An example blacklistd.conf entry for a local rule looks like this:

[local]
ssh             stream  *       *               *       3       24h

All rules that follow the [local] section are treated as local rules (which is the default), applying to the local machine. When a [remote] section is encountered, all rules that follow it are handled as remote machine rules.

Seven fields define a rule separated by either tabs or spaces. The first four fields identify the traffic that should be blacklisted. The three fields that follow define backlistd's behavior. Wildcards are denoted as asterisks (*), matching anything in this field. The first field defines the location. In local rules, these are the network ports. The syntax for the location field is as follows:

[address|interface][/mask][:port]

Adressses can be specified as IPv4 in numeric format or IPv6 in square brackets. An interface name like em0 can also be used.

The socket type is defined by the second field. TCP sockets are of type stream, whereas UDP is denoted as dgram. The example above uses TCP, since SSH is using that protocol.

A protocol can be used in the third field of a blacklistd rule. The following protocols can be used: tcp, udp, tcp6, udp6, or numeric. A wildcard, like in the example, is typically used to match all protocols unless there is a reason to distinguish traffic by a certain protocol.

In the fourth field, the effective user or owner of the daemon process that is reporting the event is defined. The username or UID can be used here, as well as a wildcard (see example rule above).

The packet filter rule name is declared by the fifth field, which starts the behavior part of the rule. By default, blacklistd puts all blocks under a pf anchor called blacklistd in pf.conf like this:

anchor "blacklistd/*" in on $ext_if
block in
pass out

For separate blacklists, an anchor name can be used in this field. In other cases, the wildcard will suffice. When a name starts with a hyphen (-) it means that an anchor with the default rule name prepended should be used. A modified example from the above using the hyphen would look like this:

ssh             stream  *       *               -ssh       3       24h

With such a rule, any new blacklist rules are added to an anchor called blacklistd-ssh.

To block whole subnets for a single rule violation, a / in the rule name can be used. This causes the remaining portion of the name to be interpreted as the mask to be applied to the address specified in the rule. For example, this rule would block every address adjoining /24.

22              stream  tcp       *               */24    3       24h

This rule defines that if any one host in that network is misbehaving, everything else on that network will be blocked, too.

The sixth field, called nfail, sets the number of login failures required to blacklist the remote IP in question. When a wildcard is used at this position, it means that blocks will never happen. In the example rule above, a limit of three is defined meaning that after three attempts to log into SSH on one connection, the IP is blocked.

The last field in a blacklistd rule definition specifies how long a host is blacklisted. The default unit is seconds, but suffixes like m, h, and d can also be specified for minutes, hours, and days, respectively.

The example rule in its entirety means that after three times authenticating to SSH will result in a new PF block rule for that host. Rule matches are performed by first checking local rules one after another, from most specific to least specific. When a match occurs, the remote rules are applied and the name, nfail, and disable fields are changed by the remote rule that matched.

Remote rules are used to specify how blacklistd changes its behavior depending on the remote host currently being evaluated. Each field in a remote rule is the same as in a local rule. The only difference is in the way blacklistd is using them. To explain it, this example rule is used:

[remote]
203.0.113.128/25 *      *       *               =/25    =       48h

The address field can be an IP address (either v4 or v6), a port or both. This allows setting special rules for a specific remote address range like in this example. The fields for type, protocol and owner are identically interpreted as in the local rule.

The name fields is different though: the equal sign (=) in a remote rule tells blacklistd to use the value from the matching local rule. It means that the firewall rule entry is taken and the /25 prefix (a netmask of 255.255.255.128) is added. When a connection from that address range is blacklisted, the entire subnet is affected. A PF anchor name can also be used here, in which case blacklistd will add rules for this address block to the anchor of that name. The default table is used when a wildcard is specified.

A custom number of failures in the nfail column can be defined for an address. This is useful for exceptions to a specific rule, to maybe allow someone a less strict application of rules or a bit more leniency in login tries. Blocking is disabled when an asterisk is used in this sixth field.

Remote rules allow a stricter enforcement of limits on attempts to log in compared to attempts coming from a local network like an office.