1Linux Socket Filtering aka Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) 2======================================================= 3 4Introduction 5------------ 6 7Linux Socket Filtering (LSF) is derived from the Berkeley Packet Filter. 8Though there are some distinct differences between the BSD and Linux 9Kernel filtering, but when we speak of BPF or LSF in Linux context, we 10mean the very same mechanism of filtering in the Linux kernel. 11 12BPF allows a user-space program to attach a filter onto any socket and 13allow or disallow certain types of data to come through the socket. LSF 14follows exactly the same filter code structure as BSD's BPF, so referring 15to the BSD bpf.4 manpage is very helpful in creating filters. 16 17On Linux, BPF is much simpler than on BSD. One does not have to worry 18about devices or anything like that. You simply create your filter code, 19send it to the kernel via the SO_ATTACH_FILTER option and if your filter 20code passes the kernel check on it, you then immediately begin filtering 21data on that socket. 22 23You can also detach filters from your socket via the SO_DETACH_FILTER 24option. This will probably not be used much since when you close a socket 25that has a filter on it the filter is automagically removed. The other 26less common case may be adding a different filter on the same socket where 27you had another filter that is still running: the kernel takes care of 28removing the old one and placing your new one in its place, assuming your 29filter has passed the checks, otherwise if it fails the old filter will 30remain on that socket. 31 32SO_LOCK_FILTER option allows to lock the filter attached to a socket. Once 33set, a filter cannot be removed or changed. This allows one process to 34setup a socket, attach a filter, lock it then drop privileges and be 35assured that the filter will be kept until the socket is closed. 36 37The biggest user of this construct might be libpcap. Issuing a high-level 38filter command like `tcpdump -i em1 port 22` passes through the libpcap 39internal compiler that generates a structure that can eventually be loaded 40via SO_ATTACH_FILTER to the kernel. `tcpdump -i em1 port 22 -ddd` 41displays what is being placed into this structure. 42 43Although we were only speaking about sockets here, BPF in Linux is used 44in many more places. There's xt_bpf for netfilter, cls_bpf in the kernel 45qdisc layer, SECCOMP-BPF (SECure COMPuting [1]), and lots of other places 46such as team driver, PTP code, etc where BPF is being used. 47 48 [1] Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst 49 50Original BPF paper: 51 52Steven McCanne and Van Jacobson. 1993. The BSD packet filter: a new 53architecture for user-level packet capture. In Proceedings of the 54USENIX Winter 1993 Conference Proceedings on USENIX Winter 1993 55Conference Proceedings (USENIX'93). USENIX Association, Berkeley, 56CA, USA, 2-2. [http://www.tcpdump.org/papers/bpf-usenix93.pdf] 57 58Structure 59--------- 60 61User space applications include <linux/filter.h> which contains the 62following relevant structures: 63 64struct 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 */ 69}; 70 71Such a structure is assembled as an array of 4-tuples, that contains 72a code, jt, jf and k value. jt and jf are jump offsets and k a generic 73value to be used for a provided code. 74 75struct sock_fprog { /* Required for SO_ATTACH_FILTER. */ 76 unsigned short len; /* Number of filter blocks */ 77 struct sock_filter __user *filter; 78}; 79 80For socket filtering, a pointer to this structure (as shown in 81follow-up example) is being passed to the kernel through setsockopt(2). 82 83Example 84------- 85 86#include <sys/socket.h> 87#include <sys/types.h> 88#include <arpa/inet.h> 89#include <linux/if_ether.h> 90/* ... */ 91 92/* From the example above: tcpdump -i em1 port 22 -dd */ 93struct 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 }, 118}; 119 120struct sock_fprog bpf = { 121 .len = ARRAY_SIZE(code), 122 .filter = code, 123}; 124 125sock = socket(PF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_ALL)); 126if (sock < 0) 127 /* ... bail out ... */ 128 129ret = setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ATTACH_FILTER, &bpf, sizeof(bpf)); 130if (ret < 0) 131 /* ... bail out ... */ 132 133/* ... */ 134close(sock); 135 136The above example code attaches a socket filter for a PF_PACKET socket 137in order to let all IPv4/IPv6 packets with port 22 pass. The rest will 138be dropped for this socket. 139 140The setsockopt(2) call to SO_DETACH_FILTER doesn't need any arguments 141and SO_LOCK_FILTER for preventing the filter to be detached, takes an 142integer value with 0 or 1. 143 144Note that socket filters are not restricted to PF_PACKET sockets only, 145but can also be used on other socket families. 146 147Summary of system calls: 148 149 * 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)); 152 153Normally, most use cases for socket filtering on packet sockets will be 154covered by libpcap in high-level syntax, so as an application developer 155you should stick to that. libpcap wraps its own layer around all that. 156 157Unless i) using/linking to libpcap is not an option, ii) the required BPF 158filters use Linux extensions that are not supported by libpcap's compiler, 159iii) a filter might be more complex and not cleanly implementable with 160libpcap's compiler, or iv) particular filter codes should be optimized 161differently than libpcap's internal compiler does; then in such cases 162writing such a filter "by hand" can be of an alternative. For example, 163xt_bpf and cls_bpf users might have requirements that could result in 164more complex filter code, or one that cannot be expressed with libpcap 165(e.g. different return codes for various code paths). Moreover, BPF JIT 166implementors may wish to manually write test cases and thus need low-level 167access to BPF code as well. 168 169BPF engine and instruction set 170------------------------------ 171 172Under tools/net/ there's a small helper tool called bpf_asm which can 173be used to write low-level filters for example scenarios mentioned in the 174previous section. Asm-like syntax mentioned here has been implemented in 175bpf_asm and will be used for further explanations (instead of dealing with 176less readable opcodes directly, principles are the same). The syntax is 177closely modelled after Steven McCanne's and Van Jacobson's BPF paper. 178 179The BPF architecture consists of the following basic elements: 180 181 Element Description 182 183 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 15 187 188A program, that is translated by bpf_asm into "opcodes" is an array that 189consists of the following elements (as already mentioned): 190 191 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32 192 193The element op is a 16 bit wide opcode that has a particular instruction 194encoded. 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 196contains a miscellaneous argument that can be interpreted in different 197ways depending on the given instruction in op. 198 199The instruction set consists of load, store, branch, alu, miscellaneous 200and return instructions that are also represented in bpf_asm syntax. This 201table lists all bpf_asm instructions available resp. what their underlying 202opcodes as defined in linux/filter.h stand for: 203 204 Instruction Addressing mode Description 205 206 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 213 214 st 3 Store A into M[] 215 stx 3 Store X into M[] 216 217 jmp 6 Jump to label 218 ja 6 Jump to label 219 jeq 7, 8 Jump on A == k 220 jneq 8 Jump on A != k 221 jne 8 Jump on A != k 222 jlt 8 Jump on A < k 223 jle 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 227 228 add 0, 4 A + <x> 229 sub 0, 4 A - <x> 230 mul 0, 4 A * <x> 231 div 0, 4 A / <x> 232 mod 0, 4 A % <x> 233 neg !A 234 and 0, 4 A & <x> 235 or 0, 4 A | <x> 236 xor 0, 4 A ^ <x> 237 lsh 0, 4 A << <x> 238 rsh 0, 4 A >> <x> 239 240 tax Copy A into X 241 txa Copy X into A 242 243 ret 4, 9 Return 244 245The next table shows addressing formats from the 2nd column: 246 247 Addressing mode Syntax Description 248 249 0 x/%x Register X 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 255 6 L Jump label L 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 258 9 a/%a Accumulator A 259 10 extension BPF extension 260 261The Linux kernel also has a couple of BPF extensions that are used along 262with the class of load instructions by "overloading" the k argument with 263a negative offset + a particular extension offset. The result of such BPF 264extensions are loaded into A. 265 266Possible BPF extensions are shown in the following table: 267 268 Extension Description 269 270 len skb->len 271 proto skb->protocol 272 type skb->pkt_type 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 277 mark skb->mark 278 queue skb->queue_mapping 279 hatype skb->dev->type 280 rxhash skb->hash 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 285 rand prandom_u32() 286 287These extensions can also be prefixed with '#'. 288Examples for low-level BPF: 289 290** ARP packets: 291 292 ldh [12] 293 jne #0x806, drop 294 ret #-1 295 drop: ret #0 296 297** IPv4 TCP packets: 298 299 ldh [12] 300 jne #0x800, drop 301 ldb [23] 302 jneq #6, drop 303 ret #-1 304 drop: ret #0 305 306** (Accelerated) VLAN w/ id 10: 307 308 ld vlan_tci 309 jneq #10, drop 310 ret #-1 311 drop: ret #0 312 313** icmp random packet sampling, 1 in 4 314 ldh [12] 315 jne #0x800, drop 316 ldb [23] 317 jneq #1, drop 318 # get a random uint32 number 319 ld rand 320 mod #4 321 jneq #1, drop 322 ret #-1 323 drop: ret #0 324 325** SECCOMP filter example: 326 327 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 */ 342 343The above example code can be placed into a file (here called "foo"), and 344then be passed to the bpf_asm tool for generating opcodes, output that xt_bpf 345and cls_bpf understands and can directly be loaded with. Example with above 346ARP code: 347 348$ ./bpf_asm foo 3494,40 0 0 12,21 0 1 2054,6 0 0 4294967295,6 0 0 0, 350 351In copy and paste C-like output: 352 353$ ./bpf_asm -c foo 354{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c }, 355{ 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000806 }, 356{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0xffffffff }, 357{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0000000000 }, 358 359In particular, as usage with xt_bpf or cls_bpf can result in more complex BPF 360filters that might not be obvious at first, it's good to test filters before 361attaching to a live system. For that purpose, there's a small tool called 362bpf_dbg under tools/net/ in the kernel source directory. This debugger allows 363for testing BPF filters against given pcap files, single stepping through the 364BPF code on the pcap's packets and to do BPF machine register dumps. 365 366Starting bpf_dbg is trivial and just requires issuing: 367 368# ./bpf_dbg 369 370In case input and output do not equal stdin/stdout, bpf_dbg takes an 371alternative stdin source as a first argument, and an alternative stdout 372sink as a second one, e.g. `./bpf_dbg test_in.txt test_out.txt`. 373 374Other than that, a particular libreadline configuration can be set via 375file "~/.bpf_dbg_init" and the command history is stored in the file 376"~/.bpf_dbg_history". 377 378Interaction in bpf_dbg happens through a shell that also has auto-completion 379support (follow-up example commands starting with '>' denote bpf_dbg shell). 380The usual workflow would be to ... 381 382> 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 387 JIT developers. 388 389> load pcap foo.pcap 390 Loads standard tcpdump pcap file. 391 392> run [<n>] 393bpf passes:1 fails:9 394 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. 396 397> disassemble 398l0: ldh [12] 399l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5 400l2: ldb [23] 401l3: jeq #0x1, l4, l5 402l4: ret #0xffff 403l5: ret #0 404 Prints out BPF code disassembly. 405 406> dump 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. 415 416> breakpoint 0 417breakpoint at: l0: ldh [12] 418> breakpoint 1 419breakpoint at: l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5 420 ... 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): 425 426 > run 427 -- register dump -- 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) 435 len: 42 436 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 01 439 (breakpoint) 440 > 441 442> breakpoint 443breakpoints: 0 1 444 Prints currently set breakpoints. 445 446> step [-<n>, +<n>] 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.) 451 452> select <n> 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 456 with index 1. 457 458> quit 459# 460 Exits bpf_dbg. 461 462JIT compiler 463------------ 464 465The Linux kernel has a built-in BPF JIT compiler for x86_64, SPARC, PowerPC, 466ARM, ARM64, MIPS and s390 and can be enabled through CONFIG_BPF_JIT. The JIT 467compiler is transparently invoked for each attached filter from user space 468or for internal kernel users if it has been previously enabled by root: 469 470 echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable 471 472For JIT developers, doing audits etc, each compile run can output the generated 473opcode image into the kernel log via: 474 475 echo 2 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable 476 477Example output from dmesg: 478 479[ 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 485 486In the kernel source tree under tools/net/, there's bpf_jit_disasm for 487generating disassembly out of the kernel log's hexdump: 488 489# ./bpf_jit_disasm 49070 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6) 491ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>: 492 0: push %rbp 493 1: mov %rsp,%rbp 494 4: sub $0x60,%rsp 495 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp) 496 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d 497 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d 498 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8 499 1b: mov $0xc,%esi 500 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442 501 25: cmp $0x800,%eax 502 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042 503 2c: mov $0x17,%esi 504 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e 505 36: cmp $0x1,%eax 506 39: jne 0x0000000000000042 507 3b: mov $0xffff,%eax 508 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044 509 42: xor %eax,%eax 510 44: leaveq 511 45: retq 512 513Issuing option `-o` will "annotate" opcodes to resulting assembler 514instructions, which can be very useful for JIT developers: 515 516# ./bpf_jit_disasm -o 51770 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6) 518ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>: 519 0: push %rbp 520 55 521 1: mov %rsp,%rbp 522 48 89 e5 523 4: sub $0x60,%rsp 524 48 83 ec 60 525 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp) 526 48 89 5d f8 527 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d 528 44 8b 4f 68 529 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d 530 44 2b 4f 6c 531 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8 532 4c 8b 87 d8 00 00 00 533 1b: mov $0xc,%esi 534 be 0c 00 00 00 535 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442 536 e8 1d 94 ff e0 537 25: cmp $0x800,%eax 538 3d 00 08 00 00 539 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042 540 75 16 541 2c: mov $0x17,%esi 542 be 17 00 00 00 543 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e 544 e8 28 94 ff e0 545 36: cmp $0x1,%eax 546 83 f8 01 547 39: jne 0x0000000000000042 548 75 07 549 3b: mov $0xffff,%eax 550 b8 ff ff 00 00 551 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044 552 eb 02 553 42: xor %eax,%eax 554 31 c0 555 44: leaveq 556 c9 557 45: retq 558 c3 559 560For BPF JIT developers, bpf_jit_disasm, bpf_asm and bpf_dbg provides a useful 561toolchain for developing and testing the kernel's JIT compiler. 562 563BPF kernel internals 564-------------------- 565Internally, for the kernel interpreter, a different instruction set 566format with similar underlying principles from BPF described in previous 567paragraphs is being used. However, the instruction set format is modelled 568closer to the underlying architecture to mimic native instruction sets, so 569that a better performance can be achieved (more details later). This new 570ISA is called 'eBPF' or 'internal BPF' interchangeably. (Note: eBPF which 571originates from [e]xtended BPF is not the same as BPF extensions! While 572eBPF is an ISA, BPF extensions date back to classic BPF's 'overloading' 573of BPF_LD | BPF_{B,H,W} | BPF_ABS instruction.) 574 575It is designed to be JITed with one to one mapping, which can also open up 576the possibility for GCC/LLVM compilers to generate optimized eBPF code through 577an eBPF backend that performs almost as fast as natively compiled code. 578 579The new instruction set was originally designed with the possible goal in 580mind to write programs in "restricted C" and compile into eBPF with a optional 581GCC/LLVM backend, so that it can just-in-time map to modern 64-bit CPUs with 582minimal performance overhead over two steps, that is, C -> eBPF -> native code. 583 584Currently, the new format is being used for running user BPF programs, which 585includes seccomp BPF, classic socket filters, cls_bpf traffic classifier, 586team driver's classifier for its load-balancing mode, netfilter's xt_bpf 587extension, PTP dissector/classifier, and much more. They are all internally 588converted by the kernel into the new instruction set representation and run 589in the eBPF interpreter. For in-kernel handlers, this all works transparently 590by using bpf_prog_create() for setting up the filter, resp. 591bpf_prog_destroy() for destroying it. The macro 592BPF_PROG_RUN(filter, ctx) transparently invokes eBPF interpreter or JITed 593code to run the filter. 'filter' is a pointer to struct bpf_prog that we 594got from bpf_prog_create(), and 'ctx' the given context (e.g. 595skb pointer). All constraints and restrictions from bpf_check_classic() apply 596before a conversion to the new layout is being done behind the scenes! 597 598Currently, the classic BPF format is being used for JITing on most 32-bit 599architectures, whereas x86-64, aarch64, s390x, powerpc64, sparc64, arm32 perform 600JIT compilation from eBPF instruction set. 601 602Some core changes of the new internal format: 603 604- Number of registers increase from 2 to 10: 605 606 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. 614 615 Therefore, eBPF calling convention is defined as: 616 617 * 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 621 622 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. 625 626 On 32-bit architectures JIT may map programs that use only 32-bit arithmetic 627 and may let more complex programs to be interpreted. 628 629 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. 633 634- Register width increases from 32-bit to 64-bit: 635 636 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. 641 642 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. 645 646 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. 653 654- Conditional jt/jf targets replaced with jt/fall-through: 655 656 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 */". 659 660- Introduces bpf_call insn and register passing convention for zero overhead 661 calls from/to other kernel functions: 662 663 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. 672 673 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. 676 677 For example, consider three C functions: 678 679 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; } 682 683 GCC can compile f1, f3 into x86_64: 684 685 f1: 686 movl $1, %edi 687 movq _f2(%rip), %rax 688 jmp *%rax 689 f3: 690 movq %rdi, %rax 691 subq %rsi, %rax 692 ret 693 694 Function f2 in eBPF may look like: 695 696 f2: 697 bpf_mov R2, R1 698 bpf_add R1, 1 699 bpf_call f3 700 bpf_exit 701 702 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. 705 706 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 710 in the future. 711 712 On 64-bit architectures all register map to HW registers one to one. For 713 example, x86_64 JIT compiler can map them as ... 714 715 R0 - rax 716 R1 - rdi 717 R2 - rsi 718 R3 - rdx 719 R4 - rcx 720 R5 - r8 721 R6 - rbx 722 R7 - r13 723 R8 - r14 724 R9 - r15 725 R10 - rbp 726 727 ... since x86_64 ABI mandates rdi, rsi, rdx, rcx, r8, r9 for argument passing 728 and rbx, r12 - r15 are callee saved. 729 730 Then the following internal BPF pseudo-program: 731 732 bpf_mov R6, R1 /* save ctx */ 733 bpf_mov R2, 2 734 bpf_mov R3, 3 735 bpf_mov R4, 4 736 bpf_mov R5, 5 737 bpf_call foo 738 bpf_mov R7, R0 /* save foo() return value */ 739 bpf_mov R1, R6 /* restore ctx for next call */ 740 bpf_mov R2, 6 741 bpf_mov R3, 7 742 bpf_mov R4, 8 743 bpf_mov R5, 9 744 bpf_call bar 745 bpf_add R0, R7 746 bpf_exit 747 748 After JIT to x86_64 may look like: 749 750 push %rbp 751 mov %rsp,%rbp 752 sub $0x228,%rsp 753 mov %rbx,-0x228(%rbp) 754 mov %r13,-0x220(%rbp) 755 mov %rdi,%rbx 756 mov $0x2,%esi 757 mov $0x3,%edx 758 mov $0x4,%ecx 759 mov $0x5,%r8d 760 callq foo 761 mov %rax,%r13 762 mov %rbx,%rdi 763 mov $0x2,%esi 764 mov $0x3,%edx 765 mov $0x4,%ecx 766 mov $0x5,%r8d 767 callq bar 768 add %r13,%rax 769 mov -0x228(%rbp),%rbx 770 mov -0x220(%rbp),%r13 771 leaveq 772 retq 773 774 Which is in this example equivalent in C to: 775 776 u64 bpf_filter(u64 ctx) 777 { 778 return foo(ctx, 2, 3, 4, 5) + bar(ctx, 6, 7, 8, 9); 779 } 780 781 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. 787 788 For example the following program is invalid: 789 790 bpf_mov R1, 1 791 bpf_call foo 792 bpf_mov R0, R1 793 bpf_exit 794 795 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. 797 798Also in the new design, eBPF is limited to 4096 insns, which means that any 799program will terminate quickly and will only call a fixed number of kernel 800functions. Original BPF and the new format are two operand instructions, 801which helps to do one-to-one mapping between eBPF insn and x86 insn during JIT. 802 803The input context pointer for invoking the interpreter function is generic, 804its content is defined by a specific use case. For seccomp register R1 points 805to seccomp_data, for converted BPF filters R1 points to a skb. 806 807A program, that is translated internally consists of the following elements: 808 809 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32 ==> op:8, dst_reg:4, src_reg:4, off:16, imm:32 810 811So far 87 internal BPF instructions were implemented. 8-bit 'op' opcode field 812has room for new instructions. Some of them may use 16/24/32 byte encoding. New 813instructions must be multiple of 8 bytes to preserve backward compatibility. 814 815Internal BPF is a general purpose RISC instruction set. Not every register and 816every instruction are used during translation from original BPF to new format. 817For example, socket filters are not using 'exclusive add' instruction, but 818tracing filters may do to maintain counters of events, for example. Register R9 819is not used by socket filters either, but more complex filters may be running 820out of registers and would have to resort to spill/fill to stack. 821 822Internal BPF can used as generic assembler for last step performance 823optimizations, socket filters and seccomp are using it as assembler. Tracing 824filters may use it as assembler to generate code from kernel. In kernel usage 825may not be bounded by security considerations, since generated internal BPF code 826may be optimizing internal code path and not being exposed to the user space. 827Safety of internal BPF can come from a verifier (TBD). In such use cases as 828described, it may be used as safe instruction set. 829 830Just like the original BPF, the new format runs within a controlled environment, 831is deterministic and the kernel can easily prove that. The safety of the program 832can be determined in two steps: first step does depth-first-search to disallow 833loops and other CFG validation; second step starts from the first insn and 834descends all possible paths. It simulates execution of every insn and observes 835the state change of registers and stack. 836 837eBPF opcode encoding 838-------------------- 839 840eBPF is reusing most of the opcode encoding from classic to simplify conversion 841of classic BPF to eBPF. For arithmetic and jump instructions the 8-bit 'code' 842field is divided into three parts: 843 844 +----------------+--------+--------------------+ 845 | 4 bits | 1 bit | 3 bits | 846 | operation code | source | instruction class | 847 +----------------+--------+--------------------+ 848 (MSB) (LSB) 849 850Three LSB bits store instruction class which is one of: 851 852 Classic BPF classes: eBPF classes: 853 854 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 862 863When BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_JMP, 4th bit encodes source operand ... 864 865 BPF_K 0x00 866 BPF_X 0x08 867 868 * in classic BPF, this means: 869 870 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use register X as source operand 871 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand 872 873 * in eBPF, this means: 874 875 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 877 878... and four MSB bits store operation code. 879 880If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_ALU64 [ in eBPF ], BPF_OP(code) is one of: 881 882 BPF_ADD 0x00 883 BPF_SUB 0x10 884 BPF_MUL 0x20 885 BPF_DIV 0x30 886 BPF_OR 0x40 887 BPF_AND 0x50 888 BPF_LSH 0x60 889 BPF_RSH 0x70 890 BPF_NEG 0x80 891 BPF_MOD 0x90 892 BPF_XOR 0xa0 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 */ 896 897If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_JMP, BPF_OP(code) is one of: 898 899 BPF_JA 0x00 900 BPF_JEQ 0x10 901 BPF_JGT 0x20 902 BPF_JGE 0x30 903 BPF_JSET 0x40 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 '<=' */ 913 914So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU means 32-bit addition in both classic BPF 915and eBPF. There are only two registers in classic BPF, so it means A += X. 916In eBPF it means dst_reg = (u32) dst_reg + (u32) src_reg; similarly, 917BPF_XOR | BPF_K | BPF_ALU means A ^= imm32 in classic BPF and analogous 918src_reg = (u32) src_reg ^ (u32) imm32 in eBPF. 919 920Classic BPF is using BPF_MISC class to represent A = X and X = A moves. 921eBPF is using BPF_MOV | BPF_X | BPF_ALU code instead. Since there are no 922BPF_MISC operations in eBPF, the class 7 is used as BPF_ALU64 to mean 923exactly the same operations as BPF_ALU, but with 64-bit wide operands 924instead. So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU64 means 64-bit addition, i.e.: 925dst_reg = dst_reg + src_reg 926 927Classic BPF wastes the whole BPF_RET class to represent a single 'ret' 928operation. Classic BPF_RET | BPF_K means copy imm32 into return register 929and perform function exit. eBPF is modeled to match CPU, so BPF_JMP | BPF_EXIT 930in eBPF means function exit only. The eBPF program needs to store return 931value into register R0 before doing a BPF_EXIT. Class 6 in eBPF is currently 932unused and reserved for future use. 933 934For load and store instructions the 8-bit 'code' field is divided as: 935 936 +--------+--------+-------------------+ 937 | 3 bits | 2 bits | 3 bits | 938 | mode | size | instruction class | 939 +--------+--------+-------------------+ 940 (MSB) (LSB) 941 942Size modifier is one of ... 943 944 BPF_W 0x00 /* word */ 945 BPF_H 0x08 /* half word */ 946 BPF_B 0x10 /* byte */ 947 BPF_DW 0x18 /* eBPF only, double word */ 948 949... which encodes size of load/store operation: 950 951 B - 1 byte 952 H - 2 byte 953 W - 4 byte 954 DW - 8 byte (eBPF only) 955 956Mode modifier is one of: 957 958 BPF_IMM 0x00 /* used for 32-bit mov in classic BPF and 64-bit in eBPF */ 959 BPF_ABS 0x20 960 BPF_IND 0x40 961 BPF_MEM 0x60 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 */ 965 966eBPF has two non-generic instructions: (BPF_ABS | <size> | BPF_LD) and 967(BPF_IND | <size> | BPF_LD) which are used to access packet data. 968 969They had to be carried over from classic to have strong performance of 970socket filters running in eBPF interpreter. These instructions can only 971be used when interpreter context is a pointer to 'struct sk_buff' and 972have seven implicit operands. Register R6 is an implicit input that must 973contain pointer to sk_buff. Register R0 is an implicit output which contains 974the data fetched from the packet. Registers R1-R5 are scratch registers 975and must not be used to store the data across BPF_ABS | BPF_LD or 976BPF_IND | BPF_LD instructions. 977 978These instructions have implicit program exit condition as well. When 979eBPF program is trying to access the data beyond the packet boundary, 980the interpreter will abort the execution of the program. JIT compilers 981therefore must preserve this property. src_reg and imm32 fields are 982explicit inputs to these instructions. 983 984For example: 985 986 BPF_IND | BPF_W | BPF_LD means: 987 988 R0 = ntohl(*(u32 *) (((struct sk_buff *) R6)->data + src_reg + imm32)) 989 and R1 - R5 were scratched. 990 991Unlike classic BPF instruction set, eBPF has generic load/store operations: 992 993BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_STX: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = src_reg 994BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_ST: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = imm32 995BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_LDX: dst_reg = *(size *) (src_reg + off) 996BPF_XADD | BPF_W | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u32 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg 997BPF_XADD | BPF_DW | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u64 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg 998 999Where size is one of: BPF_B or BPF_H or BPF_W or BPF_DW. Note that 1 and 10002 byte atomic increments are not supported. 1001 1002eBPF has one 16-byte instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_DW | BPF_IMM which consists 1003of two consecutive 'struct bpf_insn' 8-byte blocks and interpreted as single 1004instruction that loads 64-bit immediate value into a dst_reg. 1005Classic BPF has similar instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_W | BPF_IMM which loads 100632-bit immediate value into a register. 1007 1008eBPF verifier 1009------------- 1010The safety of the eBPF program is determined in two steps. 1011 1012First step does DAG check to disallow loops and other CFG validation. 1013In particular it will detect programs that have unreachable instructions. 1014(though classic BPF checker allows them) 1015 1016Second step starts from the first insn and descends all possible paths. 1017It simulates execution of every insn and observes the state change of 1018registers and stack. 1019 1020At the start of the program the register R1 contains a pointer to context 1021and has type PTR_TO_CTX. 1022If verifier sees an insn that does R2=R1, then R2 has now type 1023PTR_TO_CTX as well and can be used on the right hand side of expression. 1024If R1=PTR_TO_CTX and insn is R2=R1+R1, then R2=SCALAR_VALUE, 1025since addition of two valid pointers makes invalid pointer. 1026(In 'secure' mode verifier will reject any type of pointer arithmetic to make 1027sure that kernel addresses don't leak to unprivileged users) 1028 1029If register was never written to, it's not readable: 1030 bpf_mov R0 = R2 1031 bpf_exit 1032will be rejected, since R2 is unreadable at the start of the program. 1033 1034After kernel function call, R1-R5 are reset to unreadable and 1035R0 has a return type of the function. 1036 1037Since R6-R9 are callee saved, their state is preserved across the call. 1038 bpf_mov R6 = 1 1039 bpf_call foo 1040 bpf_mov R0 = R6 1041 bpf_exit 1042is a correct program. If there was R1 instead of R6, it would have 1043been rejected. 1044 1045load/store instructions are allowed only with registers of valid types, which 1046are PTR_TO_CTX, PTR_TO_MAP, PTR_TO_STACK. They are bounds and alignment checked. 1047For example: 1048 bpf_mov R1 = 1 1049 bpf_mov R2 = 2 1050 bpf_xadd *(u32 *)(R1 + 3) += R2 1051 bpf_exit 1052will be rejected, since R1 doesn't have a valid pointer type at the time of 1053execution of instruction bpf_xadd. 1054 1055At the start R1 type is PTR_TO_CTX (a pointer to generic 'struct bpf_context') 1056A callback is used to customize verifier to restrict eBPF program access to only 1057certain fields within ctx structure with specified size and alignment. 1058 1059For example, the following insn: 1060 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R6 + 8) 1061intends to load a word from address R6 + 8 and store it into R0 1062If R6=PTR_TO_CTX, via is_valid_access() callback the verifier will know 1063that offset 8 of size 4 bytes can be accessed for reading, otherwise 1064the verifier will reject the program. 1065If R6=PTR_TO_STACK, then access should be aligned and be within 1066stack bounds, which are [-MAX_BPF_STACK, 0). In this example offset is 8, 1067so it will fail verification, since it's out of bounds. 1068 1069The verifier will allow eBPF program to read data from stack only after 1070it wrote into it. 1071Classic BPF verifier does similar check with M[0-15] memory slots. 1072For example: 1073 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R10 - 4) 1074 bpf_exit 1075is invalid program. 1076Though R10 is correct read-only register and has type PTR_TO_STACK 1077and R10 - 4 is within stack bounds, there were no stores into that location. 1078 1079Pointer register spill/fill is tracked as well, since four (R6-R9) 1080callee saved registers may not be enough for some programs. 1081 1082Allowed function calls are customized with bpf_verifier_ops->get_func_proto() 1083The eBPF verifier will check that registers match argument constraints. 1084After the call register R0 will be set to return type of the function. 1085 1086Function calls is a main mechanism to extend functionality of eBPF programs. 1087Socket filters may let programs to call one set of functions, whereas tracing 1088filters may allow completely different set. 1089 1090If a function made accessible to eBPF program, it needs to be thought through 1091from safety point of view. The verifier will guarantee that the function is 1092called with valid arguments. 1093 1094seccomp vs socket filters have different security restrictions for classic BPF. 1095Seccomp solves this by two stage verifier: classic BPF verifier is followed 1096by seccomp verifier. In case of eBPF one configurable verifier is shared for 1097all use cases. 1098 1099See details of eBPF verifier in kernel/bpf/verifier.c 1100 1101Register value tracking 1102----------------------- 1103In order to determine the safety of an eBPF program, the verifier must track 1104the range of possible values in each register and also in each stack slot. 1105This is done with 'struct bpf_reg_state', defined in include/linux/ 1106bpf_verifier.h, which unifies tracking of scalar and pointer values. Each 1107register state has a type, which is either NOT_INIT (the register has not been 1108written to), SCALAR_VALUE (some value which is not usable as a pointer), or a 1109pointer 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. 1122However, a pointer may be offset from this base (as a result of pointer 1123arithmetic), and this is tracked in two parts: the 'fixed offset' and 'variable 1124offset'. The former is used when an exactly-known value (e.g. an immediate 1125operand) is added to a pointer, while the latter is used for values which are 1126not exactly known. The variable offset is also used in SCALAR_VALUEs, to track 1127the range of possible values in the register. 1128The 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; 11331s in the value represent bits known to be 1. Bits known to be 0 have 0 in both 1134mask and value; no bit should ever be 1 in both. For example, if a byte is read 1135into a register from memory, the register's top 56 bits are known zero, while 1136the low 8 are unknown - which is represented as the tnum (0x0; 0xff). If we 1137then OR this with 0x40, we get (0x40; 0xcf), then if we add 1 we get (0x0; 11380x1ff), because of potential carries. 1139Besides arithmetic, the register state can also be updated by conditional 1140branches. For instance, if a SCALAR_VALUE is compared > 8, in the 'true' branch 1141it will have a umin_value (unsigned minimum value) of 9, whereas in the 'false' 1142branch it will have a umax_value of 8. A signed compare (with BPF_JSGT or 1143BPF_JSGE) would instead update the signed minimum/maximum values. Information 1144from the signed and unsigned bounds can be combined; for instance if a value is 1145first tested < 8 and then tested s> 4, the verifier will conclude that the value 1146is also > 4 and s< 8, since the bounds prevent crossing the sign boundary. 1147PTR_TO_PACKETs with a variable offset part have an 'id', which is common to all 1148pointers sharing that same variable offset. This is important for packet range 1149checks: after adding some variable to a packet pointer, if you then copy it to 1150another 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 1152found to be less than a PTR_TO_PACKET_END, the other register is now known to 1153have a safe range of at least 4 bytes. See 'Direct packet access', below, for 1154more on PTR_TO_PACKET ranges. 1155The 'id' field is also used on PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL, common to all copies of 1156the pointer returned from a map lookup. This means that when one copy is 1157checked and found to be non-NULL, all copies can become PTR_TO_MAP_VALUEs. 1158As well as range-checking, the tracked information is also used for enforcing 1159alignment of pointer accesses. For instance, on most systems the packet pointer 1160is 2 bytes after a 4-byte alignment. If a program adds 14 bytes to that to jump 1161over the Ethernet header, then reads IHL and addes (IHL * 4), the resulting 1162pointer will have a variable offset known to be 4n+2 for some n, so adding the 2 1163bytes (NET_IP_ALIGN) gives a 4-byte alignment and so word-sized accesses through 1164that pointer are safe. 1165 1166Direct packet access 1167-------------------- 1168In cls_bpf and act_bpf programs the verifier allows direct access to the packet 1169data via skb->data and skb->data_end pointers. 1170Ex: 11711: r4 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */ 11722: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */ 11733: r5 = r3 11744: r5 += 14 11755: if r5 > r4 goto pc+16 1176R1=ctx R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14) R4=pkt_end R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14) R10=fp 11776: r0 = *(u16 *)(r3 +12) /* access 12 and 13 bytes of the packet */ 1178 1179this 2byte load from the packet is safe to do, since the program author 1180did check 'if (skb->data + 14 > skb->data_end) goto err' at insn #5 which 1181means that in the fall-through case the register R3 (which points to skb->data) 1182has at least 14 directly accessible bytes. The verifier marks it 1183as R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14). 1184id=0 means that no additional variables were added to the register. 1185off=0 means that no additional constants were added. 1186r=14 is the range of safe access which means that bytes [R3, R3 + 14) are ok. 1187Note that R5 is marked as R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14). It also points 1188to the packet data, but constant 14 was added to the register, so 1189it now points to 'skb->data + 14' and accessible range is [R5, R5 + 14 - 14) 1190which is zero bytes. 1191 1192More 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) 1196 8: r4 *= 14 1197 9: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */ 119810: r3 += r4 119911: r2 = r1 120012: r2 <<= 48 120113: r2 >>= 48 120214: r3 += r2 120315: r2 = r3 120416: r2 += 8 120517: r1 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */ 120618: 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 120819: r1 = *(u8 *)(r3 +4) 1209The state of the register R3 is R3=pkt(id=2,off=0,r=8) 1210id=2 means that two 'r3 += rX' instructions were seen, so r3 points to some 1211offset 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). 1213The verifier only allows 'add'/'sub' operations on packet registers. Any other 1214operation will set the register state to 'SCALAR_VALUE' and it won't be 1215available for direct packet access. 1216Operation 'r3 += rX' may overflow and become less than original skb->data, 1217therefore the verifier has to prevent that. So when it sees 'r3 += rX' 1218instruction and rX is more than 16-bit value, any subsequent bounds-check of r3 1219against skb->data_end will not give us 'range' information, so attempts to read 1220through the pointer will give "invalid access to packet" error. 1221Ex. after insn 'r4 = *(u8 *)(r3 +12)' (insn #7 above) the state of r4 is 1222R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=255,var_off=(0x0; 0xff)) which means that upper 56 bits 1223of the register are guaranteed to be zero, and nothing is known about the lower 12248 bits. After insn 'r4 *= 14' the state becomes 1225R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=3570,var_off=(0x0; 0xfffe)), since multiplying an 8-bit 1226value by constant 14 will keep upper 52 bits as zero, also the least significant 1227bit will be zero as 14 is even. Similarly 'r2 >>= 48' will make 1228R2=inv(id=0,umax_value=65535,var_off=(0x0; 0xffff)), since the shift is not sign 1229extending. This logic is implemented in adjust_reg_min_max_vals() function, 1230which calls adjust_ptr_min_max_vals() for adding pointer to scalar (or vice 1231versa) and adjust_scalar_min_max_vals() for operations on two scalars. 1232 1233The end result is that bpf program author can access packet directly 1234using 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); 1240 1241 if (data + sizeof(*eth) + sizeof(*iph) + sizeof(*udp) > data_end) 1242 return 0; 1243 if (eth->h_proto != htons(ETH_P_IP)) 1244 return 0; 1245 if (iph->protocol != IPPROTO_UDP || iph->ihl != 5) 1246 return 0; 1247 if (udp->dest == 53 || udp->source == 9) 1248 ...; 1249which makes such programs easier to write comparing to LD_ABS insn 1250and significantly faster. 1251 1252eBPF maps 1253--------- 1254'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel 1255and userspace. 1256 1257The 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 1262 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 1267 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 1272 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 1276 1277- to delete map: close(fd) 1278 Exiting process will delete maps automatically 1279 1280userspace programs use this syscall to create/access maps that eBPF programs 1281are concurrently updating. 1282 1283maps can have different types: hash, array, bloom filter, radix-tree, etc. 1284 1285The map is defined by: 1286 . type 1287 . max number of elements 1288 . key size in bytes 1289 . value size in bytes 1290 1291Pruning 1292------- 1293The verifier does not actually walk all possible paths through the program. For 1294each new branch to analyse, the verifier looks at all the states it's previously 1295been in when at this instruction. If any of them contain the current state as a 1296subset, the branch is 'pruned' - that is, the fact that the previous state was 1297accepted implies the current state would be as well. For instance, if in the 1298previous state, r1 held a packet-pointer, and in the current state, r1 holds a 1299packet-pointer with a range as long or longer and at least as strict an 1300alignment, then r1 is safe. Similarly, if r2 was NOT_INIT before then it can't 1301have been used by any path from that point, so any value in r2 (including 1302another NOT_INIT) is safe. The implementation is in the function regsafe(). 1303Pruning considers not only the registers but also the stack (and any spilled 1304registers it may hold). They must all be safe for the branch to be pruned. 1305This is implemented in states_equal(). 1306 1307Understanding eBPF verifier messages 1308------------------------------------ 1309 1310The following are few examples of invalid eBPF programs and verifier error 1311messages as seen in the log: 1312 1313Program with unreachable instructions: 1314static struct bpf_insn prog[] = { 1315 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1316 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1317}; 1318Error: 1319 unreachable insn 1 1320 1321Program that reads uninitialized register: 1322 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_0, BPF_REG_2), 1323 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1324Error: 1325 0: (bf) r0 = r2 1326 R2 !read_ok 1327 1328Program that doesn't initialize R0 before exiting: 1329 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_1), 1330 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1331Error: 1332 0: (bf) r2 = r1 1333 1: (95) exit 1334 R0 !read_ok 1335 1336Program that accesses stack out of bounds: 1337 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, 8, 0), 1338 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1339Error: 1340 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 +8) = 0 1341 invalid stack off=8 size=8 1342 1343Program 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), 1348 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1349Error: 1350 0: (bf) r2 = r10 1351 1: (07) r2 += -8 1352 2: (b7) r1 = 0x0 1353 3: (85) call 1 1354 invalid indirect read from stack off -8+0 size 8 1355 1356Program 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), 1362 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1363Error: 1364 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0 1365 1: (bf) r2 = r10 1366 2: (07) r2 += -8 1367 3: (b7) r1 = 0x0 1368 4: (85) call 1 1369 fd 0 is not pointing to valid bpf_map 1370 1371Program that doesn't check return value of map_lookup_elem() before accessing 1372map element: 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), 1379 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1380Error: 1381 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0 1382 1: (bf) r2 = r10 1383 2: (07) r2 += -8 1384 3: (b7) r1 = 0x0 1385 4: (85) call 1 1386 5: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0 1387 R0 invalid mem access 'map_value_or_null' 1388 1389Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL, but 1390accesses 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), 1398 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1399Error: 1400 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0 1401 1: (bf) r2 = r10 1402 2: (07) r2 += -8 1403 3: (b7) r1 = 1 1404 4: (85) call 1 1405 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+1 1406 R0=map_ptr R10=fp 1407 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +4) = 0 1408 misaligned access off 4 size 8 1409 1410Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL and 1411accesses memory with correct alignment in one side of 'if' branch, but fails 1412to 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), 1420 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1421 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1), 1422 BPF_EXIT_INSN(), 1423Error: 1424 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0 1425 1: (bf) r2 = r10 1426 2: (07) r2 += -8 1427 3: (b7) r1 = 1 1428 4: (85) call 1 1429 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+2 1430 R0=map_ptr R10=fp 1431 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0 1432 7: (95) exit 1433 1434 from 5 to 8: R0=imm0 R10=fp 1435 8: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 1 1436 R0 invalid mem access 'imm' 1437 1438Testing 1439------- 1440 1441Next to the BPF toolchain, the kernel also ships a test module that contains 1442various test cases for classic and internal BPF that can be executed against 1443the BPF interpreter and JIT compiler. It can be found in lib/test_bpf.c and 1444enabled via Kconfig: 1445 1446 CONFIG_TEST_BPF=m 1447 1448After the module has been built and installed, the test suite can be executed 1449via insmod or modprobe against 'test_bpf' module. Results of the test cases 1450including timings in nsec can be found in the kernel log (dmesg). 1451 1452Misc 1453---- 1454 1455Also trinity, the Linux syscall fuzzer, has built-in support for BPF and 1456SECCOMP-BPF kernel fuzzing. 1457 1458Written by 1459---------- 1460 1461The document was written in the hope that it is found useful and in order 1462to give potential BPF hackers or security auditors a better overview of 1463the underlying architecture. 1464 1465Jay Schulist <jschlst@samba.org> 1466Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net> 1467Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org> 1468