Merge tag 'gfs2-for-5.6-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gfs2...
[linux-block.git] / Documentation / networking / filter.txt
CommitLineData
7924cd5e
DB
1Linux Socket Filtering aka Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF)
2=======================================================
1da177e4
LT
3
4Introduction
7924cd5e
DB
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
2130c028 48 [1] Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst
7924cd5e
DB
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
c246fd33 172Under tools/bpf/ there's a small helper tool called bpf_asm which can
7924cd5e
DB
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
31ce8c4a 206 ld 1, 2, 3, 4, 12 Load word into A
7924cd5e
DB
207 ldi 4 Load word into A
208 ldh 1, 2 Load half-word into A
209 ldb 1, 2 Load byte into A
31ce8c4a 210 ldx 3, 4, 5, 12 Load word into X
7924cd5e
DB
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
31ce8c4a
AF
219 jeq 7, 8, 9, 10 Jump on A == <x>
220 jneq 9, 10 Jump on A != <x>
221 jne 9, 10 Jump on A != <x>
222 jlt 9, 10 Jump on A < <x>
223 jle 9, 10 Jump on A <= <x>
224 jgt 7, 8, 9, 10 Jump on A > <x>
225 jge 7, 8, 9, 10 Jump on A >= <x>
226 jset 7, 8, 9, 10 Jump on A & <x>
7924cd5e
DB
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>
83d26b63 233 neg !A
7924cd5e
DB
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
31ce8c4a 243 ret 4, 11 Return
7924cd5e
DB
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
31ce8c4a
AF
257 8 x/%x,Lt,Lf Jump to Lt if true, otherwise jump to Lf
258 9 #k,Lt Jump to Lt if predicate is true
259 10 x/%x,Lt Jump to Lt if predicate is true
260 11 a/%a Accumulator A
261 12 extension BPF extension
7924cd5e
DB
262
263The Linux kernel also has a couple of BPF extensions that are used along
264with the class of load instructions by "overloading" the k argument with
265a negative offset + a particular extension offset. The result of such BPF
266extensions are loaded into A.
267
268Possible BPF extensions are shown in the following table:
269
270 Extension Description
271
272 len skb->len
273 proto skb->protocol
274 type skb->pkt_type
275 poff Payload start offset
276 ifidx skb->dev->ifindex
277 nla Netlink attribute of type X with offset A
278 nlan Nested Netlink attribute of type X with offset A
279 mark skb->mark
280 queue skb->queue_mapping
281 hatype skb->dev->type
b0db5cdf 282 rxhash skb->hash
7924cd5e 283 cpu raw_smp_processor_id()
df8a39de 284 vlan_tci skb_vlan_tag_get(skb)
27cd5452
MS
285 vlan_avail skb_vlan_tag_present(skb)
286 vlan_tpid skb->vlan_proto
4cd3675e 287 rand prandom_u32()
7924cd5e
DB
288
289These extensions can also be prefixed with '#'.
290Examples for low-level BPF:
291
292** ARP packets:
293
294 ldh [12]
295 jne #0x806, drop
296 ret #-1
297 drop: ret #0
298
299** IPv4 TCP packets:
300
301 ldh [12]
302 jne #0x800, drop
303 ldb [23]
304 jneq #6, drop
305 ret #-1
306 drop: ret #0
307
308** (Accelerated) VLAN w/ id 10:
309
310 ld vlan_tci
311 jneq #10, drop
312 ret #-1
313 drop: ret #0
314
4cd3675e
CG
315** icmp random packet sampling, 1 in 4
316 ldh [12]
317 jne #0x800, drop
318 ldb [23]
319 jneq #1, drop
320 # get a random uint32 number
321 ld rand
322 mod #4
323 jneq #1, drop
324 ret #-1
325 drop: ret #0
326
7924cd5e
DB
327** SECCOMP filter example:
328
329 ld [4] /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, arch) */
330 jne #0xc000003e, bad /* AUDIT_ARCH_X86_64 */
331 ld [0] /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, nr) */
332 jeq #15, good /* __NR_rt_sigreturn */
333 jeq #231, good /* __NR_exit_group */
334 jeq #60, good /* __NR_exit */
335 jeq #0, good /* __NR_read */
336 jeq #1, good /* __NR_write */
337 jeq #5, good /* __NR_fstat */
338 jeq #9, good /* __NR_mmap */
339 jeq #14, good /* __NR_rt_sigprocmask */
340 jeq #13, good /* __NR_rt_sigaction */
341 jeq #35, good /* __NR_nanosleep */
fd76875c 342 bad: ret #0 /* SECCOMP_RET_KILL_THREAD */
7924cd5e
DB
343 good: ret #0x7fff0000 /* SECCOMP_RET_ALLOW */
344
345The above example code can be placed into a file (here called "foo"), and
346then be passed to the bpf_asm tool for generating opcodes, output that xt_bpf
347and cls_bpf understands and can directly be loaded with. Example with above
348ARP code:
349
350$ ./bpf_asm foo
3514,40 0 0 12,21 0 1 2054,6 0 0 4294967295,6 0 0 0,
352
353In copy and paste C-like output:
354
355$ ./bpf_asm -c foo
356{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
357{ 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000806 },
358{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0xffffffff },
359{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0000000000 },
360
361In particular, as usage with xt_bpf or cls_bpf can result in more complex BPF
362filters that might not be obvious at first, it's good to test filters before
363attaching to a live system. For that purpose, there's a small tool called
c246fd33 364bpf_dbg under tools/bpf/ in the kernel source directory. This debugger allows
7924cd5e
DB
365for testing BPF filters against given pcap files, single stepping through the
366BPF code on the pcap's packets and to do BPF machine register dumps.
367
368Starting bpf_dbg is trivial and just requires issuing:
369
370# ./bpf_dbg
371
372In case input and output do not equal stdin/stdout, bpf_dbg takes an
373alternative stdin source as a first argument, and an alternative stdout
374sink as a second one, e.g. `./bpf_dbg test_in.txt test_out.txt`.
375
376Other than that, a particular libreadline configuration can be set via
377file "~/.bpf_dbg_init" and the command history is stored in the file
378"~/.bpf_dbg_history".
379
380Interaction in bpf_dbg happens through a shell that also has auto-completion
381support (follow-up example commands starting with '>' denote bpf_dbg shell).
382The usual workflow would be to ...
383
384> 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
385 Loads a BPF filter from standard output of bpf_asm, or transformed via
386 e.g. `tcpdump -iem1 -ddd port 22 | tr '\n' ','`. Note that for JIT
387 debugging (next section), this command creates a temporary socket and
388 loads the BPF code into the kernel. Thus, this will also be useful for
389 JIT developers.
390
391> load pcap foo.pcap
392 Loads standard tcpdump pcap file.
393
394> run [<n>]
395bpf passes:1 fails:9
396 Runs through all packets from a pcap to account how many passes and fails
397 the filter will generate. A limit of packets to traverse can be given.
398
399> disassemble
400l0: ldh [12]
401l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5
402l2: ldb [23]
403l3: jeq #0x1, l4, l5
404l4: ret #0xffff
405l5: ret #0
406 Prints out BPF code disassembly.
407
408> dump
409/* { op, jt, jf, k }, */
410{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
411{ 0x15, 0, 3, 0x00000800 },
412{ 0x30, 0, 0, 0x00000017 },
413{ 0x15, 0, 1, 0x00000001 },
414{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0x0000ffff },
415{ 0x06, 0, 0, 0000000000 },
416 Prints out C-style BPF code dump.
417
418> breakpoint 0
419breakpoint at: l0: ldh [12]
420> breakpoint 1
421breakpoint at: l1: jeq #0x800, l2, l5
422 ...
423 Sets breakpoints at particular BPF instructions. Issuing a `run` command
424 will walk through the pcap file continuing from the current packet and
425 break when a breakpoint is being hit (another `run` will continue from
426 the currently active breakpoint executing next instructions):
427
428 > run
429 -- register dump --
430 pc: [0] <-- program counter
431 code: [40] jt[0] jf[0] k[12] <-- plain BPF code of current instruction
432 curr: l0: ldh [12] <-- disassembly of current instruction
433 A: [00000000][0] <-- content of A (hex, decimal)
434 X: [00000000][0] <-- content of X (hex, decimal)
435 M[0,15]: [00000000][0] <-- folded content of M (hex, decimal)
436 -- packet dump -- <-- Current packet from pcap (hex)
437 len: 42
438 0: 00 19 cb 55 55 a4 00 14 a4 43 78 69 08 06 00 01
439 16: 08 00 06 04 00 01 00 14 a4 43 78 69 0a 3b 01 26
440 32: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a 3b 01 01
441 (breakpoint)
442 >
443
444> breakpoint
445breakpoints: 0 1
446 Prints currently set breakpoints.
447
448> step [-<n>, +<n>]
449 Performs single stepping through the BPF program from the current pc
450 offset. Thus, on each step invocation, above register dump is issued.
451 This can go forwards and backwards in time, a plain `step` will break
452 on the next BPF instruction, thus +1. (No `run` needs to be issued here.)
453
454> select <n>
455 Selects a given packet from the pcap file to continue from. Thus, on
456 the next `run` or `step`, the BPF program is being evaluated against
457 the user pre-selected packet. Numbering starts just as in Wireshark
458 with index 1.
459
460> quit
461#
462 Exits bpf_dbg.
463
464JIT compiler
465------------
466
e8cb0167
BT
467The Linux kernel has a built-in BPF JIT compiler for x86_64, SPARC,
468PowerPC, ARM, ARM64, MIPS, RISC-V and s390 and can be enabled through
469CONFIG_BPF_JIT. The JIT compiler is transparently invoked for each
470attached filter from user space or for internal kernel users if it has
471been previously enabled by root:
7924cd5e
DB
472
473 echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable
474
475For JIT developers, doing audits etc, each compile run can output the generated
476opcode image into the kernel log via:
477
478 echo 2 > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable
479
480Example output from dmesg:
481
482[ 3389.935842] flen=6 proglen=70 pass=3 image=ffffffffa0069c8f
483[ 3389.935847] JIT code: 00000000: 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 60 48 89 5d f8 44 8b 4f 68
484[ 3389.935849] JIT code: 00000010: 44 2b 4f 6c 4c 8b 87 d8 00 00 00 be 0c 00 00 00
485[ 3389.935850] JIT code: 00000020: e8 1d 94 ff e0 3d 00 08 00 00 75 16 be 17 00 00
486[ 3389.935851] JIT code: 00000030: 00 e8 28 94 ff e0 83 f8 01 75 07 b8 ff ff 00 00
487[ 3389.935852] JIT code: 00000040: eb 02 31 c0 c9 c3
488
2c25fc9a
LY
489When CONFIG_BPF_JIT_ALWAYS_ON is enabled, bpf_jit_enable is permanently set to 1 and
490setting any other value than that will return in failure. This is even the case for
491setting bpf_jit_enable to 2, since dumping the final JIT image into the kernel log
492is discouraged and introspection through bpftool (under tools/bpf/bpftool/) is the
493generally recommended approach instead.
494
c246fd33 495In the kernel source tree under tools/bpf/, there's bpf_jit_disasm for
7924cd5e
DB
496generating disassembly out of the kernel log's hexdump:
497
498# ./bpf_jit_disasm
49970 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6)
500ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>:
501 0: push %rbp
502 1: mov %rsp,%rbp
503 4: sub $0x60,%rsp
504 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp)
505 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d
506 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d
507 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8
508 1b: mov $0xc,%esi
509 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442
510 25: cmp $0x800,%eax
511 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042
512 2c: mov $0x17,%esi
513 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e
514 36: cmp $0x1,%eax
515 39: jne 0x0000000000000042
516 3b: mov $0xffff,%eax
517 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044
518 42: xor %eax,%eax
519 44: leaveq
520 45: retq
521
522Issuing option `-o` will "annotate" opcodes to resulting assembler
523instructions, which can be very useful for JIT developers:
524
525# ./bpf_jit_disasm -o
52670 bytes emitted from JIT compiler (pass:3, flen:6)
527ffffffffa0069c8f + <x>:
528 0: push %rbp
529 55
530 1: mov %rsp,%rbp
531 48 89 e5
532 4: sub $0x60,%rsp
533 48 83 ec 60
534 8: mov %rbx,-0x8(%rbp)
535 48 89 5d f8
536 c: mov 0x68(%rdi),%r9d
537 44 8b 4f 68
538 10: sub 0x6c(%rdi),%r9d
539 44 2b 4f 6c
540 14: mov 0xd8(%rdi),%r8
541 4c 8b 87 d8 00 00 00
542 1b: mov $0xc,%esi
543 be 0c 00 00 00
544 20: callq 0xffffffffe0ff9442
545 e8 1d 94 ff e0
546 25: cmp $0x800,%eax
547 3d 00 08 00 00
548 2a: jne 0x0000000000000042
549 75 16
550 2c: mov $0x17,%esi
551 be 17 00 00 00
552 31: callq 0xffffffffe0ff945e
553 e8 28 94 ff e0
554 36: cmp $0x1,%eax
555 83 f8 01
556 39: jne 0x0000000000000042
557 75 07
558 3b: mov $0xffff,%eax
559 b8 ff ff 00 00
560 40: jmp 0x0000000000000044
561 eb 02
562 42: xor %eax,%eax
563 31 c0
564 44: leaveq
565 c9
566 45: retq
567 c3
568
569For BPF JIT developers, bpf_jit_disasm, bpf_asm and bpf_dbg provides a useful
570toolchain for developing and testing the kernel's JIT compiler.
571
9a985cdc
AS
572BPF kernel internals
573--------------------
e4ad4032 574Internally, for the kernel interpreter, a different instruction set
9a985cdc
AS
575format with similar underlying principles from BPF described in previous
576paragraphs is being used. However, the instruction set format is modelled
577closer to the underlying architecture to mimic native instruction sets, so
e4ad4032
AS
578that a better performance can be achieved (more details later). This new
579ISA is called 'eBPF' or 'internal BPF' interchangeably. (Note: eBPF which
580originates from [e]xtended BPF is not the same as BPF extensions! While
581eBPF is an ISA, BPF extensions date back to classic BPF's 'overloading'
582of BPF_LD | BPF_{B,H,W} | BPF_ABS instruction.)
9a985cdc
AS
583
584It is designed to be JITed with one to one mapping, which can also open up
e4ad4032
AS
585the possibility for GCC/LLVM compilers to generate optimized eBPF code through
586an eBPF backend that performs almost as fast as natively compiled code.
9a985cdc
AS
587
588The new instruction set was originally designed with the possible goal in
e4ad4032 589mind to write programs in "restricted C" and compile into eBPF with a optional
9a985cdc 590GCC/LLVM backend, so that it can just-in-time map to modern 64-bit CPUs with
e4ad4032 591minimal performance overhead over two steps, that is, C -> eBPF -> native code.
9a985cdc
AS
592
593Currently, the new format is being used for running user BPF programs, which
594includes seccomp BPF, classic socket filters, cls_bpf traffic classifier,
595team driver's classifier for its load-balancing mode, netfilter's xt_bpf
596extension, PTP dissector/classifier, and much more. They are all internally
597converted by the kernel into the new instruction set representation and run
e4ad4032 598in the eBPF interpreter. For in-kernel handlers, this all works transparently
7ae457c1
AS
599by using bpf_prog_create() for setting up the filter, resp.
600bpf_prog_destroy() for destroying it. The macro
601BPF_PROG_RUN(filter, ctx) transparently invokes eBPF interpreter or JITed
602code to run the filter. 'filter' is a pointer to struct bpf_prog that we
603got from bpf_prog_create(), and 'ctx' the given context (e.g.
4df95ff4 604skb pointer). All constraints and restrictions from bpf_check_classic() apply
e4ad4032
AS
605before a conversion to the new layout is being done behind the scenes!
606
e8cb0167
BT
607Currently, the classic BPF format is being used for JITing on most
60832-bit architectures, whereas x86-64, aarch64, s390x, powerpc64,
609sparc64, arm32, riscv (RV64G) perform JIT compilation from eBPF
610instruction set.
9a985cdc
AS
611
612Some core changes of the new internal format:
613
614- Number of registers increase from 2 to 10:
615
616 The old format had two registers A and X, and a hidden frame pointer. The
617 new layout extends this to be 10 internal registers and a read-only frame
618 pointer. Since 64-bit CPUs are passing arguments to functions via registers
e4ad4032 619 the number of args from eBPF program to in-kernel function is restricted
9a985cdc
AS
620 to 5 and one register is used to accept return value from an in-kernel
621 function. Natively, x86_64 passes first 6 arguments in registers, aarch64/
622 sparcv9/mips64 have 7 - 8 registers for arguments; x86_64 has 6 callee saved
623 registers, and aarch64/sparcv9/mips64 have 11 or more callee saved registers.
624
e4ad4032 625 Therefore, eBPF calling convention is defined as:
9a985cdc 626
e4ad4032
AS
627 * R0 - return value from in-kernel function, and exit value for eBPF program
628 * R1 - R5 - arguments from eBPF program to in-kernel function
9a985cdc
AS
629 * R6 - R9 - callee saved registers that in-kernel function will preserve
630 * R10 - read-only frame pointer to access stack
631
e4ad4032
AS
632 Thus, all eBPF registers map one to one to HW registers on x86_64, aarch64,
633 etc, and eBPF calling convention maps directly to ABIs used by the kernel on
9a985cdc
AS
634 64-bit architectures.
635
636 On 32-bit architectures JIT may map programs that use only 32-bit arithmetic
637 and may let more complex programs to be interpreted.
638
e4ad4032
AS
639 R0 - R5 are scratch registers and eBPF program needs spill/fill them if
640 necessary across calls. Note that there is only one eBPF program (== one
641 eBPF main routine) and it cannot call other eBPF functions, it can only
642 call predefined in-kernel functions, though.
9a985cdc
AS
643
644- Register width increases from 32-bit to 64-bit:
645
646 Still, the semantics of the original 32-bit ALU operations are preserved
e4ad4032 647 via 32-bit subregisters. All eBPF registers are 64-bit with 32-bit lower
9a985cdc
AS
648 subregisters that zero-extend into 64-bit if they are being written to.
649 That behavior maps directly to x86_64 and arm64 subregister definition, but
650 makes other JITs more difficult.
651
652 32-bit architectures run 64-bit internal BPF programs via interpreter.
653 Their JITs may convert BPF programs that only use 32-bit subregisters into
654 native instruction set and let the rest being interpreted.
655
656 Operation is 64-bit, because on 64-bit architectures, pointers are also
657 64-bit wide, and we want to pass 64-bit values in/out of kernel functions,
e4ad4032
AS
658 so 32-bit eBPF registers would otherwise require to define register-pair
659 ABI, thus, there won't be able to use a direct eBPF register to HW register
9a985cdc
AS
660 mapping and JIT would need to do combine/split/move operations for every
661 register in and out of the function, which is complex, bug prone and slow.
662 Another reason is the use of atomic 64-bit counters.
663
664- Conditional jt/jf targets replaced with jt/fall-through:
665
666 While the original design has constructs such as "if (cond) jump_true;
667 else jump_false;", they are being replaced into alternative constructs like
668 "if (cond) jump_true; /* else fall-through */".
669
670- Introduces bpf_call insn and register passing convention for zero overhead
671 calls from/to other kernel functions:
672
dfee07cc
AS
673 Before an in-kernel function call, the internal BPF program needs to
674 place function arguments into R1 to R5 registers to satisfy calling
675 convention, then the interpreter will take them from registers and pass
676 to in-kernel function. If R1 - R5 registers are mapped to CPU registers
677 that are used for argument passing on given architecture, the JIT compiler
678 doesn't need to emit extra moves. Function arguments will be in the correct
679 registers and BPF_CALL instruction will be JITed as single 'call' HW
680 instruction. This calling convention was picked to cover common call
681 situations without performance penalty.
682
683 After an in-kernel function call, R1 - R5 are reset to unreadable and R0 has
684 a return value of the function. Since R6 - R9 are callee saved, their state
685 is preserved across the call.
686
687 For example, consider three C functions:
688
689 u64 f1() { return (*_f2)(1); }
690 u64 f2(u64 a) { return f3(a + 1, a); }
691 u64 f3(u64 a, u64 b) { return a - b; }
692
693 GCC can compile f1, f3 into x86_64:
694
695 f1:
696 movl $1, %edi
697 movq _f2(%rip), %rax
698 jmp *%rax
699 f3:
700 movq %rdi, %rax
701 subq %rsi, %rax
702 ret
703
e4ad4032 704 Function f2 in eBPF may look like:
dfee07cc
AS
705
706 f2:
707 bpf_mov R2, R1
708 bpf_add R1, 1
709 bpf_call f3
710 bpf_exit
711
712 If f2 is JITed and the pointer stored to '_f2'. The calls f1 -> f2 -> f3 and
1a9525f6 713 returns will be seamless. Without JIT, __bpf_prog_run() interpreter needs to
dfee07cc
AS
714 be used to call into f2.
715
e4ad4032 716 For practical reasons all eBPF programs have only one argument 'ctx' which is
1a9525f6 717 already placed into R1 (e.g. on __bpf_prog_run() startup) and the programs
dfee07cc
AS
718 can call kernel functions with up to 5 arguments. Calls with 6 or more arguments
719 are currently not supported, but these restrictions can be lifted if necessary
720 in the future.
721
722 On 64-bit architectures all register map to HW registers one to one. For
723 example, x86_64 JIT compiler can map them as ...
724
725 R0 - rax
726 R1 - rdi
727 R2 - rsi
728 R3 - rdx
729 R4 - rcx
730 R5 - r8
731 R6 - rbx
732 R7 - r13
733 R8 - r14
734 R9 - r15
735 R10 - rbp
736
737 ... since x86_64 ABI mandates rdi, rsi, rdx, rcx, r8, r9 for argument passing
738 and rbx, r12 - r15 are callee saved.
739
740 Then the following internal BPF pseudo-program:
741
742 bpf_mov R6, R1 /* save ctx */
743 bpf_mov R2, 2
744 bpf_mov R3, 3
745 bpf_mov R4, 4
746 bpf_mov R5, 5
747 bpf_call foo
748 bpf_mov R7, R0 /* save foo() return value */
749 bpf_mov R1, R6 /* restore ctx for next call */
750 bpf_mov R2, 6
751 bpf_mov R3, 7
752 bpf_mov R4, 8
753 bpf_mov R5, 9
754 bpf_call bar
755 bpf_add R0, R7
756 bpf_exit
757
758 After JIT to x86_64 may look like:
759
760 push %rbp
761 mov %rsp,%rbp
762 sub $0x228,%rsp
763 mov %rbx,-0x228(%rbp)
764 mov %r13,-0x220(%rbp)
765 mov %rdi,%rbx
766 mov $0x2,%esi
767 mov $0x3,%edx
768 mov $0x4,%ecx
769 mov $0x5,%r8d
770 callq foo
771 mov %rax,%r13
772 mov %rbx,%rdi
808c9f7e
MW
773 mov $0x6,%esi
774 mov $0x7,%edx
775 mov $0x8,%ecx
776 mov $0x9,%r8d
dfee07cc
AS
777 callq bar
778 add %r13,%rax
779 mov -0x228(%rbp),%rbx
780 mov -0x220(%rbp),%r13
781 leaveq
782 retq
783
784 Which is in this example equivalent in C to:
785
786 u64 bpf_filter(u64 ctx)
787 {
788 return foo(ctx, 2, 3, 4, 5) + bar(ctx, 6, 7, 8, 9);
789 }
790
791 In-kernel functions foo() and bar() with prototype: u64 (*)(u64 arg1, u64
792 arg2, u64 arg3, u64 arg4, u64 arg5); will receive arguments in proper
e4ad4032 793 registers and place their return value into '%rax' which is R0 in eBPF.
dfee07cc 794 Prologue and epilogue are emitted by JIT and are implicit in the
e4ad4032 795 interpreter. R0-R5 are scratch registers, so eBPF program needs to preserve
dfee07cc
AS
796 them across the calls as defined by calling convention.
797
798 For example the following program is invalid:
799
800 bpf_mov R1, 1
801 bpf_call foo
802 bpf_mov R0, R1
803 bpf_exit
804
805 After the call the registers R1-R5 contain junk values and cannot be read.
0cbf4741 806 An in-kernel eBPF verifier is used to validate internal BPF programs.
9a985cdc 807
e4ad4032 808Also in the new design, eBPF is limited to 4096 insns, which means that any
9a985cdc
AS
809program will terminate quickly and will only call a fixed number of kernel
810functions. Original BPF and the new format are two operand instructions,
e4ad4032 811which helps to do one-to-one mapping between eBPF insn and x86 insn during JIT.
9a985cdc
AS
812
813The input context pointer for invoking the interpreter function is generic,
814its content is defined by a specific use case. For seccomp register R1 points
815to seccomp_data, for converted BPF filters R1 points to a skb.
816
817A program, that is translated internally consists of the following elements:
818
e430f34e 819 op:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32 ==> op:8, dst_reg:4, src_reg:4, off:16, imm:32
9a985cdc 820
dfee07cc
AS
821So far 87 internal BPF instructions were implemented. 8-bit 'op' opcode field
822has room for new instructions. Some of them may use 16/24/32 byte encoding. New
823instructions must be multiple of 8 bytes to preserve backward compatibility.
824
825Internal BPF is a general purpose RISC instruction set. Not every register and
826every instruction are used during translation from original BPF to new format.
827For example, socket filters are not using 'exclusive add' instruction, but
828tracing filters may do to maintain counters of events, for example. Register R9
829is not used by socket filters either, but more complex filters may be running
830out of registers and would have to resort to spill/fill to stack.
831
46604676 832Internal BPF can be used as a generic assembler for last step performance
dfee07cc
AS
833optimizations, socket filters and seccomp are using it as assembler. Tracing
834filters may use it as assembler to generate code from kernel. In kernel usage
835may not be bounded by security considerations, since generated internal BPF code
836may be optimizing internal code path and not being exposed to the user space.
837Safety of internal BPF can come from a verifier (TBD). In such use cases as
838described, it may be used as safe instruction set.
839
9a985cdc
AS
840Just like the original BPF, the new format runs within a controlled environment,
841is deterministic and the kernel can easily prove that. The safety of the program
842can be determined in two steps: first step does depth-first-search to disallow
843loops and other CFG validation; second step starts from the first insn and
844descends all possible paths. It simulates execution of every insn and observes
845the state change of registers and stack.
846
783e327b
AS
847eBPF opcode encoding
848--------------------
849
850eBPF is reusing most of the opcode encoding from classic to simplify conversion
851of classic BPF to eBPF. For arithmetic and jump instructions the 8-bit 'code'
852field is divided into three parts:
853
854 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
855 | 4 bits | 1 bit | 3 bits |
856 | operation code | source | instruction class |
857 +----------------+--------+--------------------+
858 (MSB) (LSB)
859
860Three LSB bits store instruction class which is one of:
861
862 Classic BPF classes: eBPF classes:
863
864 BPF_LD 0x00 BPF_LD 0x00
865 BPF_LDX 0x01 BPF_LDX 0x01
866 BPF_ST 0x02 BPF_ST 0x02
867 BPF_STX 0x03 BPF_STX 0x03
868 BPF_ALU 0x04 BPF_ALU 0x04
869 BPF_JMP 0x05 BPF_JMP 0x05
d405c740 870 BPF_RET 0x06 BPF_JMP32 0x06
783e327b
AS
871 BPF_MISC 0x07 BPF_ALU64 0x07
872
873When BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_JMP, 4th bit encodes source operand ...
874
875 BPF_K 0x00
876 BPF_X 0x08
877
878 * in classic BPF, this means:
879
880 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use register X as source operand
881 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
882
883 * in eBPF, this means:
884
885 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_X - use 'src_reg' register as source operand
886 BPF_SRC(code) == BPF_K - use 32-bit immediate as source operand
887
888... and four MSB bits store operation code.
889
890If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_ALU or BPF_ALU64 [ in eBPF ], BPF_OP(code) is one of:
891
892 BPF_ADD 0x00
893 BPF_SUB 0x10
894 BPF_MUL 0x20
895 BPF_DIV 0x30
896 BPF_OR 0x40
897 BPF_AND 0x50
898 BPF_LSH 0x60
899 BPF_RSH 0x70
900 BPF_NEG 0x80
901 BPF_MOD 0x90
902 BPF_XOR 0xa0
903 BPF_MOV 0xb0 /* eBPF only: mov reg to reg */
904 BPF_ARSH 0xc0 /* eBPF only: sign extending shift right */
905 BPF_END 0xd0 /* eBPF only: endianness conversion */
906
d405c740 907If BPF_CLASS(code) == BPF_JMP or BPF_JMP32 [ in eBPF ], BPF_OP(code) is one of:
783e327b 908
d405c740 909 BPF_JA 0x00 /* BPF_JMP only */
783e327b
AS
910 BPF_JEQ 0x10
911 BPF_JGT 0x20
912 BPF_JGE 0x30
913 BPF_JSET 0x40
914 BPF_JNE 0x50 /* eBPF only: jump != */
915 BPF_JSGT 0x60 /* eBPF only: signed '>' */
916 BPF_JSGE 0x70 /* eBPF only: signed '>=' */
d405c740
JW
917 BPF_CALL 0x80 /* eBPF BPF_JMP only: function call */
918 BPF_EXIT 0x90 /* eBPF BPF_JMP only: function return */
92b31a9a
DB
919 BPF_JLT 0xa0 /* eBPF only: unsigned '<' */
920 BPF_JLE 0xb0 /* eBPF only: unsigned '<=' */
921 BPF_JSLT 0xc0 /* eBPF only: signed '<' */
922 BPF_JSLE 0xd0 /* eBPF only: signed '<=' */
783e327b
AS
923
924So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU means 32-bit addition in both classic BPF
925and eBPF. There are only two registers in classic BPF, so it means A += X.
926In eBPF it means dst_reg = (u32) dst_reg + (u32) src_reg; similarly,
927BPF_XOR | BPF_K | BPF_ALU means A ^= imm32 in classic BPF and analogous
928src_reg = (u32) src_reg ^ (u32) imm32 in eBPF.
929
930Classic BPF is using BPF_MISC class to represent A = X and X = A moves.
931eBPF is using BPF_MOV | BPF_X | BPF_ALU code instead. Since there are no
932BPF_MISC operations in eBPF, the class 7 is used as BPF_ALU64 to mean
933exactly the same operations as BPF_ALU, but with 64-bit wide operands
934instead. So BPF_ADD | BPF_X | BPF_ALU64 means 64-bit addition, i.e.:
935dst_reg = dst_reg + src_reg
936
937Classic BPF wastes the whole BPF_RET class to represent a single 'ret'
938operation. Classic BPF_RET | BPF_K means copy imm32 into return register
939and perform function exit. eBPF is modeled to match CPU, so BPF_JMP | BPF_EXIT
940in eBPF means function exit only. The eBPF program needs to store return
d405c740
JW
941value into register R0 before doing a BPF_EXIT. Class 6 in eBPF is used as
942BPF_JMP32 to mean exactly the same operations as BPF_JMP, but with 32-bit wide
943operands for the comparisons instead.
783e327b
AS
944
945For load and store instructions the 8-bit 'code' field is divided as:
946
947 +--------+--------+-------------------+
948 | 3 bits | 2 bits | 3 bits |
949 | mode | size | instruction class |
950 +--------+--------+-------------------+
951 (MSB) (LSB)
952
953Size modifier is one of ...
954
955 BPF_W 0x00 /* word */
956 BPF_H 0x08 /* half word */
957 BPF_B 0x10 /* byte */
958 BPF_DW 0x18 /* eBPF only, double word */
959
960... which encodes size of load/store operation:
961
962 B - 1 byte
963 H - 2 byte
964 W - 4 byte
965 DW - 8 byte (eBPF only)
966
967Mode modifier is one of:
968
02ab695b 969 BPF_IMM 0x00 /* used for 32-bit mov in classic BPF and 64-bit in eBPF */
783e327b
AS
970 BPF_ABS 0x20
971 BPF_IND 0x40
972 BPF_MEM 0x60
973 BPF_LEN 0x80 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
974 BPF_MSH 0xa0 /* classic BPF only, reserved in eBPF */
975 BPF_XADD 0xc0 /* eBPF only, exclusive add */
976
977eBPF has two non-generic instructions: (BPF_ABS | <size> | BPF_LD) and
978(BPF_IND | <size> | BPF_LD) which are used to access packet data.
979
980They had to be carried over from classic to have strong performance of
981socket filters running in eBPF interpreter. These instructions can only
982be used when interpreter context is a pointer to 'struct sk_buff' and
983have seven implicit operands. Register R6 is an implicit input that must
984contain pointer to sk_buff. Register R0 is an implicit output which contains
985the data fetched from the packet. Registers R1-R5 are scratch registers
986and must not be used to store the data across BPF_ABS | BPF_LD or
987BPF_IND | BPF_LD instructions.
988
989These instructions have implicit program exit condition as well. When
990eBPF program is trying to access the data beyond the packet boundary,
991the interpreter will abort the execution of the program. JIT compilers
992therefore must preserve this property. src_reg and imm32 fields are
993explicit inputs to these instructions.
994
995For example:
996
997 BPF_IND | BPF_W | BPF_LD means:
998
999 R0 = ntohl(*(u32 *) (((struct sk_buff *) R6)->data + src_reg + imm32))
1000 and R1 - R5 were scratched.
1001
1002Unlike classic BPF instruction set, eBPF has generic load/store operations:
1003
1004BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_STX: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = src_reg
1005BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_ST: *(size *) (dst_reg + off) = imm32
1006BPF_MEM | <size> | BPF_LDX: dst_reg = *(size *) (src_reg + off)
1007BPF_XADD | BPF_W | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u32 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
1008BPF_XADD | BPF_DW | BPF_STX: lock xadd *(u64 *)(dst_reg + off16) += src_reg
1009
1010Where size is one of: BPF_B or BPF_H or BPF_W or BPF_DW. Note that 1 and
10112 byte atomic increments are not supported.
1012
02ab695b
AS
1013eBPF has one 16-byte instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_DW | BPF_IMM which consists
1014of two consecutive 'struct bpf_insn' 8-byte blocks and interpreted as single
1015instruction that loads 64-bit immediate value into a dst_reg.
1016Classic BPF has similar instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_W | BPF_IMM which loads
101732-bit immediate value into a register.
1018
51580e79
AS
1019eBPF verifier
1020-------------
1021The safety of the eBPF program is determined in two steps.
1022
1023First step does DAG check to disallow loops and other CFG validation.
1024In particular it will detect programs that have unreachable instructions.
1025(though classic BPF checker allows them)
1026
1027Second step starts from the first insn and descends all possible paths.
1028It simulates execution of every insn and observes the state change of
1029registers and stack.
1030
1031At the start of the program the register R1 contains a pointer to context
1032and has type PTR_TO_CTX.
1033If verifier sees an insn that does R2=R1, then R2 has now type
1034PTR_TO_CTX as well and can be used on the right hand side of expression.
0cbf4741 1035If R1=PTR_TO_CTX and insn is R2=R1+R1, then R2=SCALAR_VALUE,
51580e79
AS
1036since addition of two valid pointers makes invalid pointer.
1037(In 'secure' mode verifier will reject any type of pointer arithmetic to make
1038sure that kernel addresses don't leak to unprivileged users)
1039
1040If register was never written to, it's not readable:
1041 bpf_mov R0 = R2
1042 bpf_exit
1043will be rejected, since R2 is unreadable at the start of the program.
1044
1045After kernel function call, R1-R5 are reset to unreadable and
1046R0 has a return type of the function.
1047
1048Since R6-R9 are callee saved, their state is preserved across the call.
1049 bpf_mov R6 = 1
1050 bpf_call foo
1051 bpf_mov R0 = R6
1052 bpf_exit
1053is a correct program. If there was R1 instead of R6, it would have
1054been rejected.
1055
1056load/store instructions are allowed only with registers of valid types, which
0cbf4741 1057are PTR_TO_CTX, PTR_TO_MAP, PTR_TO_STACK. They are bounds and alignment checked.
51580e79
AS
1058For example:
1059 bpf_mov R1 = 1
1060 bpf_mov R2 = 2
1061 bpf_xadd *(u32 *)(R1 + 3) += R2
1062 bpf_exit
1063will be rejected, since R1 doesn't have a valid pointer type at the time of
1064execution of instruction bpf_xadd.
1065
1066At the start R1 type is PTR_TO_CTX (a pointer to generic 'struct bpf_context')
1067A callback is used to customize verifier to restrict eBPF program access to only
1068certain fields within ctx structure with specified size and alignment.
1069
1070For example, the following insn:
1071 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R6 + 8)
1072intends to load a word from address R6 + 8 and store it into R0
1073If R6=PTR_TO_CTX, via is_valid_access() callback the verifier will know
1074that offset 8 of size 4 bytes can be accessed for reading, otherwise
1075the verifier will reject the program.
0cbf4741 1076If R6=PTR_TO_STACK, then access should be aligned and be within
51580e79
AS
1077stack bounds, which are [-MAX_BPF_STACK, 0). In this example offset is 8,
1078so it will fail verification, since it's out of bounds.
1079
1080The verifier will allow eBPF program to read data from stack only after
1081it wrote into it.
1082Classic BPF verifier does similar check with M[0-15] memory slots.
1083For example:
1084 bpf_ld R0 = *(u32 *)(R10 - 4)
1085 bpf_exit
1086is invalid program.
0cbf4741 1087Though R10 is correct read-only register and has type PTR_TO_STACK
51580e79
AS
1088and R10 - 4 is within stack bounds, there were no stores into that location.
1089
1090Pointer register spill/fill is tracked as well, since four (R6-R9)
1091callee saved registers may not be enough for some programs.
1092
1093Allowed function calls are customized with bpf_verifier_ops->get_func_proto()
1094The eBPF verifier will check that registers match argument constraints.
1095After the call register R0 will be set to return type of the function.
1096
1097Function calls is a main mechanism to extend functionality of eBPF programs.
1098Socket filters may let programs to call one set of functions, whereas tracing
1099filters may allow completely different set.
1100
1101If a function made accessible to eBPF program, it needs to be thought through
1102from safety point of view. The verifier will guarantee that the function is
1103called with valid arguments.
1104
1105seccomp vs socket filters have different security restrictions for classic BPF.
1106Seccomp solves this by two stage verifier: classic BPF verifier is followed
1107by seccomp verifier. In case of eBPF one configurable verifier is shared for
1108all use cases.
1109
1110See details of eBPF verifier in kernel/bpf/verifier.c
1111
0cbf4741
EC
1112Register value tracking
1113-----------------------
1114In order to determine the safety of an eBPF program, the verifier must track
1115the range of possible values in each register and also in each stack slot.
1116This is done with 'struct bpf_reg_state', defined in include/linux/
1117bpf_verifier.h, which unifies tracking of scalar and pointer values. Each
1118register state has a type, which is either NOT_INIT (the register has not been
1119written to), SCALAR_VALUE (some value which is not usable as a pointer), or a
1120pointer type. The types of pointers describe their base, as follows:
1121 PTR_TO_CTX Pointer to bpf_context.
1122 CONST_PTR_TO_MAP Pointer to struct bpf_map. "Const" because arithmetic
1123 on these pointers is forbidden.
1124 PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE Pointer to the value stored in a map element.
1125 PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL
1126 Either a pointer to a map value, or NULL; map accesses
1127 (see section 'eBPF maps', below) return this type,
1128 which becomes a PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE when checked != NULL.
1129 Arithmetic on these pointers is forbidden.
1130 PTR_TO_STACK Frame pointer.
1131 PTR_TO_PACKET skb->data.
1132 PTR_TO_PACKET_END skb->data + headlen; arithmetic forbidden.
a610b665
JS
1133 PTR_TO_SOCKET Pointer to struct bpf_sock_ops, implicitly refcounted.
1134 PTR_TO_SOCKET_OR_NULL
1135 Either a pointer to a socket, or NULL; socket lookup
1136 returns this type, which becomes a PTR_TO_SOCKET when
1137 checked != NULL. PTR_TO_SOCKET is reference-counted,
1138 so programs must release the reference through the
1139 socket release function before the end of the program.
1140 Arithmetic on these pointers is forbidden.
0cbf4741
EC
1141However, a pointer may be offset from this base (as a result of pointer
1142arithmetic), and this is tracked in two parts: the 'fixed offset' and 'variable
1143offset'. The former is used when an exactly-known value (e.g. an immediate
1144operand) is added to a pointer, while the latter is used for values which are
1145not exactly known. The variable offset is also used in SCALAR_VALUEs, to track
1146the range of possible values in the register.
1147The verifier's knowledge about the variable offset consists of:
1148* minimum and maximum values as unsigned
1149* minimum and maximum values as signed
1150* knowledge of the values of individual bits, in the form of a 'tnum': a u64
1151'mask' and a u64 'value'. 1s in the mask represent bits whose value is unknown;
11521s in the value represent bits known to be 1. Bits known to be 0 have 0 in both
1153mask and value; no bit should ever be 1 in both. For example, if a byte is read
1154into a register from memory, the register's top 56 bits are known zero, while
1155the low 8 are unknown - which is represented as the tnum (0x0; 0xff). If we
e9dcd80b 1156then OR this with 0x40, we get (0x40; 0xbf), then if we add 1 we get (0x0;
0cbf4741 11570x1ff), because of potential carries.
68625b76 1158
0cbf4741
EC
1159Besides arithmetic, the register state can also be updated by conditional
1160branches. For instance, if a SCALAR_VALUE is compared > 8, in the 'true' branch
1161it will have a umin_value (unsigned minimum value) of 9, whereas in the 'false'
1162branch it will have a umax_value of 8. A signed compare (with BPF_JSGT or
1163BPF_JSGE) would instead update the signed minimum/maximum values. Information
1164from the signed and unsigned bounds can be combined; for instance if a value is
1165first tested < 8 and then tested s> 4, the verifier will conclude that the value
1166is also > 4 and s< 8, since the bounds prevent crossing the sign boundary.
68625b76 1167
0cbf4741
EC
1168PTR_TO_PACKETs with a variable offset part have an 'id', which is common to all
1169pointers sharing that same variable offset. This is important for packet range
68625b76
WY
1170checks: after adding a variable to a packet pointer register A, if you then copy
1171it to another register B and then add a constant 4 to A, both registers will
1172share the same 'id' but the A will have a fixed offset of +4. Then if A is
1173bounds-checked and found to be less than a PTR_TO_PACKET_END, the register B is
1174now known to have a safe range of at least 4 bytes. See 'Direct packet access',
1175below, for more on PTR_TO_PACKET ranges.
1176
0cbf4741
EC
1177The 'id' field is also used on PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL, common to all copies of
1178the pointer returned from a map lookup. This means that when one copy is
1179checked and found to be non-NULL, all copies can become PTR_TO_MAP_VALUEs.
1180As well as range-checking, the tracked information is also used for enforcing
1181alignment of pointer accesses. For instance, on most systems the packet pointer
1182is 2 bytes after a 4-byte alignment. If a program adds 14 bytes to that to jump
1183over the Ethernet header, then reads IHL and addes (IHL * 4), the resulting
1184pointer will have a variable offset known to be 4n+2 for some n, so adding the 2
1185bytes (NET_IP_ALIGN) gives a 4-byte alignment and so word-sized accesses through
1186that pointer are safe.
a610b665
JS
1187The 'id' field is also used on PTR_TO_SOCKET and PTR_TO_SOCKET_OR_NULL, common
1188to all copies of the pointer returned from a socket lookup. This has similar
1189behaviour to the handling for PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE_OR_NULL->PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE, but
1190it also handles reference tracking for the pointer. PTR_TO_SOCKET implicitly
1191represents a reference to the corresponding 'struct sock'. To ensure that the
1192reference is not leaked, it is imperative to NULL-check the reference and in
1193the non-NULL case, and pass the valid reference to the socket release function.
0cbf4741 1194
f9c8d19d
AS
1195Direct packet access
1196--------------------
1197In cls_bpf and act_bpf programs the verifier allows direct access to the packet
1198data via skb->data and skb->data_end pointers.
1199Ex:
12001: r4 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */
12012: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */
12023: r5 = r3
12034: r5 += 14
12045: if r5 > r4 goto pc+16
1205R1=ctx R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14) R4=pkt_end R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14) R10=fp
12066: r0 = *(u16 *)(r3 +12) /* access 12 and 13 bytes of the packet */
1207
1208this 2byte load from the packet is safe to do, since the program author
1209did check 'if (skb->data + 14 > skb->data_end) goto err' at insn #5 which
1210means that in the fall-through case the register R3 (which points to skb->data)
1211has at least 14 directly accessible bytes. The verifier marks it
1212as R3=pkt(id=0,off=0,r=14).
1213id=0 means that no additional variables were added to the register.
1214off=0 means that no additional constants were added.
1215r=14 is the range of safe access which means that bytes [R3, R3 + 14) are ok.
1216Note that R5 is marked as R5=pkt(id=0,off=14,r=14). It also points
1217to the packet data, but constant 14 was added to the register, so
1218it now points to 'skb->data + 14' and accessible range is [R5, R5 + 14 - 14)
1219which is zero bytes.
1220
1221More complex packet access may look like:
0cbf4741 1222 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
f9c8d19d
AS
1223 6: r0 = *(u8 *)(r3 +7) /* load 7th byte from the packet */
1224 7: r4 = *(u8 *)(r3 +12)
1225 8: r4 *= 14
1226 9: r3 = *(u32 *)(r1 +76) /* load skb->data */
122710: r3 += r4
122811: r2 = r1
122912: r2 <<= 48
123013: r2 >>= 48
123114: r3 += r2
123215: r2 = r3
123316: r2 += 8
123417: r1 = *(u32 *)(r1 +80) /* load skb->data_end */
123518: if r2 > r1 goto pc+2
0cbf4741 1236 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
f9c8d19d
AS
123719: r1 = *(u8 *)(r3 +4)
1238The state of the register R3 is R3=pkt(id=2,off=0,r=8)
1239id=2 means that two 'r3 += rX' instructions were seen, so r3 points to some
1240offset within a packet and since the program author did
1241'if (r3 + 8 > r1) goto err' at insn #18, the safe range is [R3, R3 + 8).
0cbf4741
EC
1242The verifier only allows 'add'/'sub' operations on packet registers. Any other
1243operation will set the register state to 'SCALAR_VALUE' and it won't be
f9c8d19d
AS
1244available for direct packet access.
1245Operation 'r3 += rX' may overflow and become less than original skb->data,
0cbf4741
EC
1246therefore the verifier has to prevent that. So when it sees 'r3 += rX'
1247instruction and rX is more than 16-bit value, any subsequent bounds-check of r3
1248against skb->data_end will not give us 'range' information, so attempts to read
1249through the pointer will give "invalid access to packet" error.
f9c8d19d 1250Ex. after insn 'r4 = *(u8 *)(r3 +12)' (insn #7 above) the state of r4 is
0cbf4741
EC
1251R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=255,var_off=(0x0; 0xff)) which means that upper 56 bits
1252of the register are guaranteed to be zero, and nothing is known about the lower
12538 bits. After insn 'r4 *= 14' the state becomes
1254R4=inv(id=0,umax_value=3570,var_off=(0x0; 0xfffe)), since multiplying an 8-bit
1255value by constant 14 will keep upper 52 bits as zero, also the least significant
1256bit will be zero as 14 is even. Similarly 'r2 >>= 48' will make
1257R2=inv(id=0,umax_value=65535,var_off=(0x0; 0xffff)), since the shift is not sign
1258extending. This logic is implemented in adjust_reg_min_max_vals() function,
1259which calls adjust_ptr_min_max_vals() for adding pointer to scalar (or vice
1260versa) and adjust_scalar_min_max_vals() for operations on two scalars.
f9c8d19d
AS
1261
1262The end result is that bpf program author can access packet directly
1263using normal C code as:
1264 void *data = (void *)(long)skb->data;
1265 void *data_end = (void *)(long)skb->data_end;
1266 struct eth_hdr *eth = data;
1267 struct iphdr *iph = data + sizeof(*eth);
1268 struct udphdr *udp = data + sizeof(*eth) + sizeof(*iph);
1269
1270 if (data + sizeof(*eth) + sizeof(*iph) + sizeof(*udp) > data_end)
1271 return 0;
1272 if (eth->h_proto != htons(ETH_P_IP))
1273 return 0;
1274 if (iph->protocol != IPPROTO_UDP || iph->ihl != 5)
1275 return 0;
1276 if (udp->dest == 53 || udp->source == 9)
1277 ...;
1278which makes such programs easier to write comparing to LD_ABS insn
1279and significantly faster.
1280
99c55f7d
AS
1281eBPF maps
1282---------
1283'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel
1284and userspace.
1285
1286The maps are accessed from user space via BPF syscall, which has commands:
1287- create a map with given type and attributes
1288 map_fd = bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1289 using attr->map_type, attr->key_size, attr->value_size, attr->max_entries
1290 returns process-local file descriptor or negative error
1291
1292- lookup key in a given map
1293 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1294 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1295 returns zero and stores found elem into value or negative error
1296
1297- create or update key/value pair in a given map
1298 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1299 using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
1300 returns zero or negative error
1301
1302- find and delete element by key in a given map
1303 err = bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
1304 using attr->map_fd, attr->key
1305
1306- to delete map: close(fd)
1307 Exiting process will delete maps automatically
1308
1309userspace programs use this syscall to create/access maps that eBPF programs
1310are concurrently updating.
1311
1312maps can have different types: hash, array, bloom filter, radix-tree, etc.
1313
1314The map is defined by:
1315 . type
1316 . max number of elements
1317 . key size in bytes
1318 . value size in bytes
1319
0cbf4741
EC
1320Pruning
1321-------
1322The verifier does not actually walk all possible paths through the program. For
1323each new branch to analyse, the verifier looks at all the states it's previously
1324been in when at this instruction. If any of them contain the current state as a
1325subset, the branch is 'pruned' - that is, the fact that the previous state was
1326accepted implies the current state would be as well. For instance, if in the
1327previous state, r1 held a packet-pointer, and in the current state, r1 holds a
1328packet-pointer with a range as long or longer and at least as strict an
1329alignment, then r1 is safe. Similarly, if r2 was NOT_INIT before then it can't
1330have been used by any path from that point, so any value in r2 (including
1331another NOT_INIT) is safe. The implementation is in the function regsafe().
1332Pruning considers not only the registers but also the stack (and any spilled
1333registers it may hold). They must all be safe for the branch to be pruned.
1334This is implemented in states_equal().
1335
51580e79
AS
1336Understanding eBPF verifier messages
1337------------------------------------
1338
1339The following are few examples of invalid eBPF programs and verifier error
1340messages as seen in the log:
1341
1342Program with unreachable instructions:
1343static struct bpf_insn prog[] = {
1344 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1345 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1346};
1347Error:
1348 unreachable insn 1
1349
1350Program that reads uninitialized register:
1351 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_0, BPF_REG_2),
1352 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1353Error:
1354 0: (bf) r0 = r2
1355 R2 !read_ok
1356
1357Program that doesn't initialize R0 before exiting:
1358 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_1),
1359 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1360Error:
1361 0: (bf) r2 = r1
1362 1: (95) exit
1363 R0 !read_ok
1364
1365Program that accesses stack out of bounds:
1366 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, 8, 0),
1367 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1368Error:
1369 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 +8) = 0
1370 invalid stack off=8 size=8
1371
1372Program that doesn't initialize stack before passing its address into function:
1373 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1374 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1375 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1376 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1377 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1378Error:
1379 0: (bf) r2 = r10
1380 1: (07) r2 += -8
1381 2: (b7) r1 = 0x0
1382 3: (85) call 1
1383 invalid indirect read from stack off -8+0 size 8
1384
1385Program that uses invalid map_fd=0 while calling to map_lookup_elem() function:
1386 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1387 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1388 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1389 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1390 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1391 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1392Error:
1393 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1394 1: (bf) r2 = r10
1395 2: (07) r2 += -8
1396 3: (b7) r1 = 0x0
1397 4: (85) call 1
1398 fd 0 is not pointing to valid bpf_map
1399
1400Program that doesn't check return value of map_lookup_elem() before accessing
1401map element:
1402 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1403 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1404 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1405 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1406 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1407 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1408 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1409Error:
1410 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1411 1: (bf) r2 = r10
1412 2: (07) r2 += -8
1413 3: (b7) r1 = 0x0
1414 4: (85) call 1
1415 5: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1416 R0 invalid mem access 'map_value_or_null'
1417
1418Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL, but
1419accesses the memory with incorrect alignment:
1420 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1421 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1422 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1423 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1424 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1425 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1426 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 4, 0),
1427 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1428Error:
1429 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1430 1: (bf) r2 = r10
1431 2: (07) r2 += -8
1432 3: (b7) r1 = 1
1433 4: (85) call 1
1434 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+1
1435 R0=map_ptr R10=fp
1436 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +4) = 0
1437 misaligned access off 4 size 8
1438
1439Program that correctly checks map_lookup_elem() returned value for NULL and
1440accesses memory with correct alignment in one side of 'if' branch, but fails
1441to do so in the other side of 'if' branch:
1442 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
1443 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1444 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1445 BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
1446 BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
1447 BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 2),
1448 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 0),
1449 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1450 BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
1451 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1452Error:
1453 0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
1454 1: (bf) r2 = r10
1455 2: (07) r2 += -8
1456 3: (b7) r1 = 1
1457 4: (85) call 1
1458 5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+2
1459 R0=map_ptr R10=fp
1460 6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 0
1461 7: (95) exit
1462
1463 from 5 to 8: R0=imm0 R10=fp
1464 8: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +0) = 1
1465 R0 invalid mem access 'imm'
1466
a610b665
JS
1467Program that performs a socket lookup then sets the pointer to NULL without
1468checking it:
1469value:
1470 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_2, 0),
1471 BPF_STX_MEM(BPF_W, BPF_REG_10, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1472 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1473 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1474 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_3, 4),
1475 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_4, 0),
1476 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_5, 0),
1477 BPF_EMIT_CALL(BPF_FUNC_sk_lookup_tcp),
1478 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_0, 0),
1479 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1480Error:
1481 0: (b7) r2 = 0
1482 1: (63) *(u32 *)(r10 -8) = r2
1483 2: (bf) r2 = r10
1484 3: (07) r2 += -8
1485 4: (b7) r3 = 4
1486 5: (b7) r4 = 0
1487 6: (b7) r5 = 0
1488 7: (85) call bpf_sk_lookup_tcp#65
1489 8: (b7) r0 = 0
1490 9: (95) exit
1491 Unreleased reference id=1, alloc_insn=7
1492
1493Program that performs a socket lookup but does not NULL-check the returned
1494value:
1495 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_2, 0),
1496 BPF_STX_MEM(BPF_W, BPF_REG_10, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1497 BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
1498 BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
1499 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_3, 4),
1500 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_4, 0),
1501 BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_5, 0),
1502 BPF_EMIT_CALL(BPF_FUNC_sk_lookup_tcp),
1503 BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
1504Error:
1505 0: (b7) r2 = 0
1506 1: (63) *(u32 *)(r10 -8) = r2
1507 2: (bf) r2 = r10
1508 3: (07) r2 += -8
1509 4: (b7) r3 = 4
1510 5: (b7) r4 = 0
1511 6: (b7) r5 = 0
1512 7: (85) call bpf_sk_lookup_tcp#65
1513 8: (95) exit
1514 Unreleased reference id=1, alloc_insn=7
1515
04caa489
DB
1516Testing
1517-------
1518
1519Next to the BPF toolchain, the kernel also ships a test module that contains
1520various test cases for classic and internal BPF that can be executed against
1521the BPF interpreter and JIT compiler. It can be found in lib/test_bpf.c and
1522enabled via Kconfig:
1523
1524 CONFIG_TEST_BPF=m
1525
1526After the module has been built and installed, the test suite can be executed
1527via insmod or modprobe against 'test_bpf' module. Results of the test cases
1528including timings in nsec can be found in the kernel log (dmesg).
1529
7924cd5e
DB
1530Misc
1531----
1532
1533Also trinity, the Linux syscall fuzzer, has built-in support for BPF and
1534SECCOMP-BPF kernel fuzzing.
1535
1536Written by
1537----------
1538
1539The document was written in the hope that it is found useful and in order
1540to give potential BPF hackers or security auditors a better overview of
1541the underlying architecture.
1542
1543Jay Schulist <jschlst@samba.org>
f9c8d19d
AS
1544Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
1545Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>