Back to Blog

pfSense, Announcements, Development, Releases, Networking

pfSense CE Software Version 2.7.0 BETA Now Available

Written by: Bill Rathbone

Date: June 16, 2023

pfSense CE Software Version 2.7.0 BETA Now Available

The BETA version of pfSense® CE software version 2.7.0 has been released. The associated RC (Release Candidate) version is targeted for June 23, 2023 (subject to change).

Overview

pfSense Community Edition (CE) software is an open-source project, and Netgate has been providing stewardship and resources for it since 2008. We support the pfSense CE project by contributing releases, snapshots, and updates of pfSense CE software, as well as making other code contributions, FreeBSD-related updates, and more. The pfSense CE project source code is available on GitHub, distributed under the Apache 2.0 open source license.

pfSense Plus software is a Netgate product, separate and distinct from pfSense CE software. This separation enables us to develop enhanced capabilities that serve our customers without disrupting the codebase that community members rely upon today. pfSense Plus software is offered at no charge on Netgate appliances and is available through the AWS and Azure Cloud Service Provider (CSP) marketplaces.

Call for Testing

Testing of this BETA version is important. Rigorous testing is the best way to strengthen the software for everyone, particularly given the unique environments and configurations of our users. Installing and testing this BETA release, and letting us know about issues, is a chance for our users to make a difference.

Release Notes

For the latest information about the changes and new features in pfSense CE software version 2.7.0, it is best to review these Release Notes prior to any upgrade. Some of the key changes include:

  • Moved captive portal from IPFW to PF
  • Fixed issue with UPnP and multiple game systems
  • Added new gateway state killing options for smoother failover
  • Improved Firewall/NAT rule usability with buttons to toggle multiple rules and copy rules to other interfaces
  • Upgraded OpenVPN to 2.6.4 and deprecated OpenVPN Shared Key Tunnels
  • Upgraded to PHP 8.2.6
  • Moved to track the ‘main’ branch of FreeBSD
  • Deprecated older IPsec transforms
  • Added support for ChaCha20-Poly1305 to IPsec
  • Addressed issue with unbound crashes
  • Added new packet capture GUI
  • Added UDP broadcast relay package

How to Upgrade

It’s always recommended to save a backup of the firewall configuration prior to any major change such as an upgrade. 

Upgrades from an earlier version of pfSense CE are made through the GUI:

  • Navigate to System > Update
  • Set Branch to "Latest Beta Release"
  • Select "2.7.0-BETA"
  • Click Confirm to start the upgrade process

Note: This upgrade is only available online, using our network installer.

How to Troubleshoot Upgrades

We recommend testing the BETA version in a lab, on a scratch system, or in a Virtual Machine, rather than on production systems. Please review Troubleshooting Upgrades for the most up-to-date information on working around upgrade issues.

Where to Report Errors

We encourage you to test the things which are important or unique to your deployments. Please report any errors or concerns in the “CE 2.7.0 Development Snapshots”  category of the Netgate Forum. Depending on the issue, we may ask for more details, or for you to open a bug on redmine.pfsense.org.

Include as much information as possible in your reports, such as console error messages, full PHP errors, the system configuration file (sanitized, if necessary), information from the text dump, etc. A full text dump might contain sensitive information, so be sure to inspect it before posting.

The Latest Release Timeline

We are working on new releases for both pfSense® CE and pfSense® Plus software. This is the timeline associated with these releases:

On or before June 23, 2023

  • pfSense CE 2.7.0-RC
  • pfSense Plus 23.05.1-RC

On or before June 29, 2023

  • pfSense CE 2.7.0-RELEASE
  • pfSense Plus 23.05.1-RELEASE

(These dates are subject to change if we discover issues in the pre-release software that must be fixed before we can issue the release)

Summary

We express our sincere thanks to all users willing to get involved with testing this BETA release. This community involvement is part of what makes the pfSense project a stronger solution for everyone.