On my hEX v6.39.2 there are 3 dummy Mangle rules automatically created because I’m using fasttrack. There is a passthrough on each of the chains prerouting, forward, and postrouting. They all have exactly the same packet count. I thought traffic intended for the CPU (e.g. ssh connection to the CLI) did not go through the “forward” chain. The packet flow diagram also makes it look like CPU traffic would go through prerouting, input, output, and postrouting chains, but not forward chain.
Also, Mangle input and output chains have different numbers of packets, so why are prerouting and postrouting equal? What am I not understanding?
/ip firewall mangle print stats
# CHAIN ACTION BYTES PACKETS
0 D ;;; special dummy rule to show fasttrack counters
prerouting passthrough 4 914 009 008 6 566 080
1 ;;; special dummy rule to show fasttrack counters
input passthrough 1 241 390 12 106
2 ;;; special dummy rule to show fasttrack counters
output passthrough 2 953 143 10 911
3 D ;;; special dummy rule to show fasttrack counters
forward passthrough 4 914 009 008 6 566 080
4 D ;;; special dummy rule to show fasttrack counters
postrouting passthrough 4 914 009 008 6 566 080