1 Linux Socket Filtering aka Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF)
2 =======================================================
7 Linux Socket Filtering (LSF) is derived from the Berkeley Packet Filter.
8 Though there are some distinct differences between the BSD and Linux
9 Kernel filtering, but when we speak of BPF or LSF in Linux context, we
10 mean the very same mechanism of filtering in the Linux kernel.
12 BPF allows a user-space program to attach a filter onto any socket and
13 allow or disallow certain types of data to come through the socket. LSF
14 follows exactly the same filter code structure as BSD's BPF, so referring
15 to the BSD bpf.4 manpage is very helpful in creating filters.
17 On Linux, BPF is much simpler than on BSD. One does not have to worry
18 about devices or anything like that. You simply create your filter code,
19 send it to the kernel via the SO_ATTACH_FILTER option and if your filter
20 code passes the kernel check on it, you then immediately begin filtering
23 You can also detach filters from your socket via the SO_DETACH_FILTER
24 option. This will probably not be used much since when you close a socket
25 that has a filter on it the filter is automagically removed. The other
26 less common case may be adding a different filter on the same socket where
27 you had another filter that is still running: the kernel takes care of
28 removing the old one and placing your new one in its place, assuming your
29 filter has passed the checks, otherwise if it fails the old filter will
30 remain on that socket.
32 SO_LOCK_FILTER option allows to lock the filter attached to a socket. Once
33 set, a filter cannot be removed or changed. This allows one process to
34 setup a socket, attach a filter, lock it then drop privileges and be
35 assured that the filter will be kept until the socket is closed.
37 The biggest user of this construct might be libpcap. Issuing a high-level
38 filter command like `tcpdump -i em1 port 22` passes through the libpcap
39 internal compiler that generates a structure that can eventually be loaded
40 via SO_ATTACH_FILTER to the kernel. `tcpdump -i em1 port 22 -ddd`
41 displays what is being placed into this structure.
43 Although we were only speaking about sockets here, BPF in Linux is used
44 in many more places. There's xt_bpf for netfilter, cls_bpf in the kernel
45 qdisc layer, SECCOMP-BPF (SECure COMPuting [1]), and lots of other places
46 such as team driver, PTP code, etc where BPF is being used.
48 [1] Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst
52 Steven McCanne and Van Jacobson. 1993. The BSD packet filter: a new
53 architecture for user-level packet capture. In Proceedings of the
54 USENIX Winter 1993 Conference Proceedings on USENIX Winter 1993
55 Conference Proceedings (USENIX'93). USENIX Association, Berkeley,
56 CA, USA, 2-2. [http://www.tcpdump.org/papers/bpf-usenix93.pdf]
61 User space applications include <linux/filter.h> which contains the
62 following relevant structures:
64 struct sock_filter { /* Filter block */
65 __u16 code; /* Actual filter code */
66 __u8 jt; /* Jump true */
67 __u8 jf; /* Jump false */
68 __u32 k; /* Generic multiuse field */
71 Such a structure is assembled as an array of 4-tuples, that contains
72 a code, jt, jf and k value. jt and jf are jump offsets and k a generic
73 value to be used for a provided code.
75 struct sock_fprog { /* Required for SO_ATTACH_FILTER. */
76 unsigned short len; /* Number of filter blocks */
77 struct sock_filter __user *filter;
80 For socket filtering, a pointer to this structure (as shown in
81 follow-up example) is being passed to the kernel through setsockopt(2).
86 #include <sys/socket.h>
87 #include <sys/types.h>
88 #include <arpa/inet.h>
89 #include <linux/if_ether.h>
92 /* From the example above: tcpdump -i em1 port 22 -dd */
93 struct sock_filter code[] = {
94 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
95 { 0x15, 0, 8, 0x000086dd },
96 { 0x30, 0, 0, 0x00000014 },
97 { 0x15, 2, 0, 0x00000084 },
98 { 0x15, 1, 0, 0x00000006 },
99 { 0x15, 0, 17, 0x00000011 },
100 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x00000036 },
101 { 0x15, 14, 0, 0x00000016 },
102 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x00000038 },
103 { 0x15, 12, 13, 0x00000016 },
104 { 0x15, 0, 12, 0x00000800 },
105 { 0x30, 0, 0, 0x00000017 },
106 { 0x15, 2, 0, 0x00000084 },
107 { 0x15, 1, 0, 0x00000006 },
108 { 0x15, 0, 8, 0x00000011 },
109 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x00000014 },
110 { 0x45, 6, 0, 0x00001fff },
111 { 0xb1, 0, 0, 0x0000000e },
112 { 0x48, 0, 0, 0x0000000e },
113 { 0x15, 2, 0, 0x00000016 },
114 { 0x48, 0, 0, 0x00000010 },
115 { 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000016 },
116 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0x0000ffff },
117 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0x00000000 },
120 struct sock_fprog bpf = {
121 .len = ARRAY_SIZE(code),
125 sock = socket(PF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_ALL));
127 /* ... bail out ... */
129 ret = setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ATTACH_FILTER, &bpf, sizeof(bpf));
131 /* ... bail out ... */
136 The above example code attaches a socket filter for a PF_PACKET socket
137 in order to let all IPv4/IPv6 packets with port 22 pass. The rest will
138 be dropped for this socket.
140 The setsockopt(2) call to SO_DETACH_FILTER doesn't need any arguments
141 and SO_LOCK_FILTER for preventing the filter to be detached, takes an
142 integer value with 0 or 1.
144 Note that socket filters are not restricted to PF_PACKET sockets only,
145 but can also be used on other socket families.
147 Summary of system calls:
149 * setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ATTACH_FILTER, &val, sizeof(val));
150 * setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_DETACH_FILTER, &val, sizeof(val));
151 * setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LOCK_FILTER, &val, sizeof(val));
153 Normally, most use cases for socket filtering on packet sockets will be
154 covered by libpcap in high-level syntax, so as an application developer
155 you should stick to that. libpcap wraps its own layer around all that.
157 Unless i) using/linking to libpcap is not an option, ii) the required BPF
158 filters use Linux extensions that are not supported by libpcap's compiler,
159 iii) a filter might be more complex and not cleanly implementable with
160 libpcap's compiler, or iv) particular filter codes should be optimized
161 differently than libpcap's internal compiler does; then in such cases
162 writing such a filter "by hand" can be of an alternative. For example,
163 xt_bpf and cls_bpf users might have requirements that could result in
164 more complex filter code, or one that cannot be expressed with libpcap
165 (e.g. different return codes for various code paths). Moreover, BPF JIT
166 implementors may wish to manually write test cases and thus need low-level
167 access to BPF code as well.
169 BPF engine and instruction set
170 ------------------------------
172 Under tools/net/ there's a small helper tool called bpf_asm which can
173 be used to write low-level filters for example scenarios mentioned in the
174 previous section. Asm-like syntax mentioned here has been implemented in
175 bpf_asm and will be used for further explanations (instead of dealing with
176 less readable opcodes directly, principles are the same). The syntax is
177 closely modelled after Steven McCanne's and Van Jacobson's BPF paper.
179 The BPF architecture consists of the following basic elements:
183 A 32 bit wide accumulator
184 X 32 bit wide X register
185 M[] 16 x 32 bit wide misc registers aka "scratch memory
186 store", addressable from 0 to 15
188 A program, that is translated by bpf_asm into "opcodes" is an array that
189 consists of the following elements (as already mentioned):
191 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32
193 The element op is a 16 bit wide opcode that has a particular instruction
194 encoded. jt and jf are two 8 bit wide jump targets, one for condition
195 "jump if true", the other one "jump if false". Eventually, element k
196 contains a miscellaneous argument that can be interpreted in different
197 ways depending on the given instruction in op.
199 The instruction set consists of load, store, branch, alu, miscellaneous
200 and return instructions that are also represented in bpf_asm syntax. This
201 table lists all bpf_asm instructions available resp. what their underlying
202 opcodes as defined in linux/filter.h stand for:
204 Instruction Addressing mode Description
206 ld 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 Load word into A
207 ldi 4 Load word into A
208 ldh 1, 2 Load half-word into A
209 ldb 1, 2 Load byte into A
210 ldx 3, 4, 5, 10 Load word into X
211 ldxi 4 Load word into X
212 ldxb 5 Load byte into X
214 st 3 Store A into M[]
215 stx 3 Store X into M[]
219 jeq 7, 8 Jump on A == k
220 jneq 8 Jump on A != k
224 jgt 7, 8 Jump on A > k
225 jge 7, 8 Jump on A >= k
226 jset 7, 8 Jump on A & k
245 The next table shows addressing formats from the 2nd column:
247 Addressing mode Syntax Description
250 1 [k] BHW at byte offset k in the packet
251 2 [x + k] BHW at the offset X + k in the packet
252 3 M[k] Word at offset k in M[]
253 4 #k Literal value stored in k
254 5 4*([k]&0xf) Lower nibble * 4 at byte offset k in the packet
256 7 #k,Lt,Lf Jump to Lt if true, otherwise jump to Lf
257 8 #k,Lt Jump to Lt if predicate is true
259 10 extension BPF extension
261 The Linux kernel also has a couple of BPF extensions that are used along
262 with the class of load instructions by "overloading" the k argument with
263 a negative offset + a particular extension offset. The result of such BPF
264 extensions are loaded into A.
266 Possible BPF extensions are shown in the following table:
268 Extension Description
273 poff Payload start offset
274 ifidx skb->dev->ifindex
275 nla Netlink attribute of type X with offset A
276 nlan Nested Netlink attribute of type X with offset A
278 queue skb->queue_mapping
279 hatype skb->dev->type
281 cpu raw_smp_processor_id()
282 vlan_tci skb_vlan_tag_get(skb)
283 vlan_avail skb_vlan_tag_present(skb)
284 vlan_tpid skb->vlan_proto
287 These extensions can also be prefixed with '#'.
288 Examples for low-level BPF:
306 ** (Accelerated) VLAN w/ id 10:
313 ** icmp random packet sampling, 1 in 4
318 # get a random uint32 number
325 ** SECCOMP filter example:
327 ld [4] /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, arch) */
328 jne #0xc000003e, bad /* AUDIT_ARCH_X86_64 */
329 ld [0] /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, nr) */
330 jeq #15, good /* __NR_rt_sigreturn */
331 jeq #231, good /* __NR_exit_group */
332 jeq #60, good /* __NR_exit */
333 jeq #0, good /* __NR_read */
334 jeq #1, good /* __NR_write */
335 jeq #5, good /* __NR_fstat */
336 jeq #9, good /* __NR_mmap */
337 jeq #14, good /* __NR_rt_sigprocmask */
338 jeq #13, good /* __NR_rt_sigaction */
339 jeq #35, good /* __NR_nanosleep */
340 bad: ret #0 /* SECCOMP_RET_KILL_THREAD */
341 good: ret #0x7fff0000 /* SECCOMP_RET_ALLOW */
343 The above example code can be placed into a file (here called "foo"), and
344 then be passed to the bpf_asm tool for generating opcodes, output that xt_bpf
345 and cls_bpf understands and can directly be loaded with. Example with above
349 4,40 0 0 12,21 0 1 2054,6 0 0 4294967295,6 0 0 0,
351 In copy and paste C-like output:
354 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
355 { 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000806 },
356 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0xffffffff },
357 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0000000000 },
359 In particular, as usage with xt_bpf or cls_bpf can result in more complex BPF
360 filters that might not be obvious at first, it's good to test filters before
361 attaching to a live system. For that purpose, there's a small tool called
362 bpf_dbg under tools/net/ in the kernel source directory. This debugger allows
363 for testing BPF filters against given pcap files, single stepping through the
364 BPF code on the pcap's packets and to do BPF machine register dumps.
366 Starting bpf_dbg is trivial and just requires issuing:
370 In case input and output do not equal stdin/stdout, bpf_dbg takes an
371 alternative stdin source as a first argument, and an alternative stdout
372 sink as a second one, e.g. `./bpf_dbg test_in.txt test_out.txt`.
374 Other than that, a particular libreadline configuration can be set via
375 file "~/.bpf_dbg_init" and the command history is stored in the file
376 "~/.bpf_dbg_history".
378 Interaction in bpf_dbg happens through a shell that also has auto-completion
379 support (follow-up example commands starting with '>' denote bpf_dbg shell).
380 The usual workflow would be to ...
382 > load bpf 6,40 0 0 12,21 0 3 2048,48 0 0 23,21 0 1 1,6 0 0 65535,6 0 0 0
383 Loads a BPF filter from standard output of bpf_asm, or transformed via
384 e.g. `tcpdump -iem1 -ddd port 22 | tr '\n' ','`. Note that for JIT
385 debugging (next section), this command creates a temporary socket and
386 loads the BPF code into the kernel. Thus, this will also be useful for
390 Loads standard tcpdump pcap file.
394 Runs through all packets from a pcap to account how many passes and fails
395 the filter will generate. A limit of packets to traverse can be given.
399 l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5
404 Prints out BPF code disassembly.
407 /* { op, jt, jf, k }, */
408 { 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
409 { 0x15, 0, 3, 0x00000800 },
410 { 0x30, 0, 0, 0x00000017 },
411 { 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000001 },
412 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0x0000ffff },
413 { 0x06, 0, 0, 0000000000 },
414 Prints out C-style BPF code dump.
417 breakpoint at: l0: ldh [12]
419 breakpoint at: l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5
421 Sets breakpoints at particular BPF instructions. Issuing a `run` command
422 will walk through the pcap file continuing from the current packet and
423 break when a breakpoint is being hit (another `run` will continue from
424 the currently active breakpoint executing next instructions):
428 pc: [0] <-- program counter
429 code: [40] jt[0] jf[0] k[12] <-- plain BPF code of current instruction
430 curr: l0: ldh [12] <-- disassembly of current instruction
431 A: [00000000][0] <-- content of A (hex, decimal)
432 X: [00000000][0] <-- content of X (hex, decimal)
433 M[0,15]: [00000000][0] <-- folded content of M (hex, decimal)
434 -- packet dump -- <-- Current packet from pcap (hex)
436 0: 00 19 cb 55 55 a4 00 14 a4 43 78 69 08 06 00 01
437 16: 08 00 06 04 00 01 00 14 a4 43 78 69 0a 3b 01 26
438 32: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a 3b 01 01
444 Prints currently set breakpoints.
447 Performs single stepping through the BPF program from the current pc
448 offset. Thus, on each step invocation, above register dump is issued.
449 This can go forwards and backwards in time, a plain `step` will break
450 on the next BPF instruction, thus +1. (No `run` needs to be issued here.)
453 Selects a given packet from the pcap file to continue from. Thus, on
454 the next `run` or `step`, the BPF program is being evaluated against
455 the user pre-selected packet. Numbering starts just as in Wireshark
465 The Linux kernel has a built-in BPF JIT compiler for x86_64, SPARC, PowerPC,
466 ARM, ARM64, MIPS and s390 and can be enabled through CONFIG_BPF_JIT. The JIT
467 compiler is transparently invoked for each attached filter from user space
468 or for internal kernel users if it has been previously enabled by root:
470 echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable
472 For JIT developers, doing audits etc, each compile run can output the generated
473 opcode image into the kernel log via:
475 echo 2 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable
477 Example output from dmesg:
479 [ 3389.935842] flen=6 proglen=70 pass=3 image=ffffffffa0069c8f
480 [ 3389.935847] JIT code: 00000000: 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 60 48 89 5d f8 44 8b 4f 68
481 [ 3389.935849] JIT code: 00000010: 44 2b 4f 6c 4c 8b 87 d8 00 00 00 be 0c 00 00 00
482 [ 3389.935850] JIT code: 00000020: e8 1d 94 ff e0 3d 00 08 00 00 75 16 be 17 00 00
483 [ 3389.935851] JIT code: 00000030: 00 e8 28 94 ff e0 83 f8 01 75 07 b8 ff ff 00 00
484 [ 3389.935852] JIT code: 00000040: eb 02 31 c0 c9 c3
486 In the kernel source tree under tools/net/, there's bpf_jit_disasm for
487 generating disassembly out of the kernel log's hexdump:
490 70 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6)
491 ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>:
495 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp)
496 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d
497 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d
498 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8
500 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442
502 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042
504 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e
506 39: jne 0x0000000000000042
508 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044
513 Issuing option `-o` will "annotate" opcodes to resulting assembler
514 instructions, which can be very useful for JIT developers:
516 # ./bpf_jit_disasm -o
517 70 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6)
518 ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>:
525 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp)
527 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d
529 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d
531 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8
535 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442
539 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042
543 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e
547 39: jne 0x0000000000000042
551 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044
560 For BPF JIT developers, bpf_jit_disasm, bpf_asm and bpf_dbg provides a useful
561 toolchain for developing and testing the kernel's JIT compiler.
565 Internally, for the kernel interpreter, a different instruction set
566 format with similar underlying principles from BPF described in previous
567 paragraphs is being used. However, the instruction set format is modelled
568 closer to the underlying architecture to mimic native instruction sets, so
569 that a better performance can be achieved (more details later). This new
570 ISA is called 'eBPF' or 'internal BPF' interchangeably. (Note: eBPF which
571 originates from [e]xtended BPF is not the same as BPF extensions! While
572 eBPF is an ISA, BPF extensions date back to classic BPF's 'overloading'
573 of BPF_LD | BPF_{B,H,W} | BPF_ABS instruction.)
575 It is designed to be JITed with one to one mapping, which can also open up
576 the possibility for GCC/LLVM compilers to generate optimized eBPF code through
577 an eBPF backend that performs almost as fast as natively compiled code.
579 The new instruction set was originally designed with the possible goal in
580 mind to write programs in "restricted C" and compile into eBPF with a optional
581 GCC/LLVM backend, so that it can just-in-time map to modern 64-bit CPUs with
582 minimal performance overhead over two steps, that is, C -> eBPF -> native code.
584 Currently, the new format is being used for running user BPF programs, which
585 includes seccomp BPF, classic socket filters, cls_bpf traffic classifier,
586 team driver's classifier for its load-balancing mode, netfilter's xt_bpf
587 extension, PTP dissector/classifier, and much more. They are all internally
588 converted by the kernel into the new instruction set representation and run
589 in the eBPF interpreter. For in-kernel handlers, this all works transparently
590 by using bpf_prog_create() for setting up the filter, resp.
591 bpf_prog_destroy() for destroying it. The macro
592 BPF_PROG_RUN(filter, ctx) transparently invokes eBPF interpreter or JITed
593 code to run the filter. 'filter' is a pointer to struct bpf_prog that we
594 got from bpf_prog_create(), and 'ctx' the given context (e.g.
595 skb pointer). All constraints and restrictions from bpf_check_classic() apply
596 before a conversion to the new layout is being done behind the scenes!
598 Currently, the classic BPF format is being used for JITing on most 32-bit
599 architectures, whereas x86-64, aarch64, s390x, powerpc64, sparc64, arm32 perform
600 JIT compilation from eBPF instruction set.
602 Some core changes of the new internal format:
604 - Number of registers increase from 2 to 10:
606 The old format had two registers A and X, and a hidden frame pointer. The
607 new layout extends this to be 10 internal registers and a read-only frame
608 pointer. Since 64-bit CPUs are passing arguments to functions via registers
609 the number of args from eBPF program to in-kernel function is restricted
610 to 5 and one register is used to accept return value from an in-kernel
611 function. Natively, x86_64 passes first 6 arguments in registers, aarch64/
612 sparcv9/mips64 have 7 - 8 registers for arguments; x86_64 has 6 callee saved
613 registers, and aarch64/sparcv9/mips64 have 11 or more callee saved registers.
615 Therefore, eBPF calling convention is defined as:
617 * R0 - return value from in-kernel function, and exit value for eBPF program
618 * R1 - R5 - arguments from eBPF program to in-kernel function
619 * R6 - R9 - callee saved registers that in-kernel function will preserve
620 * R10 - read-only frame pointer to access stack
622 Thus, all eBPF registers map one to one to HW registers on x86_64, aarch64,
623 etc, and eBPF calling convention maps directly to ABIs used by the kernel on
624 64-bit architectures.
626 On 32-bit architectures JIT may map programs that use only 32-bit arithmetic
627 and may let more complex programs to be interpreted.
629 R0 - R5 are scratch registers and eBPF program needs spill/fill them if
630 necessary across calls. Note that there is only one eBPF program (== one
631 eBPF main routine) and it cannot call other eBPF functions, it can only
632 call predefined in-kernel functions, though.
634 - Register width increases from 32-bit to 64-bit:
636 Still, the semantics of the original 32-bit ALU operations are preserved
637 via 32-bit subregisters. All eBPF registers are 64-bit with 32-bit lower
638 subregisters that zero-extend into 64-bit if they are being written to.
639 That behavior maps directly to x86_64 and arm64 subregister definition, but
640 makes other JITs more difficult.
642 32-bit architectures run 64-bit internal BPF programs via interpreter.
643 Their JITs may convert BPF programs that only use 32-bit subregisters into
644 native instruction set and let the rest being interpreted.
646 Operation is 64-bit, because on 64-bit architectures, pointers are also
647 64-bit wide, and we want to pass 64-bit values in/out of kernel functions,
648 so 32-bit eBPF registers would otherwise require to define register-pair
649 ABI, thus, there won't be able to use a direct eBPF register to HW register
650 mapping and JIT would need to do combine/split/move operations for every
651 register in and out of the function, which is complex, bug prone and slow.
652 Another reason is the use of atomic 64-bit counters.
654 - Conditional jt/jf targets replaced with jt/fall-through:
656 While the original design has constructs such as "if (cond) jump_true;
657 else jump_false;", they are being replaced into alternative constructs like
658 "if (cond) jump_true; /* else fall-through */".
660 - Introduces bpf_call insn and register passing convention for zero overhead
661 calls from/to other kernel functions:
663 Before an in-kernel function call, the internal BPF program needs to
664 place function arguments into R1 to R5 registers to satisfy calling
665 convention, then the interpreter will take them from registers and pass
666 to in-kernel function. If R1 - R5 registers are mapped to CPU registers
667 that are used for argument passing on given architecture, the JIT compiler
668 doesn't need to emit extra moves. Function arguments will be in the correct
669 registers and BPF_CALL instruction will be JITed as single 'call' HW
670 instruction. This calling convention was picked to cover common call
671 situations without performance penalty.
673 After an in-kernel function call, R1 - R5 are reset to unreadable and R0 has
674 a return value of the function. Since R6 - R9 are callee saved, their state
675 is preserved across the call.
677 For example, consider three C functions:
679 u64 f1() { return (*_f2)(1); }
680 u64 f2(u64 a) { return f3(a + 1, a); }
681 u64 f3(u64 a, u64 b) { return a - b; }
683 GCC can compile f1, f3 into x86_64:
694 Function f2 in eBPF may look like:
702 If f2 is JITed and the pointer stored to '_f2'. The calls f1 -> f2 -> f3 and
703 returns will be seamless. Without JIT, __bpf_prog_run() interpreter needs to
704 be used to call into f2.
706 For practical reasons all eBPF programs have only one argument 'ctx' which is
707 already placed into R1 (e.g. on __bpf_prog_run() startup) and the programs
708 can call kernel functions with up to 5 arguments. Calls with 6 or more arguments
709 are currently not supported, but these restrictions can be lifted if necessary
712 On 64-bit architectures all register map to HW registers one to one. For
713 example, x86_64 JIT compiler can map them as ...
727 ... since x86_64 ABI mandates rdi, rsi, rdx, rcx, r8, r9 for argument passing
728 and rbx, r12 - r15 are callee saved.
730 Then the following internal BPF pseudo-program:
732 bpf_mov R6, R1 /* save ctx */
738 bpf_mov R7, R0 /* save foo() return value */
739 bpf_mov R1, R6 /* restore ctx for next call */
748 After JIT to x86_64 may look like:
753 mov %rbx,-0x228(%rbp)
754 mov %r13,-0x220(%rbp)
769 mov -0x228(%rbp),%rbx
770 mov -0x220(%rbp),%r13
774 Which is in this example equivalent in C to:
776 u64 bpf_filter(u64 ctx)
778 return foo(ctx, 2, 3, 4, 5) + bar(ctx, 6, 7, 8, 9);
781 In-kernel functions foo() and bar() with prototype: u64 (*)(u64 arg1, u64
782 arg2, u64 arg3, u64 arg4, u64 arg5); will receive arguments in proper
783 registers and place their return value into '%rax' which is R0 in eBPF.
784 Prologue and epilogue are emitted by JIT and are implicit in the
785 interpreter. R0-R5 are scratch registers, so eBPF program needs to preserve
786 them across the calls as defined by calling convention.
788 For example the following program is invalid:
795 After the call the registers R1-R5 contain junk values and cannot be read.
796 An in-kernel eBPF verifier is used to validate internal BPF programs.
798 Also in the new design, eBPF is limited to 4096 insns, which means that any
799 program will terminate quickly and will only call a fixed number of kernel
800 functions. Original BPF and the new format are two operand instructions,
801 which helps to do one-to-one mapping between eBPF insn and x86 insn during JIT.
803 The input context pointer for invoking the interpreter function is generic,
804 its content is defined by a specific use case. For seccomp register R1 points
805 to seccomp_data, for converted BPF filters R1 points to a skb.
807 A program, that is translated internally consists of the following elements:
809 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32 ==> op:8, dst_reg:4, src_reg:4, off:16, imm:32
811 So far 87 internal BPF instructions were implemented. 8-bit 'op' opcode field
812 has room for new instructions. Some of them may use 16/24/32 byte encoding. New
813 instructions must be multiple of 8 bytes to preserve backward compatibility.
815 Internal BPF is a general purpose RISC instruction set. Not every register and
816 every instruction are used during translation from original BPF to new format.
817 For example, socket filters are not using 'exclusive add' instruction, but
818 tracing filters may do to maintain counters of events, for example. Register R9
819 is not used by socket filters either, but more complex filters may be running
820 out of registers and would have to resort to spill/fill to stack.
822 Internal BPF can used as generic assembler for last step performance
823 optimizations, socket filters and seccomp are using it as assembler. Tracing
824 filters may use it as assembler to generate code from kernel. In kernel usage
825 may not be bounded by security considerations, since generated internal BPF code
826 may be optimizing internal code path and not being exposed to the user space.
827 Safety of internal BPF can come from a verifier (TBD). In such use cases as
828 described, it may be used as safe instruction set.
830 Just like the original BPF, the new format runs within a controlled environment,
831 is deterministic and the kernel can easily prove that. The safety of the program
832 can be determined in two steps: first step does depth-first-search to disallow
833 loops and other CFG validation; second step starts from the first insn and
834 descends all possible paths. It simulates execution of every insn and observes
835 the state change of registers and stack.
840 eBPF is reusing most of the opcode encoding from classic to simplify conversion
841 of classic BPF to eBPF. For arithmetic and jump instructions the 8-bit 'code'
842 field is divided into three parts:
844 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
845 | 4 bits | 1 bit | 3 bits |
846 | operation code | source | instruction class |
847 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
850 Three LSB bits store instruction class which is one of:
852 Classic BPF classes: eBPF classes:
854 BPF_LD 0x00 BPF_LD 0x00
855 BPF_LDX 0x01 BPF_LDX 0x01
856 BPF_ST 0x02 BPF_ST 0x02
857 BPF_STX 0x03 BPF_STX 0x03
858 BPF_ALU 0x04 BPF_ALU 0x04
859 BPF_JMP 0x05 BPF_JMP 0x05
860 BPF_RET 0x06 [ class 6 unused, for future if needed ]
861 BPF_MISC 0x07 BPF_ALU64 0x07
863 When BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_JMP, 4th bit encodes source operand ...
868 * in classic BPF, this means:
870 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use register X as source operand
871 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
873 * in eBPF, this means:
875 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use 'src_reg' register as source operand
876 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
878 ... and four MSB bits store operation code.
880 If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_ALU64 [ in eBPF ], BPF_OP(code) is one of:
893 BPF_MOV 0xb0 /* eBPF only: mov reg to reg */
894 BPF_ARSH 0xc0 /* eBPF only: sign extending shift right */
895 BPF_END 0xd0 /* eBPF only: endianness conversion */
897 If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_JMP, BPF_OP(code) is one of:
904 BPF_JNE 0x50 /* eBPF only: jump != */
905 BPF_JSGT 0x60 /* eBPF only: signed '>' */
906 BPF_JSGE 0x70 /* eBPF only: signed '>=' */
907 BPF_CALL 0x80 /* eBPF only: function call */
908 BPF_EXIT 0x90 /* eBPF only: function return */
909 BPF_JLT 0xa0 /* eBPF only: unsigned '<' */
910 BPF_JLE 0xb0 /* eBPF only: unsigned '<=' */
911 BPF_JSLT 0xc0 /* eBPF only: signed '<' */
912 BPF_JSLE 0xd0 /* eBPF only: signed '<=' */
914 So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU means 32-bit addition in both classic BPF
915 and eBPF. There are only two registers in classic BPF, so it means A += X.
916 In eBPF it means dst_reg = (u32) dst_reg + (u32) src_reg; similarly,
917 BPF_XOR | BPF_K | BPF_ALU means A ^= imm32 in classic BPF and analogous
918 src_reg = (u32) src_reg ^ (u32) imm32 in eBPF.
920 Classic BPF is using BPF_MISC class to represent A = X and X = A moves.
921 eBPF is using BPF_MOV | BPF_X | BPF_ALU code instead. Since there are no
922 BPF_MISC operations in eBPF, the class 7 is used as BPF_ALU64 to mean
923 exactly the same operations as BPF_ALU, but with 64-bit wide operands
924 instead. So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU64 means 64-bit addition, i.e.:
925 dst_reg = dst_reg + src_reg
927 Classic BPF wastes the whole BPF_RET class to represent a single 'ret'
928 operation. Classic BPF_RET | BPF_K means copy imm32 into return register
929 and perform function exit. eBPF is modeled to match CPU, so BPF_JMP | BPF_EXIT
930 in eBPF means function exit only. The eBPF program needs to store return
931 value into register R0 before doing a BPF_EXIT. Class 6 in eBPF is currently
932 unused and reserved for future use.
934 For load and store instructions the 8-bit 'code' field is divided as:
936 +--------+--------+-------------------+
937 | 3 bits | 2 bits | 3 bits |
938 | mode | size | instruction class |
939 +--------+--------+-------------------+
942 Size modifier is one of ...
944 BPF_W 0x00 /* word */
945 BPF_H 0x08 /* half word */
946 BPF_B 0x10 /* byte */
947 BPF_DW 0x18 /* eBPF only, double word */
949 ... which encodes size of load/store operation:
954 DW - 8 byte (eBPF only)
956 Mode modifier is one of:
958 BPF_IMM 0x00 /* used for 32-bit mov in classic BPF and 64-bit in eBPF */
962 BPF_LEN 0x80 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
963 BPF_MSH 0xa0 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
964 BPF_XADD 0xc0 /* eBPF only, exclusive add */
966 eBPF has two non-generic instructions: (BPF_ABS | <size> | BPF_LD) and
967 (BPF_IND | <size> | BPF_LD) which are used to access packet data.
969 They had to be carried over from classic to have strong performance of
970 socket filters running in eBPF interpreter. These instructions can only
971 be used when interpreter context is a pointer to 'struct sk_buff' and
972 have seven implicit operands. Register R6 is an implicit input that must
973 contain pointer to sk_buff. Register R0 is an implicit output which contains
974 the data fetched from the packet. Registers R1-R5 are scratch registers
975 and must not be used to store the data across BPF_ABS | BPF_LD or
976 BPF_IND | BPF_LD instructions.
978 These instructions have implicit program exit condition as well. When
979 eBPF program is trying to access the data beyond the packet boundary,
980 the interpreter will abort the execution of the program. JIT compilers
981 therefore must preserve this property. src_reg and imm32 fields are
982 explicit inputs to these instructions.
986 BPF_IND | BPF_W | BPF_LD means:
988 R0 = ntohl(*(u32 *) (((struct sk_buff *) R6)->data + src_reg + imm32))
989 and R1 - R5 were scratched.
991 Unlike classic BPF instruction set, eBPF has generic load/store operations:
993 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_STX: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = src_reg
994 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_ST: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = imm32
995 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_LDX: dst_reg = *(size *) (src_reg + off)
996 BPF_XADD | BPF_W | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u32 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
997 BPF_XADD | BPF_DW | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u64 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
999 Where size is one of: BPF_B or BPF_H or BPF_W or BPF_DW. Note that 1 and
1000 2 byte atomic increments are not supported.
1002 eBPF has one 16-byte instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_DW | BPF_IMM which consists
1003 of two consecutive 'struct bpf_insn' 8-byte blocks and interpreted as single
1004 instruction that loads 64-bit immediate value into a dst_reg.
1005 Classic BPF has similar instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_W | BPF_IMM which loads
1006 32-bit immediate value into a register.
1010 The safety of the eBPF program is determined in two steps.
1012 First step does DAG check to disallow loops and other CFG validation.
1013 In particular it will detect programs that have unreachable instructions.
1014 (though classic BPF checker allows them)
1016 Second step starts from the first insn and descends all possible paths.
1017 It simulates execution of every insn and observes the state change of
1018 registers and stack.
1020 At the start of the program the register R1 contains a pointer to context
1021 and has type PTR_TO_CTX.
1022 If verifier sees an insn that does R2=R1, then R2 has now type
1023 PTR_TO_CTX as well and can be used on the right hand side of expression.
1024 If R1=PTR_TO_CTX and insn is R2=R1+R1, then R2=SCALAR_VALUE,
1025 since addition of two valid pointers makes invalid pointer.
1026 (In 'secure' mode verifier will reject any type of pointer arithmetic to make
1027 sure that kernel addresses don't leak to unprivileged users)
1029 If register was never written to, it's not readable:
1032 will be rejected, since R2 is unreadable at the start of the program.
1034 After kernel function call, R1-R5 are reset to unreadable and
1035 R0 has a return type of the function.
1037 Since R6-R9 are callee saved, their state is preserved across the call.
1042 is a correct program. If there was R1 instead of R6, it would have
1045 load/store instructions are allowed only with registers of valid types, which
1046 are PTR_TO_CTX, PTR_TO_MAP, PTR_TO_STACK. They are bounds and alignment checked.
1050 bpf_xadd *(u32 *)(R1 + 3) += R2
1052 will be rejected, since R1 doesn't have a valid pointer type at the time of
1053 execution of instruction bpf_xadd.
1055 At the start R1 type is PTR_TO_CTX (a pointer to generic 'struct bpf_context')
1056 A callback is used to customize verifier to restrict eBPF program access to only
1057 certain fields within ctx structure with specified size and alignment.
1059 For example, the following insn:
1060 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R6 + 8)
1061 intends to load a word from address R6 + 8 and store it into R0
1062 If R6=PTR_TO_CTX, via is_valid_access() callback the verifier will know
1063 that offset 8 of size 4 bytes can be accessed for reading, otherwise
1064 the verifier will reject the program.
1065 If R6=PTR_TO_STACK, then access should be aligned and be within
1066 stack bounds, which are [-MAX_BPF_STACK, 0). In this example offset is 8,
1067 so it will fail verification, since it's out of bounds.
1069 The verifier will allow eBPF program to read data from stack only after
1071 Classic BPF verifier does similar check with M[0-15] memory slots.
1073 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R10 - 4)
1076 Though R10 is correct read-only register and has type PTR_TO_STACK
1077 and R10 - 4 is within stack bounds, there were no stores into that location.
1079 Pointer register spill/fill is tracked as well, since four (R6-R9)
1080 callee saved registers may not be enough for some programs.
1082 Allowed function calls are customized with bpf_verifier_ops->get_func_proto()
1083 The eBPF verifier will check that registers match argument constraints.
1084 After the call register R0 will be set to return type of the function.
1086 Function calls is a main mechanism to extend functionality of eBPF programs.
1087 Socket filters may let programs to call one set of functions, whereas tracing
1088 filters may allow completely different set.
1090 If a function made accessible to eBPF program, it needs to be thought through
1091 from safety point of view. The verifier will guarantee that the function is
1092 called with valid arguments.
1094 seccomp vs socket filters have different security restrictions for classic BPF.
1095 Seccomp solves this by two stage verifier: classic BPF verifier is followed
1096 by seccomp verifier. In case of eBPF one configurable verifier is shared for
1099 See details of eBPF verifier in kernel/bpf/verifier.c
1101 Register value tracking
1102 -----------------------
1103 In order to determine the safety of an eBPF program, the verifier must track
1104 the range of possible values in each register and also in each stack slot.
1105 This is done with 'struct bpf_reg_state', defined in include/linux/
1106 bpf_verifier.h, which unifies tracking of scalar and pointer values. Each
1107 register state has a type, which is either NOT_INIT (the register has not been
1108 written to), SCALAR_VALUE (some value which is not usable as a pointer), or a
1109 pointer type. The types of pointers describe their base, as follows:
1110 PTR_TO_CTX Pointer to bpf_context.
1111 CONST_PTR_TO_MAP Pointer to struct bpf_map. "Const" because arithmetic
1112 on these pointers is forbidden.
1113 PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE Pointer to the value stored in a map element.
1114 PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL
1115 Either a pointer to a map value, or NULL; map accesses
1116 (see section 'eBPF maps', below) return this type,
1117 which becomes a PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE when checked != NULL.
1118 Arithmetic on these pointers is forbidden.
1119 PTR_TO_STACK Frame pointer.
1120 PTR_TO_PACKET skb->data.
1121 PTR_TO_PACKET_END skb->data + headlen; arithmetic forbidden.
1122 However, a pointer may be offset from this base (as a result of pointer
1123 arithmetic), and this is tracked in two parts: the 'fixed offset' and 'variable
1124 offset'. The former is used when an exactly-known value (e.g. an immediate
1125 operand) is added to a pointer, while the latter is used for values which are
1126 not exactly known. The variable offset is also used in SCALAR_VALUEs, to track
1127 the range of possible values in the register.
1128 The verifier's knowledge about the variable offset consists of:
1129 * minimum and maximum values as unsigned
1130 * minimum and maximum values as signed
1131 * knowledge of the values of individual bits, in the form of a 'tnum': a u64
1132 'mask' and a u64 'value'. 1s in the mask represent bits whose value is unknown;
1133 1s in the value represent bits known to be 1. Bits known to be 0 have 0 in both
1134 mask and value; no bit should ever be 1 in both. For example, if a byte is read
1135 into a register from memory, the register's top 56 bits are known zero, while
1136 the low 8 are unknown - which is represented as the tnum (0x0; 0xff). If we
1137 then OR this with 0x40, we get (0x40; 0xbf), then if we add 1 we get (0x0;
1138 0x1ff), because of potential carries.
1139 Besides arithmetic, the register state can also be updated by conditional
1140 branches. For instance, if a SCALAR_VALUE is compared > 8, in the 'true' branch
1141 it will have a umin_value (unsigned minimum value) of 9, whereas in the 'false'
1142 branch it will have a umax_value of 8. A signed compare (with BPF_JSGT or
1143 BPF_JSGE) would instead update the signed minimum/maximum values. Information
1144 from the signed and unsigned bounds can be combined; for instance if a value is
1145 first tested < 8 and then tested s> 4, the verifier will conclude that the value
1146 is also > 4 and s< 8, since the bounds prevent crossing the sign boundary.
1147 PTR_TO_PACKETs with a variable offset part have an 'id', which is common to all
1148 pointers sharing that same variable offset. This is important for packet range
1149 checks: after adding some variable to a packet pointer, if you then copy it to
1150 another register and (say) add a constant 4, both registers will share the same
1151 'id' but one will have a fixed offset of +4. Then if it is bounds-checked and
1152 found to be less than a PTR_TO_PACKET_END, the other register is now known to
1153 have a safe range of at least 4 bytes. See 'Direct packet access', below, for
1154 more on PTR_TO_PACKET ranges.
1155 The 'id' field is also used on PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL, common to all copies of
1156 the pointer returned from a map lookup. This means that when one copy is
1157 checked and found to be non-NULL, all copies can become PTR_TO_MAP_VALUEs.
1158 As well as range-checking, the tracked information is also used for enforcing
1159 alignment of pointer accesses. For instance, on most systems the packet pointer
1160 is 2 bytes after a 4-byte alignment. If a program adds 14 bytes to that to jump
1161 over the Ethernet header, then reads IHL and addes (IHL * 4), the resulting
1162 pointer will have a variable offset known to be 4n+2 for some n, so adding the 2
1163 bytes (NET_IP_ALIGN) gives a 4-byte alignment and so word-sized accesses through
1164 that pointer are safe.
1166 Direct packet access
1167 --------------------
1168 In cls_bpf and act_bpf programs the verifier allows direct access to the packet
1169 data via skb->data and skb->data_end pointers.
1171 1: r4 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */
1172 2: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */
1175 5: if r5 > r4 goto pc+16
1176 R1=ctx R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14) R4=pkt_end R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14) R10=fp
1177 6: r0 = *(u16 *)(r3 +12) /* access 12 and 13 bytes of the packet */
1179 this 2byte load from the packet is safe to do, since the program author
1180 did check 'if (skb->data + 14 > skb->data_end) goto err' at insn #5 which
1181 means that in the fall-through case the register R3 (which points to skb->data)
1182 has at least 14 directly accessible bytes. The verifier marks it
1183 as R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14).
1184 id=0 means that no additional variables were added to the register.
1185 off=0 means that no additional constants were added.
1186 r=14 is the range of safe access which means that bytes [R3, R3 + 14) are ok.
1187 Note that R5 is marked as R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14). It also points
1188 to the packet data, but constant 14 was added to the register, so
1189 it now points to 'skb->data + 14' and accessible range is [R5, R5 + 14 - 14)
1190 which is zero bytes.
1192 More complex packet access may look like:
1193 R0=inv1 R1=ctx R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14) R4=pkt_end R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14) R10=fp
1194 6: r0 = *(u8 *)(r3 +7) /* load 7th byte from the packet */
1195 7: r4 = *(u8 *)(r3 +12)
1197 9: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */
1205 17: r1 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */
1206 18: if r2 > r1 goto pc+2
1207 R0=inv(id=0,umax_value=255,var_off=(0x0; 0xff)) R1=pkt_end R2=pkt(id=2,off=8,r=8) R3=pkt(id=2,off=0,r=8) R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=3570,var_off=(0x0; 0xfffe)) R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14) R10=fp
1208 19: r1 = *(u8 *)(r3 +4)
1209 The state of the register R3 is R3=pkt(id=2,off=0,r=8)
1210 id=2 means that two 'r3 += rX' instructions were seen, so r3 points to some
1211 offset within a packet and since the program author did
1212 'if (r3 + 8 > r1) goto err' at insn #18, the safe range is [R3, R3 + 8).
1213 The verifier only allows 'add'/'sub' operations on packet registers. Any other
1214 operation will set the register state to 'SCALAR_VALUE' and it won't be
1215 available for direct packet access.
1216 Operation 'r3 += rX' may overflow and become less than original skb->data,
1217 therefore the verifier has to prevent that. So when it sees 'r3 += rX'
1218 instruction and rX is more than 16-bit value, any subsequent bounds-check of r3
1219 against skb->data_end will not give us 'range' information, so attempts to read
1220 through the pointer will give "invalid access to packet" error.
1221 Ex. after insn 'r4 = *(u8 *)(r3 +12)' (insn #7 above) the state of r4 is
1222 R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=255,var_off=(0x0; 0xff)) which means that upper 56 bits
1223 of the register are guaranteed to be zero, and nothing is known about the lower
1224 8 bits. After insn 'r4 *= 14' the state becomes
1225 R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=3570,var_off=(0x0; 0xfffe)), since multiplying an 8-bit
1226 value by constant 14 will keep upper 52 bits as zero, also the least significant
1227 bit will be zero as 14 is even. Similarly 'r2 >>= 48' will make
1228 R2=inv(id=0,umax_value=65535,var_off=(0x0; 0xffff)), since the shift is not sign
1229 extending. This logic is implemented in adjust_reg_min_max_vals() function,
1230 which calls adjust_ptr_min_max_vals() for adding pointer to scalar (or vice
1231 versa) and adjust_scalar_min_max_vals() for operations on two scalars.
1233 The end result is that bpf program author can access packet directly
1234 using normal C code as:
1235 void *data = (void *)(long)skb->data;
1236 void *data_end = (void *)(long)skb->data_end;
1237 struct eth_hdr *eth = data;
1238 struct iphdr *iph = data + sizeof(*eth);
1239 struct udphdr *udp = data + sizeof(*eth) + sizeof(*iph);
1241 if (data + sizeof(*eth) + sizeof(*iph) + sizeof(*udp) > data_end)
1243 if (eth->h_proto != htons(ETH_P_IP))
1245 if (iph->protocol != IPPROTO_UDP || iph->ihl != 5)
1247 if (udp->dest == 53 || udp->source == 9)
1249 which makes such programs easier to write comparing to LD_ABS insn
1250 and significantly faster.
1254 'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel
1257 The maps are accessed from user space via BPF syscall, which has commands:
1258 - create a map with given type and attributes
1259 map_fd = bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1260 using attr->map_type, attr->key_size, attr->value_size, attr->max_entries
1261 returns process-local file descriptor or negative error
1263 - lookup key in a given map
1264 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1265 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1266 returns zero and stores found elem into value or negative error
1268 - create or update key/value pair in a given map
1269 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1270 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1271 returns zero or negative error
1273 - find and delete element by key in a given map
1274 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1275 using attr->map_fd, attr->key
1277 - to delete map: close(fd)
1278 Exiting process will delete maps automatically
1280 userspace programs use this syscall to create/access maps that eBPF programs
1281 are concurrently updating.
1283 maps can have different types: hash, array, bloom filter, radix-tree, etc.
1285 The map is defined by:
1287 . max number of elements
1289 . value size in bytes
1293 The verifier does not actually walk all possible paths through the program. For
1294 each new branch to analyse, the verifier looks at all the states it's previously
1295 been in when at this instruction. If any of them contain the current state as a
1296 subset, the branch is 'pruned' - that is, the fact that the previous state was
1297 accepted implies the current state would be as well. For instance, if in the
1298 previous state, r1 held a packet-pointer, and in the current state, r1 holds a
1299 packet-pointer with a range as long or longer and at least as strict an
1300 alignment, then r1 is safe. Similarly, if r2 was NOT_INIT before then it can't
1301 have been used by any path from that point, so any value in r2 (including
1302 another NOT_INIT) is safe. The implementation is in the function regsafe().
1303 Pruning considers not only the registers but also the stack (and any spilled
1304 registers it may hold). They must all be safe for the branch to be pruned.
1305 This is implemented in states_equal().
1307 Understanding eBPF verifier messages
1308 ------------------------------------
1310 The following are few examples of invalid eBPF programs and verifier error
1311 messages as seen in the log:
1313 Program with unreachable instructions:
1314 static struct bpf_insn prog[] = {
1321 Program that reads uninitialized register:
1322 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_0, BPF_REG_2),
1328 Program that doesn't initialize R0 before exiting:
1329 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_1),
1336 Program that accesses stack out of bounds:
1337 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, 8, 0),
1340 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 +8) = 0
1341 invalid stack off=8 size=8
1343 Program that doesn't initialize stack before passing its address into function:
1344 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1345 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1346 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1347 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1354 invalid indirect read from stack off -8+0 size 8
1356 Program that uses invalid map_fd=0 while calling to map_lookup_elem() function:
1357 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1358 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1359 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1360 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1361 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1364 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1369 fd 0 is not pointing to valid bpf_map
1371 Program that doesn't check return value of map_lookup_elem() before accessing
1373 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1374 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1375 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1376 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1377 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1378 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1381 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1386 5: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1387 R0 invalid mem access 'map_value_or_null'
1389 Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL, but
1390 accesses the memory with incorrect alignment:
1391 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1392 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1393 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1394 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1395 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1396 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1397 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 4, 0),
1400 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1405 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+1
1407 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +4) = 0
1408 misaligned access off 4 size 8
1410 Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL and
1411 accesses memory with correct alignment in one side of 'if' branch, but fails
1412 to do so in the other side of 'if' branch:
1413 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1414 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1415 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1416 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1417 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1418 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 2),
1419 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1421 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1424 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1429 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+2
1431 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1434 from 5 to 8: R0=imm0 R10=fp
1435 8: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 1
1436 R0 invalid mem access 'imm'
1441 Next to the BPF toolchain, the kernel also ships a test module that contains
1442 various test cases for classic and internal BPF that can be executed against
1443 the BPF interpreter and JIT compiler. It can be found in lib/test_bpf.c and
1444 enabled via Kconfig:
1448 After the module has been built and installed, the test suite can be executed
1449 via insmod or modprobe against 'test_bpf' module. Results of the test cases
1450 including timings in nsec can be found in the kernel log (dmesg).
1455 Also trinity, the Linux syscall fuzzer, has built-in support for BPF and
1456 SECCOMP-BPF kernel fuzzing.
1461 The document was written in the hope that it is found useful and in order
1462 to give potential BPF hackers or security auditors a better overview of
1463 the underlying architecture.
1465 Jay Schulist <jschlst@samba.org>
1466 Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
1467 Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>