zapret/docs

Multilanguage README

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What is it for

A stand-alone (without 3rd party servers) DPI circumvention tool. May allow to bypass http(s) website blocking or speed shaping, resist signature tcp/udp protocol discovery.

The project is mainly aimed at the Russian audience to fight russian regulator named "Roskomnadzor". Some features of the project are russian reality specific (such as getting list of sites blocked by Roskomnadzor), but most others are common.

Mainly OpenWRT targeted but also supports traditional Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows, partially MacOS.

Most features are also supported in Windows.

How it works

In the simplest case you are dealing with passive DPI. Passive DPI can read passthrough traffic, inject its own packets, but cannot drop packets.

If the request is prohibited the passive DPI will inject its own RST packet and optionally http redirect packet.

If fake packets from DPI are only sent to client, you can use iptables commands to drop them if you can write correct filter rules. This requires manual in-deep traffic analysis and tuning for specific ISP.

This is how we bypass the consequences of a ban trigger.

If the passive DPI sends an RST packet also to the server, there is nothing you can do about it. Your task is to prevent ban trigger from firing up. Iptables alone will not work. This project is aimed at preventing the ban rather than eliminating its consequences.

To do that send what DPI does not expect and what breaks its algorithm of recognizing requests and blocking them.

Some DPIs cannot recognize the http request if it is divided into TCP segments. For example, a request of the form GET / HTTP / 1.1 \ r \ nHost: kinozal.tv ...... we send in 2 parts: first go GET, then / HTTP / 1.1 \ r \ nHost: kinozal.tv ......

Other DPIs stumble when the Host: header is written in another case: for example, host:.

Sometimes work adding extra space after the method: GET / => GET / or adding a dot at the end of the host name: Host: kinozal.tv.

There is also more advanced magic for bypassing DPI at the packet level.

How to put this into practice in the linux system

In short, the options can be classified according to the following scheme:

1. Passive DPI not sending RST to the server. ISP tuned iptables commands can help. This option is out of the scope of the project. If you do not allow ban trigger to fire, then you won’t have to deal with its consequences.
2. Modification of the TCP connection at the stream level. Implemented through a proxy or transparent proxy.
3. Modification of TCP connection at the packet level. Implemented through the NFQUEUE handler and raw sockets.

For options 2 and 3, tpws and nfqws programs are implemented, respectively. You need to run them with the necessary parameters and redirect certain traffic with iptables or nftables.

To redirect a TCP connection to a transparent proxy, the following commands are used:

forwarded traffic : iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -i <internal_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to 127.0.0.127:988

outgoing traffic : iptables -t nat -I OUTPUT -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -m owner ! --uid-owner tpws -j DNAT --to 127.0.0.127:988

DNAT on localhost works in the OUTPUT chain, but does not work in the PREROUTING chain without enabling the route_localnet parameter:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.conf.<internal_interface>.route_localnet=1

You can use -j REDIRECT --to-port 988 instead of DNAT, but in this case the transparent proxy process should listen on the ip address of the incoming interface or on all addresses. Listen all - not good in terms of security. Listening one (local) is possible, but automated scripts will have to recognize it, then dynamically enter it into the command. In any case, additional efforts are required. Using route_localnet can also introduce some security risks. You make available from internal_interface everything bound to 127.0.0.0/8. Services are usually bound to 127.0.0.1. Its possible to deny input to 127.0.0.1 from all interfaces except lo or bind tpws to any other IP from 127.0.0.0/8 range, for example to 127.0.0.127, and allow incomings only to that IP :

iptables -A INPUT ! -i lo -d 127.0.0.127 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT ! -i lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP

Owner filter is necessary to prevent recursive redirection of connections from tpws itself. tpws must be started under OS user tpws.

NFQUEUE redirection of the outgoing traffic and forwarded traffic going towards the external interface, can be done with the following commands:

iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

In order not to touch the traffic to unblocked addresses, you can take a list of blocked hosts, resolve it into IP addresses and put them to ipset 'zapret', then add a filter to the command:

iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -m set --match-set zapret dst -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

Some DPIs catch only the first http request, ignoring subsequent requests in a keep-alive session. Then we can reduce CPU load, refusing to process unnecessary packets.

iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -m connbytes --connbytes-dir=original --connbytes-mode=packets --connbytes 1:6 -m mark ! --mark 0x40000000/0x40000000 -m set --match-set zapret dst -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

Mark filter does not allow nfqws-generated packets to enter the queue again. Its necessary to use this filter when also using connbytes. Without it packet ordering can be changed breaking the whole idea. Also if there's huge packet send from nfqws it may deadlock without mark filter.

Some attacks require redirection of incoming packets :

iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i <external_interface> -p tcp --sport 80 -m connbytes --connbytes-dir=reply --connbytes-mode=packets --connbytes 1:6 -m set --match-set zapret src -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

Incoming packets are filtered by incoming interface, source port and IP. This is opposite to the direct rule.

Some techniques that break NAT are possible only with nftables.

ip6tables

ip6tables work almost exactly the same way as ipv4, but there are a number of important nuances. In DNAT, you should take the address --to in square brackets. For example :

ip6tables -t nat -I OUTPUT -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -m owner ! --uid-owner tpws -j DNAT --to [::1]:988

The route_localnet parameter does not exist for ipv6. DNAT to localhost (:: 1) is possible only in the OUTPUT chain. In the PREROUTING DNAT chain, it is possible to any global address or to the link local address of the same interface the packet came from. NFQUEUE works without changes.

nftables

nftables are fine except one very big problem. nft requires tons of RAM to load large nf sets (ip lists) with subnets/intervals. Most of the home routers can't afford that. For example, even a 256 Mb system can't load a 100K ip list. nft process will OOM. nf sets do not support overlapping intervals and that's why nft process applies very RAM consuming algorithm to merge intervals so they don't overlap. There're equivalents to iptables for all other functions. Interface and protocol anonymous sets allow not to write multiple similar rules. Flow offloading is built-in into new linux kernels and nft versions.

nft version 1.0.2 or higher is recommended. But the higher is version the better.

Some techniques can be fully used only with nftables. It's not possible to queue packets after NAT in iptables. This limits techniques that break NAT.

When it will not work

• If DNS server returns false responses. ISP can return false IP addresses or not return anything when blocked domains are queried. If this is the case change DNS to public ones, such as 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1.Sometimes ISP hijacks queries to any DNS server. Dnscrypt or dns-over-tls help.
• If blocking is done by IP.
• If a connection passes through a filter capable of reconstructing a TCP connection, and which follows all standards. For example, we are routed to squid. Connection goes through the full OS tcpip stack, fragmentation disappears immediately as a means of circumvention. Squid is correct, it will find everything as it should, it is useless to deceive him. BUT. Only small providers can afford using squid, since it is very resource intensive. Large companies usually use DPI, which is designed for much greater bandwidth.

nfqws

This program is a packet modifier and a NFQUEUE queue handler. For BSD systems there is dvtws. Its built from the same source and has almost the same parameters (see bsd.en.md). nfqws takes the following parameters:

 @<config_file>					; read file for options. must be the only argument. other options are ignored.

 --debug=0|1
 --qnum=<nfqueue_number>
 --daemon                                       ; daemonize
 --pidfile=<filename>                           ; write pid to file
 --user=<username>                              ; drop root privs
 --uid=uid[:gid]                                ; drop root privs
 --bind-fix4                                    ; apply outgoing interface selection fix for generated ipv4 packets
 --bind-fix6                                    ; apply outgoing interface selection fix for generated ipv6 packets
 --wsize=<window_size>[:<scale_factor>]         ; set window size. 0 = do not modify. OBSOLETE !
 --wssize=<window_size>[:<scale_factor>]        ; set window size for server. 0 = do not modify. default scale_factor = 0.
 --wssize-cutoff=[n|d|s]N                       ; apply server wsize only to packet numbers (n, default), data packet numbers (d), relative sequence (s) less than N
 --ctrack-timeouts=S:E:F[:U]                    ; internal conntrack timeouts for TCP SYN, ESTABLISHED, FIN stages, UDP timeout. default 60:300:60:60
 --hostcase                                     ; change Host: => host:
 --hostspell                                    ; exact spelling of "Host" header. must be 4 chars. default is "host"
 --hostnospace                                  ; remove space after Host: and add it to User-Agent: to preserve packet size
 --domcase                                      ; mix domain case : Host: TeSt.cOm
 --dpi-desync=[<mode0>,]<mode>[,<mode2>]        ; try to desync dpi state. modes : synack fake fakeknown rst rstack hopbyhop destopt ipfrag1 disorder disorder2 split split2 ipfrag2 udplen tamper
 --dpi-desync-fwmark=<int|0xHEX>                ; override fwmark for desync packet. default = 0x40000000 (1073741824)
 --dpi-desync-ttl=<int>                         ; set ttl for desync packet
 --dpi-desync-ttl6=<int>                        ; set ipv6 hop limit for desync packet. by default ttl value is used.
 --dpi-desync-autottl=[<delta>[:<min>[-<max>]]] ; auto ttl mode for both ipv4 and ipv6. default: 1:3-20
 --dpi-desync-autottl6=[<delta>[:<min>[-<max>]]] ; overrides --dpi-desync-autottl for ipv6 only
 --dpi-desync-fooling=<mode>[,<mode>]           ; can use multiple comma separated values. modes : none md5sig ts badseq badsum datanoack hopbyhop hopbyhop2
 --dpi-desync-repeats=<N>                       ; send every desync packet N times
 --dpi-desync-skip-nosni=0|1                    ; 1(default)=do not act on ClientHello without SNI (ESNI ?)
 --dpi-desync-split-pos=<1..9216>               ; data payload split position
 --dpi-desync-split-http-req=method|host        ; split at specified logical part of plain http request
 --dpi-desync-split-tls=sni|sniext              ; split at specified logical part of TLS ClientHello
 --dpi-desync-split-seqovl=<int>                ; use sequence overlap before first sent original split segment
 --dpi-desync-split-seqovl-pattern=<filename>|0xHEX ; pattern for the fake part of overlap
 --dpi-desync-ipfrag-pos-tcp=<8..9216>          ; ip frag position starting from the transport header. multiple of 8, default 8.
 --dpi-desync-ipfrag-pos-udp=<8..9216>          ; ip frag position starting from the transport header. multiple of 8, default 32.
 --dpi-desync-badseq-increment=<int|0xHEX>      ; badseq fooling seq signed increment. default -10000
 --dpi-desync-badack-increment=<int|0xHEX>      ; badseq fooling ackseq signed increment. default -66000
 --dpi-desync-any-protocol=0|1                  ; 0(default)=desync only http and tls  1=desync any nonempty data packet
 --dpi-desync-fake-http=<filename>|0xHEX        ; file containing fake http request
 --dpi-desync-fake-tls=<filename>|0xHEX         ; file containing fake TLS ClientHello (for https)
 --dpi-desync-fake-unknown=<filename>|0xHEX     ; file containing unknown protocol fake payload
 --dpi-desync-fake-syndata=<filename>|0xHEX     ; file containing SYN data payload
 --dpi-desync-fake-quic=<filename>|0xHEX        ; file containing fake QUIC Initial
 --dpi-desync-fake-wireguard=<filename>|0xHEX   ; file containing fake wireguard handshake initiation
 --dpi-desync-fake-dht=<filename>|0xHEX         ; file containing fake DHT (d1..e)
 --dpi-desync-fake-unknown-udp=<filename>|0xHEX ; file containing unknown udp protocol fake payload
 --dpi-desync-udplen-increment=<int>            ; increase or decrease udp packet length by N bytes (default 2). negative values decrease length.
 --dpi-desync-udplen-pattern=<filename>|0xHEX   ; udp tail fill pattern
 --dpi-desync-start=[n|d|s]N                    ; apply dpi desync only to packet numbers (n, default), data packet numbers (d), relative sequence (s) greater or equal than N
 --dpi-desync-cutoff=[n|d|s]N                   ; apply dpi desync only to packet numbers (n, default), data packet numbers (d), relative sequence (s) less than N
 --hostlist=<filename>                          ; apply dpi desync only to the listed hosts (one host per line, subdomains auto apply, gzip supported, multiple hostlists allowed)
 --hostlist-exclude=<filename>                  ; do not apply dpi desync to the listed hosts (one host per line, subdomains auto apply, gzip supported, multiple hostlists allowed)
 --hostlist-auto=<filename>                     ; detect DPI blocks and build hostlist automatically
 --hostlist-auto-fail-threshold=<int>           ; how many failed attempts cause hostname to be added to auto hostlist (default : 3)
 --hostlist-auto-fail-time=<int>                ; all failed attemps must be within these seconds (default : 60)
 --hostlist-auto-retrans-threshold=<int>        ; how many request retransmissions cause attempt to fail (default : 3)
 --hostlist-auto-debug=<logfile>        	; debug auto hostlist positives
 --new                                          ; begin new strategy
 --filter-l3=ipv4|ipv6                          ; L3 protocol filter. multiple comma separated values allowed.
 --filter-tcp=[~]port1[-port2]|*                ; TCP port filter. ~ means negation. setting tcp and not setting udp filter denies udp. comma separated list supported.
 --filter-udp=[~]port1[-port2]|*                ; UDP port filter. ~ means negation. setting udp and not setting tcp filter denies tcp. comma separated list supported.
 --filter-l7=[http|tls|quic|wireguard|dht|unknown] ; L6-L7 protocol filter. multiple comma separated values allowed.
 --ipset=<filename>                             ; ipset include filter (one ip/CIDR per line, ipv4 and ipv6 accepted, gzip supported, multiple ipsets allowed)
 --ipset-exclude=<filename>                     ; ipset exclude filter (one ip/CIDR per line, ipv4 and ipv6 accepted, gzip supported, multiple ipsets allowed)

The manipulation parameters can be combined in any way.

WARNING. --wsize parameter is now not used anymore in scripts. TCP split can be achieved using DPI desync attack.

DPI desync attack

After completion of the tcp 3-way handshake, the first data packet from the client goes. It usually has GET / ... or TLS ClientHello. We drop this packet, replacing with something else. It can be a fake version with another harmless but valid http or https request (fake), tcp reset packet (rst,rstack), split into 2 segments original packet with fake segment in the middle (split). fakeknown sends fake only in response to known application protocol. In articles these attack have names TCB desynchronization and TCB teardown. Fake packet must reach DPI, but do not reach the destination server. The following means are available: set a low TTL, send a packet with bad checksum, add tcp option MD5 signature. All of them have their own disadvantages :

• md5sig does not work on all servers
• badsum doesn't work if your device is behind NAT which does not pass invalid packets. The most common Linux NAT router configuration does not pass them. Most home routers are Linux based. The default sysctl configuration net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_checksum=1 causes contrack to verify tcp and udp checksums and set INVALID state for packets with invalid checksum. Typically, iptables rules include a rule for dropping packets with INVALID state in the FORWARD chain. The combination of these factors does not allow badsum packets to pass through the router. In openwrt mentioned sysctl is set to 0 from the box, in other routers its often left in the default "1" state. For nfqws to work properly through the router set net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_checksum=0 on the router. System never verifies checksums of locally generated packets so nfqws will always work on the router itself. If you are behind another NAT, such as a ISP, and it does not pass invalid packages, there is nothing you can do about it. But usually ISPs pass badsum. Some adapters/switches/drivers enable hardware filtering of rx badsum not allowing it to pass to the OS. This behavior was observed on a Mediatek MT7621 based device. Tried to modify mediatek ethernet driver with no luck, likely hardware enforced limitation. However the device allowed to send badsum packets, problem only existed for passthrough traffic from clients.
• badseq packets will be dropped by server, but DPI also can ignore them. default badseq increment is set to -10000 because some DPIs drop packets outside of the small tcp window. But this also can cause troubles when --dpi-desync-any-protocol is enabled. To be 100% sure fake packet cannot fit to server tcp window consider setting badseq increment to 0x80000000
• TTL looks like the best option, but it requires special tuning for each ISP. If DPI is further than local ISP websites you can cut access to them. Manual IP exclude list is required. Its possible to use md5sig with ttl. This way you cant hurt anything, but good chances it will help to open local ISP websites. If automatic solution cannot be found then use zapret-hosts-user-exclude.txt. Some router stock firmwares fix outgoing TTL. Without switching this option off TTL fooling will not work.
• hopbyhop is ipv6 only. This fooling adds empty extension header hop-by-hop options or two headers in case of hopbyhop2. Packets with two hop-by-hop headers violate RFC and discarded by all operating systems. All OS accept packets with one hop-by-hop header. Some ISPs/operators drop ipv6 packets with hop-by-hop options. Fakes will not be processed by the server either because ISP drops them or because there are two same headers. DPIs may still anaylize packets with one or two hop-by-hop headers.
• datanoack sends tcp fakes without ACK flag. Servers do not accept this but DPI may accept. This mode may break NAT and may not work with iptables if masquerade is used, even from the router itself. Works with nftables properly. Likely requires external IP address (some ISPs pass these packets through their NAT).
• autottl tries to automatically guess TTL value that allows DPI to receive fakes and does not allow them to reach the server. This tech relies on well known TTL values used by OS : 64,128,255. nfqws takes first incoming packet (YES, you need to redirect it too), guesses path length and decreases by delta value (default 1). If resulting value is outside the range (min,max - default 3,20) then its normalized to min or max. If the path shorter than the value then autottl fails and falls back to the fixed value. This can help if multiple DPIs exists on backbone channels, not just near the ISP. Can fail if inbound and outbound paths are not symmetric.

--dpi-desync-fooling takes multiple comma separated values.

For fake,rst,rstack modes original packet is sent after the fake.

Disorder mode splits original packet and sends packets in the following order :

1. 2nd segment
2. fake 1st segment, data filled with zeroes
3. 1st segment
4. fake 1st segment, data filled with zeroes (2nd copy)

Original packet is always dropped. --dpi-desync-split-pos sets split position (default 2). If position is higher than packet length, pos=1 is used. This sequence is designed to make reconstruction of critical message as difficult as possible. Fake segments may not be required to bypass some DPIs, but can potentially help if more sophisticated reconstruction algorithms are used. Mode disorder2 disables sending of fake segments.

Split mode is very similar to disorder but without segment reordering :

1. fake 1st segment, data filled with zeroes
2. 1st segment
3. fake 1st segment, data filled with zeroes (2nd copy)
4. 2nd segment

Mode split2 disables sending of fake segments. It can be used as a faster alternative to --wsize.

In disorder2 and split2 modes no fake packets are sent, so ttl and fooling options are not required.

seqovl adds to the first sent original segment (1st for split, 2nd for disorder) seqovl bytes to the beginning and decreases sequence number. In split2 mode this creates partially in-window packet. OS receives only in-window part. In disorder2 mode OS receives fake and real part of the second segment but does not pass received data to the socket until first segment is received. First segment overwrites fake part of the second segment. Then OS passes original data to the socket. All unix OS except Solaris preserve last received data. This is not the case for Windows servers and disorder with seqovl will not work. Disorder requires seqovl to be less than split_pos. Either statically defined or automatically calculated. Otherwise desync is not possible and will not happen. Method allows to avoid separate fakes. Fakes and real data are mixed.

hopbyhop, destopt and ipfrag1 desync modes (they're not the same as hopbyhop fooling !) are ipv6 only. One hop-by-hop, destination options or fragment header is added to all desynced packets. Extra header increases packet size and can't be applied to the maximum size packets. If it's not possible to send modified packet original one will be sent. The idea here is that DPI sees 0 in the next header field of the main ipv6 header and does not walk through the extension header chain until transport header is found. hopbyhop, destopt, ipfrag1 modes can be used with any second phase mode except ipfrag1+ipfrag2. For example, hopbyhop,split2 means split original tcp packet into 2 pieces and add hop-by-hop header to both. With hopbyhop,ipfrag2 header sequence will be : ipv6,hop-by-hop,fragment,tcp/udp. ipfrag1 mode may not always work without special preparations. See "IP Fragmentation" notices.

There are DPIs that analyze responses from the server, particularly the certificate from the ServerHello that contain domain name(s). The ClientHello delivery confirmation is an ACK packet from the server with ACK sequence number corresponding to the length of the ClientHello+1. In the disorder variant, a selective acknowledgement (SACK) usually arrives first, then a full ACK. If, instead of ACK or SACK, there is an RST packet with minimal delay, DPI cuts you off at the request stage. If the RST is after a full ACK after a delay of about ping to the server, then probably DPI acts on the server response. The DPI may be satisfied with good ClientHello and stop monitoring the TCP session without checking ServerHello. Then you were lucky. 'fake' option could work. If it does not stop monitoring and persistently checks the ServerHello, --wssize parameter may help (see CONNTRACK). Otherwise it is hardly possible to overcome this without the help of the server. The best solution is to enable TLS 1.3 support on the server. TLS 1.3 sends the server certificate in encrypted form. This is recommendation to all admins of blocked sites. Enable TLS 1.3. You will give more opportunities to overcome DPI.

Hosts are extracted from plain http request Host: header and SNI of ClientHello TLS message. Subdomains are applied automatically. gzip lists are supported.

iptables for performing the attack on the first packet :

iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp -m multiport --dports 80,443 -m connbytes --connbytes-dir=original --connbytes-mode=packets --connbytes 1:6 -m mark ! --mark 0x40000000/0x40000000 -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

This is good if DPI does not track all requests in http keep-alive session. If it does, then pass all outgoing packets for http and only first data packet for https :

iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 443 -m connbytes --connbytes-dir=original --connbytes-mode=packets --connbytes 1:6 -m mark ! --mark 0x40000000/0x40000000 -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass
iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o <external_interface> -p tcp --dport 80 -m mark ! --mark 0x40000000/0x40000000 -j NFQUEUE --queue-num 200 --queue-bypass

mark is needed to keep away generated packets from NFQUEUE. nfqws sets fwmark when it sends generated packets. nfqws can internally filter marked packets. but when connbytes filter is used without mark filter packet ordering can be changed breaking the whole idea of desync attack.

DPI desync combos

dpi-desync parameter takes up to 3 comma separated arguments. zero phase means tcp connection establishement (before sending data payload). Mode can be synack. Hostlist filter is not applicable to the zero phase. Next phases work on packets with data payload. 1st phase mode can be fake,rst,rstack, 2nd phase mode - disorder,disorder2,split,split2,ipfrag2. Can be useful for ISPs with more than one DPI.

SYNACK mode

In geneva docs it's called TCP turnaround. Attempt to make the DPI believe the roles of client and server are reversed.

!!! This mode breaks NAT operation and can be used only if there's no NAT between the attacker's device and the DPI !

In linux it's required to remove standard firewall rule dropping INVALID packets in the OUTPUT chain, for example : -A OUTPUT -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

In openwrt it's possible to disable the rule for both FORWARD and OUTPUT chains in /etc/config/firewall :

config zone
	option name 'wan'
	.........
	option masq_allow_invalid '1'

Unfortunately there's no OUTPUT only switch. It's not desired to remove the rule from the FORWARD chain. Add the following lines to /etc/firewall.user :

iptables -D zone_wan_output -m comment --comment '!fw3' -j zone_wan_dest_ACCEPT
ip6tables -D zone_wan_output -m comment --comment '!fw3' -j zone_wan_dest_ACCEPT

then /etc/init.d/firewall restart

Otherwise raw sending SYN,ACK frame will cause error stopping the further processing. If you realize you don't need the synack mode it's highly suggested to restore drop INVALID rule.

SYNDATA mode

Normally SYNs come without data payload. If it's present it's ignored by all major OS if TCP fast open (TFO) is not involved, but may not be ignored by DPI. Original connections with TFO are not touched because otherwise they would be definitely broken. Without extra parameter payload is 16 zero bytes.

Virtual Machines

Most of nfqws packet magic does not work from VMs powered by virtualbox and vmware when network is NATed. Hypervisor forcibly changes ttl and does not forward fake packets. Set up bridge networking.

CONNTRACK

nfqws is equipped with minimalistic connection tracking system (conntrack) It's used if some specific DPI circumvention methods are involved and helps to reassemble multi-packet requests.

Conntrack can track connection phase : SYN,ESTABLISHED,FIN , packet counts in both directions , sequence numbers.

It can be fed with unidirectional or bidirectional packets.

A SYN or SYN,ACK packet creates an entry in the conntrack table.

That's why iptables redirection must start with the first packet although can be cut later using connbytes filter.

First seen UDP packet creates UDP stream. It defines the stream direction. Then all packets with the same src_ip,src_port,dst_ip,dst_port are considered to belong to the same UDP stream. UDP stream exists till inactivity timeout.

A connection is deleted from the table as soon as it's no more required to satisfy nfqws needs or when a timeout happens.

There're 3 timeouts for each connection state. They can be changed in --ctrack-timeouts parameter.

--wssize changes tcp window size for the server to force it to send split replies. In order for this to affect all server operating systems, it is necessary to change the window size in each outgoing packet before sending the message, the answer to which must be split (for example, TLS ClientHello). That's why conntrack is required to know when to stop applying low window size.

If you do not stop and set the low wssize all the time, the speed will drop catastrophically. Linux can overcome this using connbytes filter but other OS may not include similar filter.

In http(s) case wssize stops after the first http request or TLS ClientHello.

If you deal with a non-http(s) protocol you need --wssize-cutoff. It sets the threshold where wssize stops.

Threshold can be prefixed with 'n' (packet number starting from 1), 'd' (data packet number starting from 1), 's' (relative sequence number - sent by client bytes + 1).

If a http request or TLS ClientHello packet is detected wssize stops immediately ignoring wssize-cutoff option.

If your protocol is prone to long inactivity, you should increase ESTABLISHED phase timeout using --ctrack-timeouts.

Default timeout is low - only 5 mins.

Don't forget that nfqws feeds with redirected packets. If you have limited redirection with connbytes ESTABLISHED entries can remain in the table until dropped by timeout.

To diagnose conntrack state send SIGUSR1 signal to nfqws : killall -SIGUSR1 nfqws.

nfqws will dump current conntrack table to stdout.

Typically, in a SYN packet, client sends TCP extension scaling factor in addition to window size. scaling factor is the power of two by which the window size is multiplied : 0=>1, 1=>2, 2=>4, ..., 8=>256, ...

The wssize parameter specifies the scaling factor after a colon.

Scaling factor can only decrease, increase is blocked to prevent the server from exceeding client's window size.

To force a TLS server to fragment ServerHello message to avoid hostname detection on DPI use --wssize=1:6

The main rule is to set scale_factor as much as possible so that after recovery the final window size becomes the possible maximum. If you set scale_factor 64:0, it will be very slow.

On the other hand, the server response must not be large enough for the DPI to find what it is looking for.

--wssize is not applied in desync profiles with hostlist filter because it works since the connection initiation when it's not yet possible to extract the host name. But it works with auto hostlist profiles.

--wssize may slow down sites and/or increase response time. It's desired to use another methods if possible.

--dpi-desync-cutoff allows you to set the threshold at which it stops applying dpi-desync. Can be prefixed with 'n', 'd', 's' symbol the same way as --wssize-cutoff. Useful with --dpi-desync-any-protocol=1. If the connection falls out of the conntrack and --dpi-desync-cutoff is set, dpi desync will not be applied.

Set conntrack timeouts appropriately.

Reassemble

nfqws supports reassemble of TLS and QUIC ClientHello. They can consist of multiple packets if kyber crypto is used (default starting from chromium 124). Chromium randomizes TLS fingerprint. SNI can be in any packet or in-between. Stateful DPIs usually reassemble all packets in the request then apply block decision. If nfqws receives a partial ClientHello it begins reassemble session. Packets are delayed until it's finished. Then they go through desync using fully reassembled message. On any error reassemble is cancelled and all delayed packets are sent immediately without desync.

There is special support for all tcp split options for multi segment TLS. Split position is treated as message-oriented, not packet oriented. For example, if your client sends TLS ClientHello with size 2000 and SNI is at 1700, desync mode is fake,split2, then fake is sent first, then original first segment and the last splitted segment. 3 segments total.

UDP support

UDP attacks are limited. Its not possible to fragment UDP on transport level, only on network (ip) level. Only desync modes fake,hopbyhop,destopt,ipfrag1 and ipfrag2 are applicable. fake,hopbyhop,destopt can be used in combo with ipfrag2. fake can be used in combo with udplen and tamper.

udplen increases udp payload size by --dpi-desync-udplen-increment bytes. Padding is filled with zeroes by default but can be overriden with a pattern. This option can resist DPIs that track outgoing UDP packet sizes. Requires that application protocol does not depend on udp payload size.

QUIC initial packets are recognized. Decryption and hostname extraction is supported so --hostlist parameter will work. Wireguard handshake initiation and DHT packets are also recognized. For other protocols desync use --dpi-desync-any-protocol.

Conntrack supports udp. --dpi-desync-cutoff will work. UDP conntrack timeout can be set in the 4th parameter of --ctrack-timeouts.

Fake attack is useful only for stateful DPI and useless for stateless dealing with each packet independently. By default fake payload is 64 zeroes. Can be overriden using --dpi-desync-fake-unknown-udp.

IP fragmentation

Modern network can be very hostile to IP fragmentation. Fragmented packets are often not delivered or refragmented/reassembled on the way. Frag position is set independently for tcp and udp. By default 24 and 8, must be multiple of 8. Offset starts from the transport header.

tcp fragments are almost always filtered. It's absolutely not suitable for arbitrary websites. udp fragments have good chances to survive but not everywhere. It's good to assume success rate on QUIC between 50..75%. Likely more with your VPS. Sometimes filtered by DDoS protection.

There are important nuances when working with fragments in Linux.

ipv4 : Linux allows to send ipv4 fragments but standard firewall rules in OUTPUT chain can cause raw send to fail.

ipv6 : There's no way for an application to reliably send fragments without defragmentation by conntrack. Sometimes it works, sometimes system defragments packets. Looks like kernels <4.16 have no simple way to solve this problem. Unloading of nf_conntrack module and its dependency nf_defrag_ipv6 helps but this severely impacts functionality. Kernels 4.16+ exclude from defragmentation untracked packets. See blockcheck.sh code for example.

Sometimes it's required to load ip6table_raw kernel module with parameter raw_before_defrag=1. In openwrt module parameters are specified after module names separated by space in files located in /etc/modules.d.

In traditional linux check whether iptables-legacy or iptables-nft is used. If legacy create the file /etc/modprobe.d/ip6table_raw.conf with the following content :

options ip6table_raw raw_before_defrag=1

In some linux distros its possible to change current ip6tables using this command: update-alternatives --config ip6tables. If you want to stay with nftables-nft you need to patch and recompile your version. In nft.c find :

			{
				.name	= "PREROUTING",
				.type	= "filter",
				.prio	= -300,	/* NF_IP_PRI_RAW */
				.hook	= NF_INET_PRE_ROUTING,
			},
			{
				.name	= "OUTPUT",
				.type	= "filter",
				.prio	= -300,	/* NF_IP_PRI_RAW */
				.hook	= NF_INET_LOCAL_OUT,
			},

and replace -300 to -450.

It must be done manually, blockcheck.sh cannot auto fix this for you.

Or just move to nftables. You can create hooks with any priority there.

Looks like there's no way to do ipfrag using iptables for forwarded traffic if NAT is present. MASQUERADE is terminating target, after it NFQUEUE does not work. nfqws sees packets with internal network source address. If fragmented NAT does not process them. This results in attempt to send packets to internet with internal IP address. You need to use nftables instead with hook priority 101 or higher.

multiple strategies

nfqws can apply different strategies to different requests. It's done with multiple desync profiles. Profiles are delimited by the --new parameter. First profile is created automatically and does not require --new. Each profile has a filter. By default it's empty and profile matches any packet. Filter can have hard parameters : ip version, ipset and tcp/udp port range. Hard parameters are always identified unambiguously even on zero-phase when hostname and L7 are unknown yet. Hostlists can also act as a filter. They can be combined with hard parameters. When a packet comes profiles are matched from the first to the last until first filter condition match. Hard filter is matched first. If it does not match verification goes to the next profile. If a profile matches hard filter , L7 filter and has autohostlist it's selected immediately. If a profile matches hard filter , L7 filter and has normal hostlist(s) and hostname is unknown yet verification goes to the next profile. Otherwise profile hostlist(s) are checked for the hostname. If it matches profile is selected. Otherwise verification goes to the next profile.

It's possible that before knowing L7 and hostname connection is served by one profile and after this information is revealed it's switched to another profile. If you use 0-phase desync methods think carefully what can happen during strategy switch. Use --debug logging to understand better what nfqws does.

Profiles are numbered from 1 to N. There's last empty profile in the chain numbered 0. It's used when no filter matched.

IMPORTANT : multiple strategies exist only for the case when it's not possible to combine all to one strategy. Copy-pasting blockcheck results of different websites to multiple strategies lead to the mess. This way you may never unblock all resources and only confuse yourself.

IMPORTANT : user-mode ipset implementation was not designed as a kernel version replacement. Kernel version is much more effective. It's for the systems that lack ipset support : Windows and Linux without nftables and ipset kernel modules (Android, for example).

tpws

tpws is transparent proxy.

 @<config_file>			; read file for options. must be the only argument. other options are ignored.

 --debug=0|1|2|syslog|@<filename>  ; 1 and 2 means log to console and set debug level. for other targets use --debug-level.
 --debug-level=0|1|2               ; specify debug level for syslog and @<filename>
 --bind-addr=<v4_addr>|<v6_addr>; for v6 link locals append %interface_name : fe80::1%br-lan
 --bind-iface4=<interface_name> ; bind to the first ipv4 addr of interface
 --bind-iface6=<interface_name> ; bind to the first ipv6 addr of interface
 --bind-linklocal=no|unwanted|prefer|force
				; no : bind only to global ipv6
 				; unwanted (default) : prefer global address, then LL
				; prefer : prefer LL, then global
				; force : LL only
 --bind-wait-ifup=<sec>         ; wait for interface to appear and up
 --bind-wait-ip=<sec>           ; after ifup wait for ip address to appear up to N seconds
 --bind-wait-ip-linklocal=<sec> ; accept only link locals first N seconds then any
 --bind-wait-only		; wait for bind conditions satisfaction then exit. return code 0 if success.
 --connect-bind-addr=<v4_addr>|<v6_addr> ; address for outbound connections. for v6 link locals append %%interface_name
 --port=<port>			; port number to listen on
 --socks			; implement socks4/5 proxy instead of transparent proxy
 --local-rcvbuf=<bytes>		; SO_RCVBUF for local legs
 --local-sndbuf=<bytes>		; SO_SNDBUF for local legs
 --remote-rcvbuf=<bytes>        ; SO_RCVBUF for remote legs
 --remote-sndbuf=<bytes>	; SO_SNDBUF for remote legs
 --nosplice                     ; do not use splice to transfer data between sockets
 --skip-nodelay			; do not set TCP_NODELAY for outgoing connections. incompatible with split.
 --local-tcp-user-timeout=<seconds>  ; set tcp user timeout for local leg (default : 10, 0 = system default)
 --remote-tcp-user-timeout=<seconds> ; set tcp user timeout for remote leg (default : 20, 0 = system default)
 --no-resolve			; disable socks5 remote dns
 --resolver-threads=<int>       ; number of resolver worker threads
 --maxconn=<max_connections>	; max number of local legs
 --maxfiles=<max_open_files>    ; max file descriptors (setrlimit). min requirement is (X*connections+16), where X=6 in tcp proxy mode, X=4 in tampering mode.
				; its worth to make a reserve with 1.5 multiplier. by default maxfiles is (X*connections)*1.5+16
 --max-orphan-time=<sec>	; if local leg sends something and closes and remote leg is still connecting then cancel connection attempt after N seconds

 --new                          ; begin new strategy
 --filter-l3=ipv4|ipv6          ; L3 protocol filter. multiple comma separated values allowed.
 --filter-tcp=[~]port1[-port2]|* ; TCP port filter. ~ means negation. comma separated list supported.
 --filter-l7=[http|tls|unknown] ; L6-L7 protocol filter. multiple comma separated values allowed.
 --ipset=<filename>             ; ipset include filter (one ip/CIDR per line, ipv4 and ipv6 accepted, gzip supported, multiple ipsets allowed)
 --ipset-exclude=<filename>     ; ipset exclude filter (one ip/CIDR per line, ipv4 and ipv6 accepted, gzip supported, multiple ipsets allowed)

 --hostlist=<filename>          ; only act on hosts in the list (one host per line, subdomains auto apply, gzip supported, multiple hostlists allowed)
 --hostlist-exclude=<filename>  ; do not act on hosts in the list (one host per line, subdomains auto apply, gzip supported, multiple hostlists allowed)
 --hostlist-auto=<filename>            ; detect DPI blocks and build hostlist automatically
 --hostlist-auto-fail-threshold=<int>  ; how many failed attempts cause hostname to be added to auto hostlist (default : 3)
 --hostlist-auto-fail-time=<int>       ; all failed attemps must be within these seconds (default : 60)
 --hostlist-auto-debug=<logfile>       	; debug auto hostlist positives

 --split-http-req=method|host	; split http request at specified logical position.
 --split-tls=sni|sniext         ; split at specified logical part of TLS ClientHello
 --split-pos=<numeric_offset>   ; split at specified pos. split-http-req takes precedence over split-pos for http reqs.
 --split-any-protocol		; split not only http and https
 --disorder[=http|tls]          ; when splitting simulate sending second fragment first
 --oob[=http|tls]               ; when splitting send out of band byte. default is HEX 0x00.
 --oob-data=<char>|0xHEX        ; override default 0x00 OOB byte.
 --hostcase                     ; change Host: => host:
 --hostspell                    ; exact spelling of "Host" header. must be 4 chars. default is "host"
 --hostdot                      ; add "." after Host: name
 --hosttab                      ; add tab after Host: name
 --hostnospace                  ; remove space after Host:
 --hostpad=<bytes>		; add dummy padding headers before Host:
 --domcase			; mix domain case after Host: like this : TeSt.cOm
 --methodspace                  ; add extra space after method
 --methodeol                    ; add end-of-line before method
 --unixeol                      ; replace 0D0A to 0A
 --tlsrec=sni|sniext            ; make 2 TLS records. split at specified logical part. don't split if SNI is not present.
 --tlsrec-pos=<pos>             ; make 2 TLS records. split at specified pos
 --mss=<int>                    ; set client MSS. forces server to split messages but significantly decreases speed !
 --mss-pf=[~]port1[-port2]      ; MSS port filter. ~ means negation
 --tamper-start=[n]<pos>        ; start tampering only from specified outbound stream position. byte pos or block number ('n'). default is 0.
 --tamper-cutoff=[n]<pos>       ; do not tamper anymore after specified outbound stream position. byte pos or block number ('n'). default is unlimited.
 --daemon                       ; daemonize
 --pidfile=<filename>           ; write pid to file
 --user=<username>              ; drop root privs
 --uid=uid[:gid]		; drop root privs

The manipulation parameters can be combined in any way.

split-http-req takes precedence over split-pos for http reqs.

split-pos works by default only on http and TLS ClientHello. use --split-any-protocol to act on any packet

tpws can bind to multiple interfaces and IP addresses (up to 32).

Port number is always the same.

Parameters --bind-iface* and --bind-addr create new bind.

Other parameters --bind-* are related to the last bind.

link local ipv6 (fe80::/8) mode selection :

--bind-iface6 --bind-linklocal=no : first selects private address fc00::/7, then global address
--bind-iface6 --bind-linklocal=unwanted : first selects private address fc00::/7, then global address, then LL
--bind-iface6 --bind-linklocal=prefer : first selects LL, then private address fc00::/7, then global address
--bind-iface6 --bind-linklocal=force : select only LL

To bind to all ipv4 specify --bind-addr "0.0.0.0", all ipv6 - ::.

--bind-addr="" - mean bind to all ipv4 and ipv6.

If no binds are specified default bind to all ipv4 and ipv6 addresses is created.

To bind to a specific link local address do : --bind-iface6=fe80::aaaa:bbbb:cccc:dddd%iface-name

The --bind-wait* parameters can help in situations where you need to get IP from the interface, but it is not there yet, it is not raised or not configured.

In different systems, ifup events are caught in different ways and do not guarantee that the interface has already received an IP address of a certain type.

In the general case, there is no single mechanism to hang oneself on an event of the type "link local address appeared on the X interface."

To bind to a specific ip when its interface may not be configured yet do : --bind-addr=192.168.5.3 --bind-wait-ip=20

It's possible to bind to any nonexistent address in transparent mode but in socks mode address must exist.

In socks proxy mode no additional system privileges are required. Connections to local IPs of the system where tpws runs are prohibited. tpws supports remote dns resolving (curl : --socks5-hostname firefox : socks_remote_dns=true) , but does it in blocking mode.

tpws uses async sockets for all activities. Domain names are resolved in multi threaded pool. Resolving does not freeze other connections. But if there're too many requests resolving delays may increase. Number of resolver threads is choosen automatically proportinally to --maxconn and can be overriden using --resolver-threads. To disable hostname resolve use --no-resolve option.

--disorder is an additional flag to any split option. It tries to simulate --disorder2 option of nfqws using standard socket API without the need of additional privileges. This works fine in Linux and MacOS but unexpectedly in FreeBSD and OpenBSD (system sends second fragment then the whole packet instead of the first fragment).

--tlsrec and --tlsrec-pos allow to split TLS ClientHello into 2 TLS records in one TCP segment. --tlsrec=sni splits between 1st and 2nd chars of the hostname. No split occurs if SNI is not present. --tlsrec-pos splits at specified position. If TLS data block size is too small pos=1 is applied. --tlsrec can be combined with --split-pos and --disorder. --tlsrec breaks significant number of sites. Crypto libraries on end servers usually accept fine modified ClientHello but middleboxes such as CDNs and ddos guards - not always. Use of --tlsrec without filters is discouraged.

--mss sets TCP_MAXSEG socket option. Client sets this value in MSS TCP option in the SYN packet. Server replies with it's own MSS in SYN,ACK packet. Usually servers lower their packet sizes but they still don't fit to supplied MSS. The greater MSS client sets the bigger server's packets will be. If it's enough to split TLS 1.2 ServerHello, it may fool DPI that checks certificate domain name. This scheme may significantly lower speed. Hostlist filter is possible only in socks mode if client uses remote resolving (firefox network.proxy.socks_remote_dns). --mss is not required for TLS1.3. If TLS1.3 is negotiable then MSS make things only worse. Use only if nothing better is available. Works only in Linux, not BSD or MacOS.

multiple strategies

tpws supports multiple strategies as well. They work mostly like with nfqws with minimal differences. filter-udp is absent because tpws does not support udp. 0-phase desync methods (--mss) can work with hostlist in socks modes with remote hostname resolve. This is the point where you have to plan profiles carefully. If you use --mss and hostlist filters, behaviour can be different depending on remote resolve feature enabled or not. Use --mss both in hostlist profile and profile without hostlist. Use curl --socks5 and curl --socks5-hostname to issue two kinds of proxy queries. See --debug output to test your setup.

Ways to get a list of blocked IP

nftables can't work with ipsets. Native nf sets require lots of RAM to load large ip lists with subnets and intervals. In case you're on a low RAM system and need large lists it may be required to fall back to iptables+ipset.

1. Enter the blocked domains to ipset/zapret-hosts-user.txt and run ipset/get_user.sh At the output, you get ipset/zapret-ip-user.txt with IP addresses.

2. ipset/get_reestr_*.sh. Russian specific

3. ipset/get_antifilter_*.sh. Russian specific

4. ipset/get_config.sh. This script calls what is written into the GETLIST variable from the config file.

If the variable is not defined, then only lists for ipsets nozapret/nozapret6 are resolved.

So, if you're not russian, the only way for you is to manually add blocked domains. Or write your own ipset/get_iran_blocklist.sh , if you know where to download this one.

On routers, it is not recommended to call these scripts more than once in 2 days to minimize flash memory writes.

ipset/create_ipset.sh executes forced ipset update. With no-update parameter create_ipset.sh creates ipset but populate it only if it was actually created.

It's useful when multiple subsequent calls are possible to avoid wasting of cpu time redoing the same job.

Ipset loading is resource consuming. Its a good idea to call create_ipset without no-update parameter

only once a several days. Use it with no-update option in other cases.

ipset scripts automatically call ip2net utility. ip2net helps to reduce ip list size by combining IPs to subnets. Also it cuts invalid IPs from the list. Stored lists are already processed by ip2net. They are error free and ready for loading.

create_ipset.sh supports loading ip lists from gzip files. First it looks for the filename with the ".gz" extension, such as zapret-ip.txt.gz, if not found it falls back to the original name zapret-ip.txt.

So your own get_iran_blockslist.sh can use "zz" function to produce gz. Study how other russian get_XXX.sh work.

Gzipping helps saving a lot of precious flash space on embedded systems.

User lists are not gzipped because they are not expected to be very large.

You can add a list of domains to ipset/zapret-hosts-user-ipban.txt. Their ip addresses will be placed in a separate ipset "ipban". It can be used to route connections to transparent proxy "redsocks" or VPN.

IPV6: if ipv6 is enabled, then additional txt's are created with the same name, but with a "6" at the end before the extension.

zapret-ip.txt => zapret-ip6.txt

The ipsets zapret6 and ipban6 are created.

IP EXCLUSION SYSTEM. All scripts resolve zapret-hosts-user-exclude.txt file, creating zapret-ip-exclude.txt and zapret-ip-exclude6.txt.

They are the source for ipsets nozapret/nozapret6. All rules created by init scripts are created with these ipsets in mind. The IPs placed in them are not involved in the process. zapret-hosts-user-exclude.txt can contain domains, ipv4 and ipv6 addresses or subnets.

FreeBSD. ipset/*.sh scripts also work in FreeBSD. Instead of ipset they create ipfw lookup tables with the same names as in Linux. ipfw tables can store both ipv4 and ipv6 addresses and subnets. There's no 4 and 6 separation.

LISTS_RELOAD config parameter defines a custom lists reloading command. Its useful on BSD systems with PF. LISTS_RELOAD=- disables reloading ip list backend.

Domain name filtering

An alternative to ipset is to use tpws or nfqws with a list(s) of domains. Both tpws and nfqws take any number of include (--hostlist) and exclude (--hostlist-exclude) domain lists. All lists of the same type are combined internally leaving only 2 lists : include and exclude.

Exclude list is checked first. Fooling is cancelled if domain belongs to exclude list. If include list is present and domain does not belong to that list fooling is also cancelled. Empty list means absent list. Otherwise fooling goes on.

Launch system looks for 2 include lists :

ipset/zapret-hosts-users.txt.gz or ipset/zapret-hosts-users.txt

ipset/zapret-hosts.txt.gz or ipset/zapret-hosts.txt

and 1 exclude list

ipset/zapret-hosts-users-exclude.txt.gz or ipset/zapret-hosts-users-exclude.txt

If MODE_FILTER=hostlist all present lists are passed to nfqws or tpws. If all include lists are empty it works like no include lists exist at all. If you need "all except" mode you dont have to delete zapret-hosts-users.txt. Just make it empty.

Subdomains auto apply. For example, "ru" in the list affects "*.ru" .

tpws and nfqws automatically reload lists if their modification date is changed.

When filtering by domain name, daemons should run without filtering by ipset. When using large regulator lists estimate the amount of RAM on the router !

autohostlist mode

This mode analyzes both client requests and server replies. If a host is not in any list and a situation similar to block occurs host is automatically added to the special list both in memory and file. Use exclude hostlist to prevent autohostlist triggering. If it did happen - delete the undesired record from the file.

In case of nfqws it's required to redirect both incoming and outgoing traffic to the queue. It's strongly recommended to use connbytes filter or nfqws will process gigabytes of incoming traffic. For the same reason it's not recommended to use autohostlist mode in BSDs. BSDs do not support connbytes or similar mechanism.

nfqws и tpws detect the folowing situations :

1. [nfqws] Multiple retransmissions of the first request inside a TCP session having host.
2. [nfqws,tpws] RST in response to the first request.
3. [nfqws,tpws] HTTP redirect in response to the first http request with 2nd level domain diferent from the original.
4. [tpws] Client closes connection after first request without having server reply (no reponse from server, timeout).

To minimize false positives there's fail counter. If in specific time occurs more than specified number of fails the host is added to the list. Then DPI bypass strategy start to apply immediately.

For the user autohostlist mode looks like this. When for the first time user visits a blocked website it sees block page, connection reset or browser hangs until timeout, then display a error. User presses multiple times F5 causing browser to retry attempts. After some retries a website opens and next time works as expected.

With autohostlist mode it's possible to use bypass strategies that break lots of sites. If a site does not behave like blocked no fooling applies. Otherwise it's nothing to lose.

However false positives still can occur in case target website is behaving abnormally (may be due to DDoS attack or server malfunction). If it happens bypass strategy may start to break the website. This situation can only be controlled manually. Remove undesired domain from the autohostlist file. Use exclude hostlist to prevent further auto additions.

It's possible to use one auto hostlist with multiple processes. All processes check for file modification time. If a process modified autohostlist, all others will reread it automatically. All processes must run with the same uid.

If zapret scripts are used then autohostlist is ipset/zapret-hosts-auto.txt and exlude list is ipset/zapret-hosts-user-exclude.txt. autohostlist mode includes hostlist mode. You can use ipset/zapret-hosts-user.txt.

Choosing parameters

The file /opt/zapret/config is used by various components of the system and contains basic settings. It needs to be viewed and edited if necessary.

Which firewall type use on linux systems : nftables or iptables. On traditional systems nftables is selected by default if nft is installed. On openwrt by default nftables is selected on firewall4 based systems.

FWTYPE=iptables

With nftables post-NAT scheme is used by default. It allows more DPI attacks on forwarded traffic. It's possible to use iptables-like pre-NAT scheme. nfqws will see client source IPs and display them in logs.

#POSTNAT=0

There'are 3 standard options configured separately and independently : tpws-socks, tpws, nfqws. They can be used alone or combined. Custom scripts in init.d/{sysv,openwrt,macos}/custom.d are always applied.

tpws-socks requires daemon parameter configuration but does not require traffic interception. Other standard options require also traffic interception. Each standard option launches single daemon instance. Strategy differiences are managed using multi-profile scheme. Main rule for interception is "intercept required minumum". Everything else only wastes CPU resources and slows down connection.

--ipset option is prohibited intentionally to disallow easy to use but ineffective user-mode filtering. Use kernel ipsets instead. It may require custom scripts.

To use standard updatable hostlists from the ipset dir use <HOSTLIST> placeholder. It's automatically replaced with hostlist parameters if MODE_FILTER variable enables hostlists and is removed otherwise. Standard hostlists are expected in final (fallback) strategies closing groups of filter parameters. Don't use <HOSTLIST> in highly specialized profiles. Use your own filter or hostlist(s). <HOSTLIST_NOAUTO> marker uses standard autohostlist as usual hostlist thus disabling auto additions in this profile. If any other profile adds something this profile accepts the change automatically.

tpws socks proxy mode switch

TPWS_SOCKS_ENABLE=0

Listening tcp port for tpws proxy mode.

TPPORT_SOCKS=987

tpws socks mode parameters

TPWS_SOCKS_OPT="
--filter-tcp=80 --methodeol <HOSTLIST> --new
--filter-tcp=443 --split-tls=sni --disorder <HOSTLIST>
"

tpws transparent mode switch

TPWS_ENABLE=0

tpws transparent mode target ports

TPWS_PORTS=80,443

tpws transparent mode parameters

TPWS_OPT="
--filter-tcp=80 --methodeol <HOSTLIST> --new
--filter-tcp=443 --split-tls=sni --disorder <HOSTLIST>
"

nfqws enable switch

NFQWS_ENABLE=0

nfqws port targets for connbytes-limited interception. connbytes allows to intercept only starting packets from connections. This is more effective kernel-mode alternative to nfqws --dpi-desync-cutoff=nX.

NFQWS_PORTS_TCP=80,443
NFQWS_PORTS_UDP=443

How many starting packets should be intercepted to nfqws in each direction

NFQWS_TCP_PKT_OUT=$((6+$AUTOHOSTLIST_RETRANS_THRESHOLD))
NFQWS_TCP_PKT_IN=3
NFQWS_UDP_PKT_OUT=$((6+$AUTOHOSTLIST_RETRANS_THRESHOLD))
NFQWS_UDP_PKT_IN=0

There's kind of traffic that requires interception of entire outgoing stream. Typically it's support for plain http keepalives and stateless DPI. This mode of interception significantly increases CPU utilization. Use with care and only if required. Here you specify port numbers for unlimited interception. It's advised also to remove these ports from connbytes-limited interception list.

#NFQWS_PORTS_TCP_KEEPALIVE=80
#NFQWS_PORTS_UDP_KEEPALIVE=

nfqws parameters

NFQWS_OPT="
--filter-tcp=80 --dpi-desync=fake,split2 --dpi-desync-fooling=md5sig <HOSTLIST> --new
--filter-tcp=443 --dpi-desync=fake,disorder2 --dpi-desync-fooling=md5sig <HOSTLIST> --new
--filter-udp=443 --dpi-desync=fake --dpi-desync-repeats=6 <HOSTLIST_NOAUTO>
"

Host filtering mode :

none - apply fooling to all hosts
ipset - limit fooling to hosts from ipset zapret/zapret6
hostlist - limit fooling to hosts from hostlist
autohostlist - hostlist mode + blocks auto detection

MODE_FILTER=none

flow offloading control (if supported)

donttouch : disable system flow offloading setting if selected mode is incompatible with it, dont touch it otherwise and dont configure selective flow offloading
none : always disable system flow offloading setting and dont configure selective flow offloading
software : always disable system flow offloading setting and configure selective software flow offloading
hardware : always disable system flow offloading setting and configure selective hardware flow offloading

FLOWOFFLOAD=donttouch

The GETLIST parameter tells the install_easy.sh installer which script to call to update the list of blocked ip or hosts. Its called via get_config.sh from scheduled tasks (crontab or systemd timer). Put here the name of the script that you will use to update the lists. If not, then the parameter should be commented out.

You can individually disable ipv4 or ipv6. If the parameter is commented out or not equal to "1", use of the protocol is permitted.

#DISABLE_IPV4=1
DISABLE_IPV6=1

The number of threads for mdig multithreaded DNS resolver (1..100). The more of them, the faster, but will your DNS server be offended by hammering ?

MDIG_THREADS=30

temp directory. Used by ipset/*.sh scripts for large lists processing. /tmp by default. Can be reassigned if /tmp is tmpfs and RAM is low. TMPDIR=/opt/zapret/tmp

ipset and nfset options :

SET_MAXELEM=262144
IPSET_OPT="hashsize 262144 maxelem 2097152

Kernel automatically increases hashsize if ipset is too large for the current hashsize. This procedure requires internal reallocation and may require additional memory. On low RAM systems it can cause errors. Do not use too high hashsize. This way you waste your RAM. And dont use too low hashsize to avoid reallocs.

ip2net options. separate for ipv4 and ipv6.

IP2NET_OPT4="--prefix-length=22-30 --v4-threshold=3/4"
IP2NET_OPT6="--prefix-length=56-64 --v6-threshold=5"

autohostlist mode tuning.

AUTOHOSTLIST_RETRANS_THRESHOLD=3
AUTOHOSTLIST_FAIL_THRESHOLD=2
AUTOHOSTLIST_FAIL_TIME=60
AUTOHOSTLIST_DEBUG=0

Enable gzip compression for large lists. Used by ipset/*.sh scripts.

GZIP_LISTS=1

Command to reload ip/host lists after update. Comment or leave empty for auto backend selection : ipset or ipfw if present. On BSD systems with PF no auto reloading happens. You must provide your own command. Newer FreeBSD versions support table only reloading : pfctl -Tl -f /etc/pf.conf Set to "-" to disable reload.

LISTS_RELOAD="pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf"

In openwrt there's default network lan. Only traffic coming from this network is redirected to tpws by default. To override this behaviour set the following variable :

OPENWRT_LAN="lan lan2 lan3"

In openwrt wan interfaces are those having default route. Separately for ipv4 and ipv6. This can be redefined :

OPENWRT_WAN4="wan4 vpn"
OPENWRT_WAN6="wan6 vpn6"

The INIT_APPLY_FW=1 parameter enables the init script to independently apply iptables rules. With other values or if the parameter is commented out, the rules will not be applied. This is useful if you have a firewall management system, in the settings of which you should tie the rules. Not applicable to OpenWRT if used with firewall3+iptables.

The following settings are not relevant for openwrt :

If your system works as a router, then you need to enter the names of the internal and external interfaces:

IFACE_LAN=eth0
IFACE_WAN=eth1
IFACE_WAN6="henet ipsec0"

Multiple interfaces are space separated. IF IFACE_WAN6 is omitted then IFACE_WAN value is taken.

IMPORTANT: configuring routing, masquerade, etc. not a zapret task. Only modes that intercept transit traffic are enabled. It's possible to specify multiple interfaces like this : IFACE_LAN="eth0 eth1 eth2"

Screwing to the firewall control system or your launch system

If you use some kind of firewall management system, then it may conflict with an existing startup script. When re-applying the rules, it could break the iptables settings from the zapret. In this case, the rules for iptables should be screwed to your firewall separately from running tpws or nfqws.

The following calls allow you to apply or remove iptables rules separately:

 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret start_fw
 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret stop_fw
 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret restart_fw

And you can start or stop the demons separately from the firewall:

 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret start_daemons
 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret stop_daemons
 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret restart_daemons

nftables nearly eliminate conflicts betweeen firewall control systems because they allow separate tables and netfilter hooks. zapret nf table is used for zapret purposes. If your system does not touch it everything will likely be OK.

Some additional nftables-only calls exist :

Lookup lanif, wanif, wanif6 and flow table interface sets.

 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret list_ifsets

Renew lanif, wanif, wanif6 and flow table interface sets. Taken from IFACE_LAN, IFACE_WAN config variables on traditional Linux systems. Autoselected on OpenWRT. lanif can be extended using OPENWRT_LAN config variable.

 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret reload_ifsets

Calls nft -t list table inet zapret.

 /opt/zapret/init.d/sysv/zapret list_table

It's also possible to hook with your script to any stage of zapret firewall processing. The following settings are available in the zapret config file :

INIT_FW_PRE_UP_HOOK="/etc/firewall.zapret.hook.pre_up"
INIT_FW_POST_UP_HOOK="/etc/firewall.zapret.hook.post_up"
INIT_FW_PRE_DOWN_HOOK="/etc/firewall.zapret.hook.pre_down"
INIT_FW_POST_DOWN_HOOK="/etc/firewall.zapret.hook.post_down"

Hooks are extremely useful if you need nftables sets populated by zapret scripts. nfsets can only belong to one table. You have to write rule there and synchorize them with zapret scripts.

Installation

Checking ISP

Before running zapret you must discover working bypass strategy. blockcheck.sh automates this process. It first checks DNS then tries many strategies finding the working ones. Note that DNS check is mostly Russia targeted. It checks several pre-defined blocked in Russia domains and verifies system DNS answers with public DNS answers. Because ISP can block public DNS or redirect any DNS queries to their servers blockcheck.sh also checks that all returned answers are unique. Usually if DNS is blocked ISP returns single ip for all blocked domains to redirect you to their "access denied" page. DoH servers are used automatically for checks if DNS spoof is detected. blockcheck.sh works on all systems supported by zapret.

desktop linux system

Simple install works on most modern linux distributions with systemd or openrc, OpenWRT and MacOS. Run install_easy.sh and answer its questions.

OpenWRT

install_easy.sh works on openwrt but there're additional challenges. They are mainly about possibly low flash free space. Simple install will not work if it has no space to install itself and required packages from the repo.

Another challenge would be to bring zapret to the router. You can download zip from github and use it. Install openssh-sftp-server and unzip to openwrt and use sftp to transfer the file. It's also not too hard to use 'nc' (netcat) for file transfer.

The best way to start is to put zapret dir to /tmp and run /tmp/zapret/install_easy.sh from there. After installation remove /tmp/zapret to free RAM.

The absolute minimum for openwrt is 64/8 system, 64/16 is comfortable, 128/extroot is recommended.

For low storage openwrt see init.d/openwrt-minimal.

Android

Its not possible to use nfqws and tpws in transparent proxy mode without root privileges. Without root tpws can run in --socks mode.

Android has NFQUEUE and nfqws should work.

There's no ipset support unless you run custom kernel. In common case task of bringing up ipset on android is ranging from "not easy" to "almost impossible", unless you find working kernel image for your device.

Android does not use /etc/passwd, tpws --user won't work. There's replacement. Use numeric uids in --uid option. Its recommended to use gid 3003 (AID_INET), otherwise tpws will not have inet access.

Example : --uid 1:3003

In iptables use : ! --uid-owner 1 instead of ! --uid-owner tpws.

Nfqws should be executed with --uid 1. Otherwise on some devices or firmwares kernel may partially hang. Looks like processes with certain uids can be suspended. With buggy chineese cellular interface driver this can lead to device hang.

Write your own shell script with iptables and tpws, run it using your root manager. Autorun scripts are here :

magisk : /data/adb/service.d

supersu : /system/su.d

How to run tpws on root-less android. You can't write to /system, /data, can't run from sd card. Selinux prevents running executables in /data/local/tmp from apps. Use adb and adb shell.

mkdir /data/local/tmp/zapret
adb push tpws /data/local/tmp/zapret
chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/zapret /data/local/tmp/zapret/tpws
chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 /data/local/tmp/zapret/tpws

Now its possible to run /data/local/tmp/zapret/tpws from any app such as tasker.

FreeBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS

see docs/bsd.en.md

Windows (WSL)

see docs/windows.en.md

Other devices

Author's goal does not include easy supporting as much devices as possibles. Please do not ask for easy supporting firmwares. It requires a lot of work and owning lots of devices. Its counterproductive. As a devices owner its easier for you and should not be too hard if firmware is open. Most closed stock firmwares are not designed for custom usage and sometimes actively prevent it. In the latter case you have to hack into it and reverse engineer. Its not easy. Binaries are universal. They can run on almost all firmwares. You will need :

• root shell access. true sh shell, not microtik-like console
• startup hook
• r/w partition to store binaries and startup script with executable permission (+x)
• tpws can be run almost anywhere but nfqws require kernel support for NFQUEUE. Its missing in most firmwares.
• too old 2.6 kernels are unsupported and can cause errors. newer 2.6 kernels are OK. If binaries crash with segfault (rare but happens on some kernels) try to unpack upx like this : upx -d tpws.

First manually debug your scenario. Run iptables + daemon and check if its what you want. Write your own script with iptables magic and run required daemon from there. Put it to startup. Dont ask me how to do it. Its different for all firmwares and requires studying. Find manual or reverse engineer yourself. Check for race conditions. Firmware can clear or modify iptables after your startup script. If this is the case then run another script in background and add some delay there.