Hook points

Tetragon can hook into the kernel using kprobes and tracepoints, as well as in user-space programs using uprobes. Users can configure these hook points using the correspodning sections of the TracingPolicy specification (.spec). These hook points include arguments and return values that can be specified using the args and returnArg fields as detailed in the following sections.

Kprobes

Kprobes enables you to dynamically hook into any kernel function and execute BPF code. Because kernel functions might change across versions, kprobes are highly tied to your kernel version and, thus, might not be portable across different kernels.

Conveniently, you can list all kernel symbols reading the /proc/kallsyms file. For example to search for the write syscall kernel function, you can execute sudo grep sys_write /proc/kallsyms, the output should be similar to this, minus the architecture specific prefixes.

ffffdeb14ea712e0 T __arm64_sys_writev
ffffdeb14ea73010 T ksys_write
ffffdeb14ea73140 T __arm64_sys_write
ffffdeb14eb5a460 t proc_sys_write
ffffdeb15092a700 d _eil_addr___arm64_sys_writev
ffffdeb15092a740 d _eil_addr___arm64_sys_write

You can see that the exact name of the symbol for the write syscall on our kernel version is __arm64_sys_write. Note that on x86_64, the prefix would be __x64_ instead of __arm64_.

In our example, we will explore a kprobe hooking into the fd_install kernel function. The fd_install kernel function is called each time a file descriptor is installed into the file descriptor table of a process, typically referenced within system calls like open or openat. Hooking fd_install has its benefits and limitations, which are out of the scope of this guide.

spec:
  kprobes:
  - call: "fd_install"
    syscall: false

Kprobes calls can be defined independently in different policies, or together in the same Policy. For example, we can define trace multiple kprobes under the same tracing policy:

spec:
  kprobes:
  - call: "sys_read"
    syscall: true
    # [...]
  - call: "sys_write"
    syscall: true
    # [...]

Tracepoints

Tracepoints are statically defined in the kernel and have the advantage of being stable across kernel versions and thus more portable than kprobes.

To see the list of tracepoints available on your kernel, you can list them using sudo ls /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events, the output should be similar to this.

alarmtimer    ext4            iommu           page_pool     sock
avc           fib             ipi             pagemap       spi
block         fib6            irq             percpu        swiotlb
bpf_test_run  filelock        jbd2            power         sync_trace
bpf_trace     filemap         kmem            printk        syscalls
bridge        fs_dax          kvm             pwm           task
btrfs         ftrace          libata          qdisc         tcp
cfg80211      gpio            lock            ras           tegra_apb_dma
cgroup        hda             mctp            raw_syscalls  thermal
clk           hda_controller  mdio            rcu           thermal_power_allocator
cma           hda_intel       migrate         regmap        thermal_pressure
compaction    header_event    mmap            regulator     thp
cpuhp         header_page     mmap_lock       rpm           timer
cros_ec       huge_memory     mmc             rpmh          tlb
dev           hwmon           module          rseq          tls
devfreq       i2c             mptcp           rtc           udp
devlink       i2c_slave       napi            sched         vmscan
dma_fence     initcall        neigh           scmi          wbt
drm           interconnect    net             scsi          workqueue
emulation     io_uring        netlink         signal        writeback
enable        iocost          oom             skb           xdp
error_report  iomap           page_isolation  smbus         xhci-hcd

You can then choose the subsystem that you want to trace, and look the tracepoint you want to use and its format. For example, if we choose the netif_receive_skb tracepoints from the net subsystem, we can read its format with sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/net/netif_receive_skb/format, the output should be similar to the following.

name: netif_receive_skb
ID: 1398
format:
        field:unsigned short common_type;       offset:0;       size:2; signed:0;
        field:unsigned char common_flags;       offset:2;       size:1; signed:0;
        field:unsigned char common_preempt_count;       offset:3;       size:1; signed:0;
        field:int common_pid;   offset:4;       size:4; signed:1;

        field:void * skbaddr;   offset:8;       size:8; signed:0;
        field:unsigned int len; offset:16;      size:4; signed:0;
        field:__data_loc char[] name;   offset:20;      size:4; signed:0;

print fmt: "dev=%s skbaddr=%px len=%u", __get_str(name), REC->skbaddr, REC->len

Similarly to kprobes, tracepoints can also hook into system calls. For more details, see the raw_syscalls and syscalls subysystems.

An example of tracepoints TracingPolicy could be the following, observing all syscalls and getting the syscall ID from the argument at index 4:

apiVersion: cilium.io/v1alpha1
kind: TracingPolicy
metadata:
  name: "raw-syscalls"
spec:
  tracepoints:
  - subsystem: "raw_syscalls"
    event: "sys_enter"
    args:
    - index: 4
      type: "int64"

Uprobes

Uprobes are similar to kprobes, but they allow you to dynamically hook into any user-space function and execute BPF code. Uprobes are also tied to the binary version of the user-space program, so they may not be portable across different versions or architectures.

To use uprobes, you need to specify the path to the executable or library file, and the symbol of the function you want to probe. You can use tools like objdump, nm, or readelf to find the symbol of a function in a binary file. For example, to find the readline symbol in /bin/bash using nm, you can run:

nm -D /bin/bash | grep readline

The output should look similar to this, with a few lines redacted:

[...]
000000000009f2b0 T pcomp_set_readline_variables
0000000000097e40 T posix_readline_initialize
00000000000d5690 T readline
00000000000d52f0 T readline_internal_char
00000000000d42d0 T readline_internal_setup
[...]

You can see in the nm output: first the symbol value, then the symbol type, for the readline symbol T meaning that this symbol is in the text (code) section of the binary, and finally the symbol name. This confirms that the readline symbol is present in the /bin/bash binary and might be a function name that we can hook with a uprobe.

You can define multiple uprobes in the same policy, or in different policies. You can also combine uprobes with kprobes and tracepoints to get a comprehensive view of the system behavior.

Here is an example of a policy that defines an uprobe for the readline function in the bash executable, and applies it to all processes that use the bash binary:

apiVersion: cilium.io/v1alpha1
kind: TracingPolicy
metadata:
  name: "example-uprobe"
spec:
  uprobes:
  - path: "/bin/bash"
    symbols:
    - "readline"

This example shows how to use uprobes to hook into the readline function running in all the bash shells.

Arguments

Kprobes, uprobes and tracepoints all share a needed arguments fields called args. It is a list of arguments to include in the trace output. Tetragon’s BPF code requires information about the types of arguments to properly read, print and filter on its arguments. This information needs to be provided by the user under the args section. For the available types, check the TracingPolicy CRD.

Following our example, here is the part that defines the arguments:

args:
- index: 0
  type: "int"
- index: 1
  type: "file"

Each argument can optionally include a ’label’ parameter, which will be included in the output. This can be used to annotate the arguments to help with understanding and processing the output. As an example, here is the same definition, with an appropriate label on the int argument:

args:
- index: 0
  type: "int"
  label: "FD"
- index: 1
  type: "file"

To properly read and hook onto the fd_install(unsigned int fd, struct file *file) function, the YAML snippet above tells the BPF code that the first argument is an int and the second argument is a file, which is the struct file of the kernel. In this way, the BPF code and its printer can properly collect and print the arguments.

These types are sorted by the index field, where you can specify the order. The indexing starts with 0. So, index: 0 means, this is going to be the first argument of the function, index: 1 means this is going to be the second argument of the function, etc.

Note that for some args types, char_buf and char_iovec, there are additional fields named returnCopy and sizeArgIndex available:

• returnCopy indicates that the corresponding argument should be read later (when the kretprobe for the symbol is triggered) because it might not be populated when the kprobe is triggered at the entrance of the function. For example, a buffer supplied to read(2) won’t have content until kretprobe is triggered.
• sizeArgIndex indicates the (1-based, see warning below) index of the arguments that represents the size of the char_buf or iovec. For example, for write(2), the third argument, size_t count is the number of char element that we can read from the const void *buf pointer from the second argument. Similarly, if we would like to capture the __x64_sys_writev(long, iovec *, vlen) syscall, then iovec has a size of vlen, which is going to be the third argument.

These flags can be combined, see the example below.

- call: "sys_write"
  syscall: true
  args:
  - index: 0
    type: "int"
  - index: 1
    type: "char_buf"
    returnCopy: true
    sizeArgIndex: 3
  - index: 2
    type: "size_t"

Note that you can specify which arguments you would like to print from a specific syscall. For example if you don’t care about the file descriptor, which is the first int argument with index: 0 and just want the char_buf, what is written, then you can leave this section out and just define:

args:
- index: 1
  type: "char_buf"
  returnCopy: true
  sizeArgIndex: 3
- index: 2
  type: "size_t"

This tells the printer to skip printing the int arg because it’s not useful.

For char_buf type up to the 4096 bytes are stored. Data with bigger size are cut and returned as truncated bytes.

You can specify maxData flag for char_buf type to read maximum possible data (currently 327360 bytes), like:

args:
- index: 1
  type: "char_buf"
  maxData: true
  sizeArgIndex: 3
- index: 2
  type: "size_t"

This field is only used for char_buff data. When this value is false (default), the bpf program will fetch at most 4096 bytes. In later kernels (>=5.4) tetragon supports fetching up to 327360 bytes if this flag is turned on.

The maxData flag does not work with returnCopy flag at the moment, so it’s usable only for syscalls/functions that do not require return probe to read the data.

Return values

A TracingPolicy spec can specify that the return value should be reported in the tracing output. To do this, the return parameter of the call needs to be set to true, and the returnArg parameter needs to be set to specify the type of the return argument. For example:

- call: "sk_alloc"
  syscall: false
  return: true
  args:
  - index: 1
    type: int
    label: "family"
  returnArg:
    type: sock

In this case, the sk_alloc hook is specified to return a value of type sock (a pointer to a struct sock). Whenever the sk_alloc hook is hit, not only will it report the family parameter in index 1, it will also report the socket that was created.

Return values for socket tracking

A unique feature of a sock being returned from a hook such as sk_alloc is that the socket it refers to can be tracked. Most networking hooks in the network stack are run in a context that is not that of the process that owns the socket for which the actions relate; this is because networking happens asynchronously and not entirely in-line with the process. The sk_alloc hook does, however, occur in the context of the process, such that the task, the PID, and the TGID are of the process that requested that the socket was created.

Specifying socket tracking tells Tetragon to store a mapping between the socket and the process’ PID and TGID; and to use that mapping when it sees the socket in a sock argument in another hook to replace the PID and TGID of the context with the process that actually owns the socket. This can be done by adding a returnArgAction to the call. Available actions are TrackSock and UntrackSock. See TrackSock and UntrackSock.

- call: "sk_alloc"
  syscall: false
  return: true
  args:
  - index: 1
    type: int
    label: "family"
  returnArg:
    type: sock
  returnArgAction: TrackSock

Socket tracking is only available on kernels >=5.3.

Lists

It’s possible to define list of functions and use it in the kprobe’s call field.

Following example traces all sys_dup[23] syscalls.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "sys_dup2"
    - "sys_dup3"
  kprobes:
  - call: "list:dups"

It is basically a shortcut for following policy:

spec:
  kprobes:
  - call: "sys_dup"
    syscall: true
  - call: "sys_dup2"
    syscall: true
  - call: "sys_dup3"
    syscall: true

As shown in subsequent examples, its main benefit is allowing a single definition for calls that have the same filters.

The list is defined under lists field with arbitrary values for name and values fields.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "sys_dup2"
    - "sys_dup3"
    ...

It’s possible to define multiple lists.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "sys_dup2"
    - "sys_dup3"
    name: "another"
    - "sys_open"
    - "sys_close"

Syscalls specified with sys_ prefix are translated to their 64 bit equivalent function names.

It’s possible to specify 32 bit syscall by using its full function name that includes specific architecture native prefix (like __ia32_ for x86):

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "__ia32_sys_dup"
    name: "another"
    - "sys_open"
    - "sys_close"

Specific list can be referenced in kprobe’s call field with "list:NAME" value.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
  ...

  kprobes:
  - call: "list:dups"

The kprobe definition creates a kprobe for each item in the list and shares the rest of the config specified for kprobe.

List can also specify type field that implies extra checks on the values (like for syscall type) or denote that the list is generated automatically (see below). User must specify syscall type for list with syscall functions. Also syscall functions can’t be mixed with regular functions in the list.

The additional selector configuration is shared with all functions in the list. In following example we create 3 kprobes that share the same pid filter.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "sys_dup2"
    - "sys_dup3"
  kprobes:
  - call: "list:dups"
    selectors:
    - matchPIDs:
      - operator: In
        followForks: true
        isNamespacePID: false
        values:
        - 12345

It’s possible to use argument filter together with the list.

It’s important to understand that the argument will be retrieved by using the specified argument type for all the functions in the list.

Following example adds argument filter for first argument on all functions in dups list to match value 9999.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "sys_dup2"
    - "sys_dup3"
  kprobes:
  - call: "list:dups"
    args:
    - index: 0
      type: int
    selectors:
    - matchArgs:
      - index: 0
        operator: "Equal"
        values:
        - 9999

There are two additional special types of generated lists.

The generated_syscalls type of list that generates list with all possible syscalls on the system.

Following example traces all syscalls for /usr/bin/kill binary.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "all-syscalls"
    type: "generated_syscalls"
  kprobes:
  - call: "list:all-syscalls"
    selectors:
    - matchBinaries:
      - operator: "In"
        values:
        - "/usr/bin/kill"

The generated_ftrace type of list that generates functions from ftrace available_filter_functions file with specified filter. The filter is specified with pattern field and expects regular expression.

Following example traces all kernel ksys_* functions for /usr/bin/kill binary.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "ksys"
    type: "generated_ftrace"
    pattern: "^ksys_*"
  kprobes:
  - call: "list:ksys"
    selectors:
    - matchBinaries:
      - operator: "In"
        values:
        - "/usr/bin/kill"

Note that if syscall list is used in selector with InMap operator, the argument type needs to be syscall64, like.

spec:
  lists:
  - name: "dups"
    type: "syscalls"
    values:
    - "sys_dup"
    - "__ia32_sys_dup"
  tracepoints:
  - subsystem: "raw_syscalls"
    event: "sys_enter"
    args:
    - index: 4
      type: "syscall64"
    selectors:
    - matchArgs:
      - index: 0
        operator: "InMap"
        values:
        - "list:dups"