias

Navigate to Firewall → Aliases → Add

Field Value
Name AbuseCH_SSLBL
Type URL Table (IPs)
Description Abuse.ch SSL Blacklist — Malicious SSL certificate IPs
URL https://sslbl.abuse.ch/blacklist/sslipblacklist.txt
Refresh Frequency 1 day
Enabled

Click Save, then Apply Changes.

✓ The SSL Blacklist specifically targets IPs that have been observed using SSL/TLS certificates associated with malware botnets. It catches C2 traffic that would otherwise be hidden inside HTTPS.


Step 3 — Add Emerging Threats Alias

Navigate to Firewall → Aliases → Add

Field Value
Name ET_Block_IPs
Type URL Table (IPs)
Description Emerging Threats — Active attack and scanning IPs
URL https://rules.emergingthreats.net/fwrules/emerging-Block-IPs.txt
Refresh Frequency 1 day
Enabled

Click Save, then Apply Changes.


Step 4 — Create Firewall Block Rules

One block rule per alias, applied to both WAN and ATT interfaces. Add these rules above your existing PASS rules on each interface.

Navigate to Firewall → Rules → WAN

Rule 1 — Block Feodo Tracker (WAN)

Click Add (add to top of ruleset):

Field Value
Action Block
Interface WAN
Direction in
Protocol any
Source Feodo_Tracker (single host or alias)
Destination any
Description Block Feodo Tracker botnet C2
Log ✓ Enable logging

Click Save.

Rule 2 — Block Abuse.ch SSLBL (WAN)

Field Value
Action Block
Interface WAN
Direction in
Protocol any
Source AbuseCH_SSLBL
Destination any
Description Block Abuse.ch SSL Blacklist
Log ✓ Enable logging

Click Save.

Rule 3 — Block Emerging Threats (WAN)

Field Value
Action Block
Interface WAN
Direction in
Protocol any
Source ET_Block_IPs
Destination any
Description Block Emerging Threats IPs
Log ✓ Enable logging

Click Save.

Click Apply Changes on the WAN rules page.

Repeat for ATT Interface

Navigate to Firewall → Rules → ATT and add the same three rules with Interface: ATT. This ensures blocking applies to both WANs during the transition period, and only ATT after WAN is retired.


Adding outbound blocks catches the case where an internal device is already compromised and attempting to contact C2 infrastructure. Apply to the LAN interface, direction out:

Navigate to Firewall → Rules → LAN, add rules with:

  • Direction: out
  • Source: any
  • Destination: the respective alias (Feodo_Tracker, AbuseCH_SSLBL, ET_Block_IPs)
  • Action: Block

This means even if malware bypasses inbound filtering, outbound connections to known C2 IPs are still blocked.


Re-enable Existing Spamhaus Rules

While you are in the firewall rules, re-enable the three currently disabled rules:

Navigate to Firewall → Rules → WAN

Find these three rules (they appear greyed out):

  1. Block DROP — source: SpamHaus_Drop
  2. Block EDROP — source: Spamhaus_edrop
  3. GeoIP country block — source: Blocked_Countries

Click the enable toggle (grey circle icon) on each rule to enable them. Click Apply Changes.

✓ These aliases are already populated and refreshing automatically. The only reason they were not blocking is because the rules were disabled. Enabling them requires no other changes.


Verifying Blocklists Are Working

Check Alias Contents

Firewall → Diagnostics → Aliases — select each alias to see the current list of blocked IPs and confirm they are populated.

Check Firewall Logs

Firewall → Log Files → Live View — filter by the rule description (e.g., Feodo Tracker) to see blocks in real time.

Check Update Schedule

Aliases refresh on the schedule set during creation. To force an immediate refresh: Firewall → Diagnostics → Aliases → select alias → Flush + Force Update


Complete Blocklist Summary

After implementing all of the above, your firewall enforces the following IP blocklists:

Alias List Covers Update
SpamHaus_Drop Spamhaus DROP Hijacked/compromised netblocks Daily
Spamhaus_edrop Spamhaus EDROP Extended DROP — bogon routes Daily
Feodo_Tracker Feodo Tracker Botnet C2 IPs Daily
AbuseCH_SSLBL Abuse.ch SSLBL Malicious SSL certificate IPs Daily
ET_Block_IPs Emerging Threats Active scanners & attack IPs Daily
crowdsec_blacklists CrowdSec Community-reported bad IPs (IPv4) Real-time
crowdsec6_blacklists CrowdSec Community-reported bad IPs (IPv6) Real-time
Blocked_Countries MaxMind GeoIP 70 blocked countries Weekly

Combined with Suricata (content inspection) and CrowdSec (IP reputation), this gives you a comprehensive multi-layer perimeter.