Good morning world,

Here we are now with the first release candidate to kickstart the 26.1 series. While this marks the end of an era as ISC-DHCP functionality moves to a plugin it is only the beginning of structural improvements and further innovation of topics that are important to our users: firewall GUI and API, IPv6, intrusion detection using Suricata and overall security.

Keep in mind this is mostly an image-based pre-production test release. Upgrades from the 25.7.11 development version will be available at some point, but it is not clear when. An online-only RC2 will probably follow as well. The final release date for 26.1 is January 28.

https://pkg.opnsense.org/releases/26.1/

Here are the development highlights since version 25.7 came out:

- Introduce a new consistent rules GUI using MVC/API (formerly known as "Automation")
- Suricata version 8 and new inline inspection mode using "divert"
- NAT port forwarding migrated to "Destination NAT" as MVC/API
- Various IPv6 stability improvements and additional features
- Setup wizard improvements including use case selection
- Services: Router Advertisements migrated to MVC/API
- Shell command escaping improvements and audit
- Interfaces: Settings migrated to MVC/API
- Default IPv6 setup now relies on Dnsmasq
- Factory reset for individual components
- The firewall live log was rewritten
- Unbound blocklist source selection
- Automatic host discovery service

A more detailed change log will follow!

Migration notes, known issues and limitations:

- ISC-DHCP moves to a plugin. It will be automatically installed during upgrades. It is not installed on new installations because it is not being used, but you can still install and keep using it.
- To accommodate the change away from ISC-DCHP defaults the "Track interface" IPv6 mode now has a sibling called "Identity Association" which does the same except it is not automatically starting ISC-DHCPv6 and Radvd router advertisements to allow better interoperability with Kea and Dnsmasq setups.
- Due to command line execution safety concerns the historic functions mwexec_bg() and mwexec() will be removed in 26.1.x. Make sure your custom code is not using them and use mwexecf(), mwexecfb() and mwexecfm() instead.
- The function sessionClose() has also been removed from the MVC code and is no longer needed. Make sure to remove it from your custom code.
- The custom.yaml support has been removed from intrusion detection. Please migrate to the newer /usr/local/etc/suricata/conf.d override directory.

The public key for the 26.1 series is:

    -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
    MIICIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAg8AMIICCgKCAgEArTnFQp0jjj5bkLNx9G1j
    q26WmN/EtAaJUt+2MY8W8h7L3kokRMlTgEvCYJOkUjbJYbjuG0Cut3JExNYa1vdD
    1SLIlJShyI8OsjbAS/flZdJB9c0Vxz2CwpoX9Efmp5TaB3GWqhHS0OVLx4MSI3HJ
    qP/aQLjZMuCQHX8beUQB77YWcT6sPC5UMYeNEW1uHR7Oki/TpOXWnzNStEQXRL6/
    MiuYJovedlNXeNUeebJyG0TyLJ/3uGMYhHKYK+OJkB03P3iLGGVE/WWNugsqX6bY
    tTU9PquHo5zDApndp8iG49Fs/DC0r7V1P85ETPtW2SuZQ7YeDuz3VKvuMxAqyQoC
    1FLOsIuEfudDmRuMuTsRgB6jaGACEWUTuRyiFG4+kVDi1/qOWpYatP8C8B7Lx9UU
    CTZhCl+Se4woWGtp5KOtYe+pvJ4oz40SL4drUQFEP3ZOsK/HzyLjPFRgxfANNUPG
    ONayKHJXVVFPg2ATk9jeNPsLmXlcDmi/rihyN4RM2w0/bi8BWSc+dMGZ5ZhNJdsF
    wHBIscgpiAhs+HS8Usxy3idv/JkY0h9tZ2QnljhUUwhYV+DT9yZf5ABU0B68VjJ4
    /GloUc3bS7HBeSTAauYMOQvgkY1vcySGWTXvsGOw/Crpk4DYx5KpGNYHmENRey2c
    AQdi+Fvi3fFkV1BoxGo78NcCAwEAAQ==
    -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

Please let us know about your experience!

Stay safe,
Your OPNsense team

    SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1.r1-dvd-amd64.iso.bz2) = b0f1f48cd9104e96c37ab11c4381e3401d7d892c97ff8ec7aec1fcec44f16feb
    SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1.r1-nano-amd64.img.bz2) = e9c6d72908bc60fc4172ee9c6cd92e7b34bc0e234cc5ad17b3d9f951824cc22a
    SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1.r1-serial-amd64.img.bz2) = e03638f1d6fdbc300155fedf5d350603cb1479bf0f8ffe62c439ef0993b5aeb9
    SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1.r1-vga-amd64.img.bz2) = f78a0bb9f771fe8846c32ab501875d3970e569b0c4163eff08cfc3bedc1ad747