Hi there,

For over 11 years now, OPNsense is driving innovation through modularising and hardening the open source firewall, with simple and reliable firmware upgrades, multi-language support, fast adoption of upstream software updates, modern IPv6 support, as well as clear and stable 2-Clause BSD licensing.

26.1, nicknamed "Witty Woodpecker", features almost a full firewall MVC/API experience as automation rules have been promoted to the new rules GUI, Suricata version 8 with inline inspection mode using "divert", assorted IPv6 reliability and feature improvements, router advertisements MVC/API, full code shell command escaping revamp, default IPv6 mode now using Dnsmsaq for client connectivity, Unbound blocklist source selection, an automatic host discovery service, plus much more.

The upgrade path for 25.7 will likely be unlocked on January 29, which is probably tomorrow if anyone is asking why it is not there yet. We want to ensure the upgrade goes as smoothly as possible so please be patient! :)

Download links, an installation guide[1] and the checksums for the images can be found below as well.

Europe: https://opnsense.c0urier.net/releases/26.1/
US East Coast: https://mirror.wdc1.us.leaseweb.net/opnsense/releases/26.1/
US West Coast: https://mirror.sfo12.us.leaseweb.net/opnsense/releases/26.1/
South America: http://mirror.ueb.edu.ec/opnsense/releases/26.1/
East Asia: https://mirror.ntct.edu.tw/opnsense/releases/26.1/
Full mirror list: https://opnsense.org/download/

Here are the full patch notes:

system: factory reset and console tools now default to using Dnsmasq for DHCP
system: wizard now offers an abort button and deployment type selections
system: wizard can disable WAN or LAN interface now
system: provide resolv.conf overrides via /etc/resolv.conf.local
system: add XMLRPC option for hostwatch
firewall: improve GeoIP alias expiry condition
firewall: escape selector in rule_protocol
firewall: "Port forward" was migrated to "Destination NAT" MVC/API
firewall: unified look and feel of MVC/API pages formerly known as "automation"
firewall: improved support of gateway groups in policy-based routing
firewall: plugin support for "ether" rules has been removed
firewall: add import/export to shaper queues and pipes
firewall: "divert-to" support in new rules GUI
firewall: added a rule migration page (use with care)
firewall: make previously associated DNAT rules editable
interfaces: a new IPv6 mode called "Identity association" was added
interfaces: settings page was migrated to MVC/API
interfaces: handle hostwatch user/group via package
interfaces: force-reload IPv6 connectivity when PDINFO changes during renew
interfaces: dhcp6c rapid-commit, request-dns and config write refactoring
interfaces: generalise the rtsold_script code
interfaces: use descriptive interface names in automatic discovery table
interfaces: harden settings page with file_safe() and allowed_classes=false
dhcrelay: relax the check for present addresses and CARP-related cleanups
dnsmasq: add automatic RDNSS option when none is configured
dnsmasq: fix log conditions
firmware: opnsense-code: run configure script on upgrade if needed
intrusion detection: add a "divert" intrusion prevention mode
ipsec: expose ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD proposals in IKEv2 (contributed by Kota Shiratsuka)
kea: add libdhcp_host_cmds.so to expose internal API commands for reservations
kea: exit prefix watcher script if no lease file exists
kea: allow "hw-address" for reservations
kea: add pool in subnet validation
kea: minor code cleanups in model code
openvpn: account for CARP status in start and restart cases as well
openvpn: removed the stale TheGreenBow client export
radvd: migrated to MVC/API
radvd: remove faulty empty address exception
radvd: remove configuration file if disabled
radvd: implement RemoveAdvOnExit override
radvd: add Base6Interface constructor
radvd: support nat64prefix
backend: safe execution changes in the whole code base
backend: removed short-lived mwexecf_bg() function
lang: various translation updates
mvc: add ChangeCase support to ProtocolField for DNAT special case
mvc: improve importCsv() to support either comma or semicolon
mvc: removed long obsolete sessionClose() from ControllerRoot
mvc: BaseModel: isEmptyAndRequired() has been removed
mvc: removed unusued RegexField
rc: replace camcontrol with diskinfo for TRIM check (contributed by Maurice Walker)
shell: opnsense-log now supports "backend" and "php" aliases
ui: allow HTML tags in menu items and title
ui: improve user readability in SimpleFileUploadDlg()
plugins: os-acme-client 4.12[2]
plugins: os-ddclient 1.29[3]
plugins: os-freeradius 1.10[4]
plugins: os-isc-dhcp 1.0[5]
plugins: os-nextcloud-backup 1.1[6]
plugins: os-nginx 1.36[7]
plugins: os-postfix 1.24.1[8]
plugins: os-q-feeds-connector 1.4[9]
plugins: os-wazuh-agent 1.3[10]
src: assorted patches from stable/14 for LinuxKPI, QAT, and network stack
src: e1000: revert "try auto-negotiation for fixed 100 or 10 configuration"
src: if_ovpn: use epoch to free peers
src: carp6: revise the generation of ND6 NA
ports: dhcp6c v20260122
ports: hostwatch 1.0.9

A hotfix release was issued as 26.1_4:

interfaces: host discovery: make sure the full dump includes NDP output on fallback
interfaces: fix migration for IPv6 no-release option
firewall: FilterBaseController requires Base\UserException
firewall: fix typo with sprintf() with DNAT rule
ports: hostwatch 1.0.11

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.
Dnsmasq is now the default for DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 as well as RA out of the box. One thing that the upstream software cannot cover is prefix delegation so that is no longer offered by default. Use another DHCPv6 server in this case.
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 new host discovery service "hostwatch" is enabled by default (since 25.7.11). You can always turn it off under Interfaces: Neighbors: Automatic Discovery if you so choose.
The firewall migration page is not something you need to jump into right away. Please make yourself familiar with the new rules GUI first and check the documentation for incompatibilities. Single interface from the floating interface will not be considered "floating" in priorities.
Firewall: NAT: Port Forwarding is now called "Destination NAT". Firewall rule associations are no longer supported, but the old associated firewall rules remain in place with their last known configuration and can now be edited to suit future needs.
Firewall: NAT: Source NAT is from the set of pages formerly known as automation, but Outbound NAT is still the main page for these types of rules.

The public key for the 26.1 series is:

Stay safe,
Your OPNsense team

SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1-dvd-amd64.iso.bz2) = 856c00a4ddf62f40cdc0871cd9fb6bbd455fb4dcca9337713b95ff42a41c88b2
SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1-nano-amd64.img.bz2) = 5731a3f21c5dbe221acf5b4777ed686f705f27e7560ffb05d29a68ea4e7c7e50
SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1-serial-amd64.img.bz2) = aaca6d4c44371673c555be354317533cf91ced86fc86c026716325c29c451d79
SHA256 (OPNsense-26.1-vga-amd64.img.bz2) = 3901b83750dd19ca26632b61bf5fe7ac86b8cfa0bfb3e633928c37416a14e5f9