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/prctl/seccomp_filter.txt
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 k == A
220 jneq 8 Jump on k != A
224 jgt 7, 8 Jump on k > A
225 jge 7, 8 Jump on k >= A
226 jset 7, 8 Jump on k & A
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 */
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 of the
599 architectures. x86-64, aarch64 and s390x perform JIT compilation from eBPF
600 instruction set, however, future work will migrate other JIT compilers as well,
601 so that they will profit from the very same benefits.
603 Some core changes of the new internal format:
605 - Number of registers increase from 2 to 10:
607 The old format had two registers A and X, and a hidden frame pointer. The
608 new layout extends this to be 10 internal registers and a read-only frame
609 pointer. Since 64-bit CPUs are passing arguments to functions via registers
610 the number of args from eBPF program to in-kernel function is restricted
611 to 5 and one register is used to accept return value from an in-kernel
612 function. Natively, x86_64 passes first 6 arguments in registers, aarch64/
613 sparcv9/mips64 have 7 - 8 registers for arguments; x86_64 has 6 callee saved
614 registers, and aarch64/sparcv9/mips64 have 11 or more callee saved registers.
616 Therefore, eBPF calling convention is defined as:
618 * R0 - return value from in-kernel function, and exit value for eBPF program
619 * R1 - R5 - arguments from eBPF program to in-kernel function
620 * R6 - R9 - callee saved registers that in-kernel function will preserve
621 * R10 - read-only frame pointer to access stack
623 Thus, all eBPF registers map one to one to HW registers on x86_64, aarch64,
624 etc, and eBPF calling convention maps directly to ABIs used by the kernel on
625 64-bit architectures.
627 On 32-bit architectures JIT may map programs that use only 32-bit arithmetic
628 and may let more complex programs to be interpreted.
630 R0 - R5 are scratch registers and eBPF program needs spill/fill them if
631 necessary across calls. Note that there is only one eBPF program (== one
632 eBPF main routine) and it cannot call other eBPF functions, it can only
633 call predefined in-kernel functions, though.
635 - Register width increases from 32-bit to 64-bit:
637 Still, the semantics of the original 32-bit ALU operations are preserved
638 via 32-bit subregisters. All eBPF registers are 64-bit with 32-bit lower
639 subregisters that zero-extend into 64-bit if they are being written to.
640 That behavior maps directly to x86_64 and arm64 subregister definition, but
641 makes other JITs more difficult.
643 32-bit architectures run 64-bit internal BPF programs via interpreter.
644 Their JITs may convert BPF programs that only use 32-bit subregisters into
645 native instruction set and let the rest being interpreted.
647 Operation is 64-bit, because on 64-bit architectures, pointers are also
648 64-bit wide, and we want to pass 64-bit values in/out of kernel functions,
649 so 32-bit eBPF registers would otherwise require to define register-pair
650 ABI, thus, there won't be able to use a direct eBPF register to HW register
651 mapping and JIT would need to do combine/split/move operations for every
652 register in and out of the function, which is complex, bug prone and slow.
653 Another reason is the use of atomic 64-bit counters.
655 - Conditional jt/jf targets replaced with jt/fall-through:
657 While the original design has constructs such as "if (cond) jump_true;
658 else jump_false;", they are being replaced into alternative constructs like
659 "if (cond) jump_true; /* else fall-through */".
661 - Introduces bpf_call insn and register passing convention for zero overhead
662 calls from/to other kernel functions:
664 Before an in-kernel function call, the internal BPF program needs to
665 place function arguments into R1 to R5 registers to satisfy calling
666 convention, then the interpreter will take them from registers and pass
667 to in-kernel function. If R1 - R5 registers are mapped to CPU registers
668 that are used for argument passing on given architecture, the JIT compiler
669 doesn't need to emit extra moves. Function arguments will be in the correct
670 registers and BPF_CALL instruction will be JITed as single 'call' HW
671 instruction. This calling convention was picked to cover common call
672 situations without performance penalty.
674 After an in-kernel function call, R1 - R5 are reset to unreadable and R0 has
675 a return value of the function. Since R6 - R9 are callee saved, their state
676 is preserved across the call.
678 For example, consider three C functions:
680 u64 f1() { return (*_f2)(1); }
681 u64 f2(u64 a) { return f3(a + 1, a); }
682 u64 f3(u64 a, u64 b) { return a - b; }
684 GCC can compile f1, f3 into x86_64:
695 Function f2 in eBPF may look like:
703 If f2 is JITed and the pointer stored to '_f2'. The calls f1 -> f2 -> f3 and
704 returns will be seamless. Without JIT, __bpf_prog_run() interpreter needs to
705 be used to call into f2.
707 For practical reasons all eBPF programs have only one argument 'ctx' which is
708 already placed into R1 (e.g. on __bpf_prog_run() startup) and the programs
709 can call kernel functions with up to 5 arguments. Calls with 6 or more arguments
710 are currently not supported, but these restrictions can be lifted if necessary
713 On 64-bit architectures all register map to HW registers one to one. For
714 example, x86_64 JIT compiler can map them as ...
728 ... since x86_64 ABI mandates rdi, rsi, rdx, rcx, r8, r9 for argument passing
729 and rbx, r12 - r15 are callee saved.
731 Then the following internal BPF pseudo-program:
733 bpf_mov R6, R1 /* save ctx */
739 bpf_mov R7, R0 /* save foo() return value */
740 bpf_mov R1, R6 /* restore ctx for next call */
749 After JIT to x86_64 may look like:
754 mov %rbx,-0x228(%rbp)
755 mov %r13,-0x220(%rbp)
770 mov -0x228(%rbp),%rbx
771 mov -0x220(%rbp),%r13
775 Which is in this example equivalent in C to:
777 u64 bpf_filter(u64 ctx)
779 return foo(ctx, 2, 3, 4, 5) + bar(ctx, 6, 7, 8, 9);
782 In-kernel functions foo() and bar() with prototype: u64 (*)(u64 arg1, u64
783 arg2, u64 arg3, u64 arg4, u64 arg5); will receive arguments in proper
784 registers and place their return value into '%rax' which is R0 in eBPF.
785 Prologue and epilogue are emitted by JIT and are implicit in the
786 interpreter. R0-R5 are scratch registers, so eBPF program needs to preserve
787 them across the calls as defined by calling convention.
789 For example the following program is invalid:
796 After the call the registers R1-R5 contain junk values and cannot be read.
797 In the future an eBPF verifier can be used to validate internal BPF programs.
799 Also in the new design, eBPF is limited to 4096 insns, which means that any
800 program will terminate quickly and will only call a fixed number of kernel
801 functions. Original BPF and the new format are two operand instructions,
802 which helps to do one-to-one mapping between eBPF insn and x86 insn during JIT.
804 The input context pointer for invoking the interpreter function is generic,
805 its content is defined by a specific use case. For seccomp register R1 points
806 to seccomp_data, for converted BPF filters R1 points to a skb.
808 A program, that is translated internally consists of the following elements:
810 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32 ==> op:8, dst_reg:4, src_reg:4, off:16, imm:32
812 So far 87 internal BPF instructions were implemented. 8-bit 'op' opcode field
813 has room for new instructions. Some of them may use 16/24/32 byte encoding. New
814 instructions must be multiple of 8 bytes to preserve backward compatibility.
816 Internal BPF is a general purpose RISC instruction set. Not every register and
817 every instruction are used during translation from original BPF to new format.
818 For example, socket filters are not using 'exclusive add' instruction, but
819 tracing filters may do to maintain counters of events, for example. Register R9
820 is not used by socket filters either, but more complex filters may be running
821 out of registers and would have to resort to spill/fill to stack.
823 Internal BPF can used as generic assembler for last step performance
824 optimizations, socket filters and seccomp are using it as assembler. Tracing
825 filters may use it as assembler to generate code from kernel. In kernel usage
826 may not be bounded by security considerations, since generated internal BPF code
827 may be optimizing internal code path and not being exposed to the user space.
828 Safety of internal BPF can come from a verifier (TBD). In such use cases as
829 described, it may be used as safe instruction set.
831 Just like the original BPF, the new format runs within a controlled environment,
832 is deterministic and the kernel can easily prove that. The safety of the program
833 can be determined in two steps: first step does depth-first-search to disallow
834 loops and other CFG validation; second step starts from the first insn and
835 descends all possible paths. It simulates execution of every insn and observes
836 the state change of registers and stack.
841 eBPF is reusing most of the opcode encoding from classic to simplify conversion
842 of classic BPF to eBPF. For arithmetic and jump instructions the 8-bit 'code'
843 field is divided into three parts:
845 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
846 | 4 bits | 1 bit | 3 bits |
847 | operation code | source | instruction class |
848 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
851 Three LSB bits store instruction class which is one of:
853 Classic BPF classes: eBPF classes:
855 BPF_LD 0x00 BPF_LD 0x00
856 BPF_LDX 0x01 BPF_LDX 0x01
857 BPF_ST 0x02 BPF_ST 0x02
858 BPF_STX 0x03 BPF_STX 0x03
859 BPF_ALU 0x04 BPF_ALU 0x04
860 BPF_JMP 0x05 BPF_JMP 0x05
861 BPF_RET 0x06 [ class 6 unused, for future if needed ]
862 BPF_MISC 0x07 BPF_ALU64 0x07
864 When BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_JMP, 4th bit encodes source operand ...
869 * in classic BPF, this means:
871 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use register X as source operand
872 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
874 * in eBPF, this means:
876 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use 'src_reg' register as source operand
877 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
879 ... and four MSB bits store operation code.
881 If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_ALU64 [ in eBPF ], BPF_OP(code) is one of:
894 BPF_MOV 0xb0 /* eBPF only: mov reg to reg */
895 BPF_ARSH 0xc0 /* eBPF only: sign extending shift right */
896 BPF_END 0xd0 /* eBPF only: endianness conversion */
898 If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_JMP, BPF_OP(code) is one of:
905 BPF_JNE 0x50 /* eBPF only: jump != */
906 BPF_JSGT 0x60 /* eBPF only: signed '>' */
907 BPF_JSGE 0x70 /* eBPF only: signed '>=' */
908 BPF_CALL 0x80 /* eBPF only: function call */
909 BPF_EXIT 0x90 /* eBPF only: function return */
911 So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU means 32-bit addition in both classic BPF
912 and eBPF. There are only two registers in classic BPF, so it means A += X.
913 In eBPF it means dst_reg = (u32) dst_reg + (u32) src_reg; similarly,
914 BPF_XOR | BPF_K | BPF_ALU means A ^= imm32 in classic BPF and analogous
915 src_reg = (u32) src_reg ^ (u32) imm32 in eBPF.
917 Classic BPF is using BPF_MISC class to represent A = X and X = A moves.
918 eBPF is using BPF_MOV | BPF_X | BPF_ALU code instead. Since there are no
919 BPF_MISC operations in eBPF, the class 7 is used as BPF_ALU64 to mean
920 exactly the same operations as BPF_ALU, but with 64-bit wide operands
921 instead. So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU64 means 64-bit addition, i.e.:
922 dst_reg = dst_reg + src_reg
924 Classic BPF wastes the whole BPF_RET class to represent a single 'ret'
925 operation. Classic BPF_RET | BPF_K means copy imm32 into return register
926 and perform function exit. eBPF is modeled to match CPU, so BPF_JMP | BPF_EXIT
927 in eBPF means function exit only. The eBPF program needs to store return
928 value into register R0 before doing a BPF_EXIT. Class 6 in eBPF is currently
929 unused and reserved for future use.
931 For load and store instructions the 8-bit 'code' field is divided as:
933 +--------+--------+-------------------+
934 | 3 bits | 2 bits | 3 bits |
935 | mode | size | instruction class |
936 +--------+--------+-------------------+
939 Size modifier is one of ...
941 BPF_W 0x00 /* word */
942 BPF_H 0x08 /* half word */
943 BPF_B 0x10 /* byte */
944 BPF_DW 0x18 /* eBPF only, double word */
946 ... which encodes size of load/store operation:
951 DW - 8 byte (eBPF only)
953 Mode modifier is one of:
955 BPF_IMM 0x00 /* used for 32-bit mov in classic BPF and 64-bit in eBPF */
959 BPF_LEN 0x80 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
960 BPF_MSH 0xa0 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
961 BPF_XADD 0xc0 /* eBPF only, exclusive add */
963 eBPF has two non-generic instructions: (BPF_ABS | <size> | BPF_LD) and
964 (BPF_IND | <size> | BPF_LD) which are used to access packet data.
966 They had to be carried over from classic to have strong performance of
967 socket filters running in eBPF interpreter. These instructions can only
968 be used when interpreter context is a pointer to 'struct sk_buff' and
969 have seven implicit operands. Register R6 is an implicit input that must
970 contain pointer to sk_buff. Register R0 is an implicit output which contains
971 the data fetched from the packet. Registers R1-R5 are scratch registers
972 and must not be used to store the data across BPF_ABS | BPF_LD or
973 BPF_IND | BPF_LD instructions.
975 These instructions have implicit program exit condition as well. When
976 eBPF program is trying to access the data beyond the packet boundary,
977 the interpreter will abort the execution of the program. JIT compilers
978 therefore must preserve this property. src_reg and imm32 fields are
979 explicit inputs to these instructions.
983 BPF_IND | BPF_W | BPF_LD means:
985 R0 = ntohl(*(u32 *) (((struct sk_buff *) R6)->data + src_reg + imm32))
986 and R1 - R5 were scratched.
988 Unlike classic BPF instruction set, eBPF has generic load/store operations:
990 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_STX: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = src_reg
991 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_ST: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = imm32
992 BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_LDX: dst_reg = *(size *) (src_reg + off)
993 BPF_XADD | BPF_W | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u32 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
994 BPF_XADD | BPF_DW | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u64 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
996 Where size is one of: BPF_B or BPF_H or BPF_W or BPF_DW. Note that 1 and
997 2 byte atomic increments are not supported.
999 eBPF has one 16-byte instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_DW | BPF_IMM which consists
1000 of two consecutive 'struct bpf_insn' 8-byte blocks and interpreted as single
1001 instruction that loads 64-bit immediate value into a dst_reg.
1002 Classic BPF has similar instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_W | BPF_IMM which loads
1003 32-bit immediate value into a register.
1007 The safety of the eBPF program is determined in two steps.
1009 First step does DAG check to disallow loops and other CFG validation.
1010 In particular it will detect programs that have unreachable instructions.
1011 (though classic BPF checker allows them)
1013 Second step starts from the first insn and descends all possible paths.
1014 It simulates execution of every insn and observes the state change of
1015 registers and stack.
1017 At the start of the program the register R1 contains a pointer to context
1018 and has type PTR_TO_CTX.
1019 If verifier sees an insn that does R2=R1, then R2 has now type
1020 PTR_TO_CTX as well and can be used on the right hand side of expression.
1021 If R1=PTR_TO_CTX and insn is R2=R1+R1, then R2=UNKNOWN_VALUE,
1022 since addition of two valid pointers makes invalid pointer.
1023 (In 'secure' mode verifier will reject any type of pointer arithmetic to make
1024 sure that kernel addresses don't leak to unprivileged users)
1026 If register was never written to, it's not readable:
1029 will be rejected, since R2 is unreadable at the start of the program.
1031 After kernel function call, R1-R5 are reset to unreadable and
1032 R0 has a return type of the function.
1034 Since R6-R9 are callee saved, their state is preserved across the call.
1039 is a correct program. If there was R1 instead of R6, it would have
1042 load/store instructions are allowed only with registers of valid types, which
1043 are PTR_TO_CTX, PTR_TO_MAP, FRAME_PTR. They are bounds and alignment checked.
1047 bpf_xadd *(u32 *)(R1 + 3) += R2
1049 will be rejected, since R1 doesn't have a valid pointer type at the time of
1050 execution of instruction bpf_xadd.
1052 At the start R1 type is PTR_TO_CTX (a pointer to generic 'struct bpf_context')
1053 A callback is used to customize verifier to restrict eBPF program access to only
1054 certain fields within ctx structure with specified size and alignment.
1056 For example, the following insn:
1057 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R6 + 8)
1058 intends to load a word from address R6 + 8 and store it into R0
1059 If R6=PTR_TO_CTX, via is_valid_access() callback the verifier will know
1060 that offset 8 of size 4 bytes can be accessed for reading, otherwise
1061 the verifier will reject the program.
1062 If R6=FRAME_PTR, then access should be aligned and be within
1063 stack bounds, which are [-MAX_BPF_STACK, 0). In this example offset is 8,
1064 so it will fail verification, since it's out of bounds.
1066 The verifier will allow eBPF program to read data from stack only after
1068 Classic BPF verifier does similar check with M[0-15] memory slots.
1070 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R10 - 4)
1073 Though R10 is correct read-only register and has type FRAME_PTR
1074 and R10 - 4 is within stack bounds, there were no stores into that location.
1076 Pointer register spill/fill is tracked as well, since four (R6-R9)
1077 callee saved registers may not be enough for some programs.
1079 Allowed function calls are customized with bpf_verifier_ops->get_func_proto()
1080 The eBPF verifier will check that registers match argument constraints.
1081 After the call register R0 will be set to return type of the function.
1083 Function calls is a main mechanism to extend functionality of eBPF programs.
1084 Socket filters may let programs to call one set of functions, whereas tracing
1085 filters may allow completely different set.
1087 If a function made accessible to eBPF program, it needs to be thought through
1088 from safety point of view. The verifier will guarantee that the function is
1089 called with valid arguments.
1091 seccomp vs socket filters have different security restrictions for classic BPF.
1092 Seccomp solves this by two stage verifier: classic BPF verifier is followed
1093 by seccomp verifier. In case of eBPF one configurable verifier is shared for
1096 See details of eBPF verifier in kernel/bpf/verifier.c
1100 'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel
1103 The maps are accessed from user space via BPF syscall, which has commands:
1104 - create a map with given type and attributes
1105 map_fd = bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1106 using attr->map_type, attr->key_size, attr->value_size, attr->max_entries
1107 returns process-local file descriptor or negative error
1109 - lookup key in a given map
1110 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1111 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1112 returns zero and stores found elem into value or negative error
1114 - create or update key/value pair in a given map
1115 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1116 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1117 returns zero or negative error
1119 - find and delete element by key in a given map
1120 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1121 using attr->map_fd, attr->key
1123 - to delete map: close(fd)
1124 Exiting process will delete maps automatically
1126 userspace programs use this syscall to create/access maps that eBPF programs
1127 are concurrently updating.
1129 maps can have different types: hash, array, bloom filter, radix-tree, etc.
1131 The map is defined by:
1133 . max number of elements
1135 . value size in bytes
1137 Understanding eBPF verifier messages
1138 ------------------------------------
1140 The following are few examples of invalid eBPF programs and verifier error
1141 messages as seen in the log:
1143 Program with unreachable instructions:
1144 static struct bpf_insn prog[] = {
1151 Program that reads uninitialized register:
1152 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_0, BPF_REG_2),
1158 Program that doesn't initialize R0 before exiting:
1159 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_1),
1166 Program that accesses stack out of bounds:
1167 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, 8, 0),
1170 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 +8) = 0
1171 invalid stack off=8 size=8
1173 Program that doesn't initialize stack before passing its address into function:
1174 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1175 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1176 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1177 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1184 invalid indirect read from stack off -8+0 size 8
1186 Program that uses invalid map_fd=0 while calling to map_lookup_elem() function:
1187 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1188 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1189 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1190 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1191 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1194 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1199 fd 0 is not pointing to valid bpf_map
1201 Program that doesn't check return value of map_lookup_elem() before accessing
1203 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1204 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1205 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1206 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1207 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1208 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1211 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1216 5: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1217 R0 invalid mem access 'map_value_or_null'
1219 Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL, but
1220 accesses the memory with incorrect alignment:
1221 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1222 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1223 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1224 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1225 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1226 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1227 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 4, 0),
1230 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1235 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+1
1237 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +4) = 0
1238 misaligned access off 4 size 8
1240 Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL and
1241 accesses memory with correct alignment in one side of 'if' branch, but fails
1242 to do so in the other side of 'if' branch:
1243 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1244 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1245 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1246 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1247 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1248 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 2),
1249 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1251 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1254 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1259 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+2
1261 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1264 from 5 to 8: R0=imm0 R10=fp
1265 8: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 1
1266 R0 invalid mem access 'imm'
1271 Next to the BPF toolchain, the kernel also ships a test module that contains
1272 various test cases for classic and internal BPF that can be executed against
1273 the BPF interpreter and JIT compiler. It can be found in lib/test_bpf.c and
1274 enabled via Kconfig:
1278 After the module has been built and installed, the test suite can be executed
1279 via insmod or modprobe against 'test_bpf' module. Results of the test cases
1280 including timings in nsec can be found in the kernel log (dmesg).
1285 Also trinity, the Linux syscall fuzzer, has built-in support for BPF and
1286 SECCOMP-BPF kernel fuzzing.
1291 The document was written in the hope that it is found useful and in order
1292 to give potential BPF hackers or security auditors a better overview of
1293 the underlying architecture.
1295 Jay Schulist <jschlst@samba.org>
1296 Daniel Borkmann <dborkman@redhat.com>
1297 Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>