I got this error message after deploying on a Ubuntu 22.04 which uses a new backend for iptables. I downgraded iptables to use iptables-legacy to fix the problem.
update-alternatives --config iptables
(select 1 for iptables-legacy)
Then re-establish symbolic links:
ln -s /etc/alternatives/iptables /sbin/iptables 2>/dev/null
ln -s /etc/alternatives/iptables-save /sbin/iptables-save 2>/dev/null
ln -s /etc/alternatives/iptables-restore /sbin/iptables-restore 2>/dev/null
ln -s /etc/alternatives/ip6tables /sbin/ip6tables 2>/dev/null
ln -s /etc/alternatives/ip6tables-save /sbin/ip6tables-save 2>/dev/null
ln -s /etc/alternatives/ip6tables-restore /sbin/ip6tables-restore 2>/dev/null