bpfc(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SYNTAX | SOURCE EXAMPLES | USAGE EXAMPLE | LEGAL | HISTORY | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON | COLOPHON

BPFC(8)                    netsniff-ng toolkit                   BPFC(8)

NAME         top

       bpfc - a Berkeley Packet Filter assembler and compiler

SYNOPSIS         top

       bpfc { [options] | [source-file] }

DESCRIPTION         top

       bpfc is a small Berkeley Packet Filter assembler and compiler
       which is able to translate BPF assembler-like mnemonics into a
       numerical or C-like format, that can be read by tools such as
       netsniff-ng, iptables (xt_bpf) and many others. BPF is the one
       and only upstream filtering construct that is used in combination
       with packet(7) sockets, but also seccomp-BPF for system call
       sandboxing.

       The Linux kernel and also BSD kernels implement "virtual machine"
       like constructs and JIT compilers that mimic a small register-
       based machine in BPF architecture and execute filter code that
       is, for example, composed by bpfc on a data buffer that is given
       by network packets. The purpose of this is to shift computation
       in time, so that the kernel can drop or truncate incoming packets
       as early as possible without having to push them to user space
       for further analysis first. Meanwhile, BPF constructs also find
       application in other areas such as in the communication between
       user and kernel space like system call sand-boxing.

       At the time of writing this man page, the only other available
       BPF compiler is part of the pcap(3) library and accessible
       through a high-level filter language that might be familiar to
       many people as tcpdump-like filters.

       However, it is quite often useful to bypass that compiler and
       write optimized code that cannot be produced by the pcap(3)
       compiler, or is wrongly optimized, or is defective on purpose in
       order to debug test kernel code. Also, a reason to use bpfc could
       be to try out some new BPF extensions that are not supported by
       other compilers. Furthermore, bpfc can be useful to verify JIT
       compiler behavior or to find possible bugs that need to be fixed.

       bpfc is implemented with the help of flex(1) and bison(1),
       tokenizes the source file in the first stage and parses its
       content into an AST.  In two code generation stages it emits
       target opcodes. bpfc furthermore supports Linux kernel BPF
       extensions. More about that can be found in the syntax section.

       The Linux kernel BPF JIT compiler is automatically turned on if
       detected by netsniff-ng. However, it can also be manually turned
       on through the command ''echo "1" >
       /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable'' (normal working mode) or
       ''echo "2" > /proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable'' (debug mode
       where emitted opcodes of the image are printed to the kernel
       log). An architecture agnostic BPF JIT image disassembler can be
       found in the kernel source tree under
       ''tools/net/bpf_jit_disasm.c'' or within the netsniff-ng Git
       repository.

OPTIONS         top

       -i <source-file/->, --input <source-file/->
              Read BPF assembly instruction from an input file or from
              stdin.

       -p, --cpp
              Pass the bpf program through the C preprocessor before
              reading it in bpfc. This allows #define and #include
              directives (e.g. to include definitions from system
              headers) to be used in the bpf program.

       -D <name>=<definition>, --define <name>=<definition>
              Add macro definition for the C preprocessor to use it
              within bpf file. This option is used in combination with
              the -p/--cpp option.

       -f <format>, --format <format>
              Specify a different output format than the default that is
              netsniff-ng compatible. The <format> specifier can be: C,
              netsniff-ng, xt_bpf, tcpdump.

       -b, --bypass
              Bypass basic filter validation when emitting opcodes. This
              can be useful for explicitly creating malformed BPF
              expressions for injecting into the kernel, for example,
              for bug testing.

       -V, --verbose
              Be more verbose and display some bpfc debugging
              information.

       -d, --dump
              Dump all supported instructions to stdout.

       -v, --version
              Show version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Show user help and exit.

SYNTAX         top

       The BPF architecture resp. register machine consists of the
       following elements:

           Element          Description

           A                32 bit wide accumulator
           X                32 bit wide X register
           M[]              16 x 32 bit wide misc registers aka “scratch
       memory store”, addressable from 0 to 15

       A program, that is translated by bpfc into ''opcodes'' is an
       array that consists of the following elements:

           o:16, jt:8, jf:8, k:32

       The element o is a 16 bit wide opcode that has a particular
       instruction encoded, jt and jf are two 8 bit wide jump targets,
       one for condition
        ''true'', one for condition ''false''. Last but not least the 32
       bit wide element k contains a miscellaneous argument that can be
       interpreted in different ways depending on the given instruction
       resp. opcode.

       The instruction set consists of load, store, branch, alu,
       miscellaneous and return instructions that are also represented
       in bpfc syntax. This table also includes bpfc's own extensions.
       All operations are based on unsigned data structures:

          Instruction      Addressing mode      Description

          ld               1, 2, 3, 4, 10       Load word into A
          ldi              4                    Load word into A
          ldh              1, 2                 Load half-word into A
          ldb              1, 2                 Load byte into A
          ldx              3, 4, 5, 10          Load word into X
          ldxi             4                    Load word into X
          ldxb             5                    Load byte into X

          st               3                    Copy A into M[]
          stx              3                    Copy X into M[]

          jmp              6                    Jump to label
          ja               6                    Jump to label
          jeq              7, 8                 Jump on k == A
          jneq             8                    Jump on k != A
          jne              8                    Jump on k != A
          jlt              8                    Jump on k < A
          jle              8                    Jump on k <= A
          jgt              7, 8                 Jump on k > A
          jge              7, 8                 Jump on k >= A
          jset             7, 8                 Jump on k & A

          add              0, 4                 A + <x>
          sub              0, 4                 A - <x>
          mul              0, 4                 A * <x>
          div              0, 4                 A / <x>
          mod              0, 4                 A % <x>
          neg              0, 4                 !A
          and              0, 4                 A & <x>
          or               0, 4                 A | <x>
          xor              0, 4                 A ^ <x>
          lsh              0, 4                 A << <x>
          rsh              0, 4                 A >> <x>

          tax                                   Copy A into X
          txa                                   Copy X into A

          ret              4, 9                 Return

          Addressing mode  Syntax               Description

           0               x/%x                 Register X
           1               [k]                  BHW at byte offset k in
       the packet
           2               [x + k]              BHW at the offset X + k
       in the packet
           3               M[k]                 Word at offset k in M[]
           4               #k                   Literal value stored in
       k
           5               4*([k]&0xf)          Lower nibble * 4 at byte
       offset k in the packet
           6               L                    Jump label L
           7               #k,Lt,Lf             Jump to Lt if true,
       otherwise jump to Lf
           8               #k,Lt                Jump to Lt if predicate
       is true
           9               a/%a                 Accumulator A
          10               extension            BPF extension (see next
       table)

          Extension (and alias)                 Description

          #len, len, #pktlen, pktlen            Length of packet
       (skb->len)
          #pto, pto, #proto, proto              Ethernet type field
       (skb->protocol)
          #type, type                           Packet type (**)
       (skb->pkt_type)
          #poff, poff                           Detected payload start
       offset
          #ifx, ifx, #ifidx, ifidx              Interface index
       (skb->dev->ifindex)
          #nla, nla                             Netlink attribute of
       type X with offset A
          #nlan, nlan                           Nested Netlink attribute
       of type X with offset A
          #mark, mark                           Packet mark (skb->mark)
          #que, que, #queue, queue, #Q, Q       NIC queue index
       (skb->queue_mapping)
          #hat, hat, #hatype, hatype            NIC hardware type (**)
       (skb->dev->type)
          #rxh, rxh, #rxhash, rxhash            Receive hash
       (skb->rxhash)
          #cpu, cpu                             Current CPU
       (raw_smp_processor_id())
          #vlant, vlant, #vlan_tci, vlan_tci    VLAN TCI value
       (vlan_tx_tag_get(skb))
          #vlanp, vlanp                         VLAN present
       (vlan_tx_tag_present(skb))

          Further extension details (**)        Value

          #type, type                           0 - to us / host
                                                1 - to all / broadcast
                                                2 - to group / multicast
                                                3 - to others
       (promiscuous mode)
                                                4 - outgoing of any type

          #hat, hat, #hatype, hatype            1 - Ethernet 10Mbps
                                                8 - APPLEtalk
                                               19 - ATM
                                               24 - IEEE 1394 IPv4 - RFC
       2734
                                               32 - InfiniBand
                                              768 - IPIP tunnel
                                              769 - IP6IP6 tunnel
                                              772 - Loopback device
                                              778 - GRE over IP
                                              783 - Linux-IrDA
                                              801 - IEEE 802.11
                                              802 - IEEE 802.11 + Prism2
       header
                                              803 - IEEE 802.11 +
       radiotap header
                                              823 - GRE over IP6
                                              824 - Netlink
                                              [...] See
       include/uapi/linux/if_arp.h

       Note that the majority of BPF extensions are available on Linux
       only.

       There are two types of comments in bpfc source-files:

         1. Multi-line C-style comments:        /* put comment here */
         2. Single-line ASM-style comments:     ;  put comment here

       Used Abbreviations:

         BHW: byte, half-word, or word

SOURCE EXAMPLES         top

       In this section, we give a couple of examples of bpfc source
       files, in other words, some small example filter programs:

       Only return packet headers (truncate packets):

         ld poff
         ret a

       Only allow ARP packets:

         ldh [12]
         jne #0x806, drop
         ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       Only allow IPv4 TCP packets:

         ldh [12]
         jne #0x800, drop
         ldb [23]
         jneq #6, drop
         ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       Only allow IPv4 TCP SSH traffic:

         ldh [12]
         jne #0x800, drop
         ldb [23]
         jneq #6, drop
         ldh [20]
         jset #0x1fff, drop
         ldxb 4 * ([14] & 0xf)
         ldh [x + 14]
         jeq #0x16, pass
         ldh [x + 16]
         jne #0x16, drop
         pass: ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       A loadable x86_64 seccomp-BPF filter to allow a given set of
       syscalls:

         ld [4]                  /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, arch)
       */
         jne #0xc000003e, bad    /* AUDIT_ARCH_X86_64 */
         ld [0]                  /* offsetof(struct seccomp_data, nr) */
         jeq #15, good           /* __NR_rt_sigreturn */
         jeq #231, good          /* __NR_exit_group */
         jeq #60, good           /* __NR_exit */
         jeq #0, good            /* __NR_read */
         jeq #1, good            /* __NR_write */
         jeq #5, good            /* __NR_fstat */
         jeq #9, good            /* __NR_mmap */
         jeq #14, good           /* __NR_rt_sigprocmask */
         jeq #13, good           /* __NR_rt_sigaction */
         jeq #35, good           /* __NR_nanosleep */
         bad: ret #0             /* SECCOMP_RET_KILL */
         good: ret #0x7fff0000   /* SECCOMP_RET_ALLOW */

       Allow any (hardware accelerated) VLAN:

         ld vlanp
         jeq #0, drop
         ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       Only allow traffic for (hardware accelerated) VLAN 10:

         ld vlant
         jneq #10, drop
         ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       More pedantic check for the above VLAN example:

         ld vlanp
         jeq #0, drop
         ld vlant
         jneq #10, drop
         ret #-1
         drop: ret #0

       Filter rtnetlink messages:

         ldh #proto       /* A = skb->protocol */

         jneq #0, skip    /* check for NETLINK_ROUTE */
         ldb [4]          /* A = nlmsg_type */

         jneq #0x10, skip /* check type == RTNL_NEWLINK */
         ldx #16          /* X = offset(ifinfomsg) */

         ldb [x + 4]      /* offset(ifi_index) */
         jneq #0x3, skip  /* check ifindex == 3 */

         ld #32           /* A = len(nlmsghdr) + len(ifinfomsg), payload
       offset */
         ldx #16          /* X = IFLA_OPERSTATE */
         ld #nla          /* A = offset(IFLA_OPERSTATE) */
         jeq #0, skip
         tax
         ldb [x + 4]      /* A = value(IFLA_OPERSTATE) */
         jneq #0x6, skip  /* check oper state is UP */

         ret #-1
         skip: ret #0

USAGE EXAMPLE         top

       bpfc fubar
              Compile the source file ''fubar'' into BPF opcodes.
              Opcodes will be directed to stdout.

       bpfc -f xt_bpf -b -p -i fubar, resp. iptables -A INPUT -m bpf
       --bytecode `bpfc -f xt_bpf -i fubar` -j LOG
              Compile the source file ''fubar'' into BPF opcodes, bypass
              basic filter validation and emit opcodes in netfilter's
              xt_bpf readable format. Note that the source file
              ''fubar'' is first passed to the C preprocessor for
              textual replacements before handing over to the bpfc
              compiler.

       cat fubar | bpfc -
              Read bpfc instruction from stdin and emit opcodes to
              stdout.

       bpfc foo > bar && netsniff-ng -f bar ...
              Compile filter instructions from file foo and redirect
              bpfc's output into the file bar, that can then be read by
              netsniff-ng(8) through option -f.

       bpfc -f tcpdump -i fubar
              Output opcodes from source file fubar in the same behavior
              as ''tcpdump -ddd''.

LEGAL         top

       bpfc is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2.0.

HISTORY         top

       bpfc was originally written for the netsniff-ng toolkit by Daniel
       Borkmann. It is currently maintained by Tobias Klauser
       <[email protected]> and Daniel Borkmann
       <[email protected]>.

SEE ALSO         top

       netsniff-ng(8), trafgen(8), mausezahn(8), ifpps(8), flowtop(8),
       astraceroute(8), curvetun(8)

AUTHOR         top

       Manpage was written by Daniel Borkmann.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the Linux netsniff-ng toolkit project. A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs,
       can be found at http://netsniff-ng.org/.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the netsniff-ng (a free Linux networking
       toolkit) project.  Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨http://netsniff-ng.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, send it to [email protected].  This page
       was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/netsniff-ng/netsniff-ng⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2023-02-01.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

Linux                         03 March 2013                      BPFC(8)

Pages that refer to this page: astraceroute(8)curvetun(8)flowtop(8)ifpps(8)mausezahn(8)netsniff-ng(8)trafgen(8)