consider C program represented in eBPF:
int filter(int arg)
{
    int a, b, c, *ptr;

    if (arg == 1)
        ptr = &a;
    else if (arg == 2)
        ptr = &b;
    else
        ptr = &c;

    *ptr = 0;
    return 0;
}
eBPF verifier has to follow all possible paths through the program
to recognize that '*ptr = 0' instruction would be safe to execute
in all situations.
It's doing it by picking a path towards the end and observes changes
to registers and stack at every insn until it reaches bpf_exit.
Then it comes back to one of the previous branches and goes towards
the end again with potentially different values in registers.
When program has a lot of branches, the number of possible combinations
of branches is huge, so verifer has a hard limit of walking no more
than 32k instructions. This limit can be reached and complex (but valid)
programs could be rejected. Therefore it's important to recognize equivalent
verifier states to prune this depth first search.

Basic idea can be illustrated by the program (where .. are some eBPF insns):
    1: ..
    2: if (rX == rY) goto 4
    3: ..
    4: ..
    5: ..
    6: bpf_exit
In the first pass towards bpf_exit the verifier will walk insns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Since insn#2 is a branch the verifier will remember its state in verifier stack
to come back to it later.
Since insn#4 is marked as 'branch target', the verifier will remember its state
in explored_states[4] linked list.
Once it reaches insn#6 successfully it will pop the state recorded at insn#2 and
will continue.
Without search pruning optimization verifier would have to walk 4, 5, 6 again,
effectively simulating execution of insns 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
With search pruning it will check whether state at #4 after jumping from #2
is equivalent to one recorded in explored_states[4] during first pass.
If there is an equivalent state, verifier can prune the search at #4 and declare
this path to be safe as well.
In other words two states at #4 are equivalent if execution of 1, 2, 3, 4 insns
and 1, 2, 4 insns produces equivalent registers and stack.

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

1.
the library includes a trivial set of BPF syscall wrappers:
int bpf_create_map(int key_size, int value_size, int max_entries);
int bpf_update_elem(int fd, void *key, void *value);
int bpf_lookup_elem(int fd, void *key, void *value);
int bpf_delete_elem(int fd, void *key);
int bpf_get_next_key(int fd, void *key, void *next_key);
int bpf_prog_load(enum bpf_prog_type prog_type,
		  const struct sock_filter_int *insns, int insn_len,
		  const char *license);
bpf_prog_load() stores verifier log into global bpf_log_buf[] array

and BPF_*() macros to build instructions

2.
test stubs configure eBPF infra with 'unspec' map and program types.
These are fake types used by user space testsuite only.

3.
verifier tests valid and invalid programs and expects predefined
error log messages from kernel.
40 tests so far.

$ sudo ./test_verifier
 #0 add+sub+mul OK
 #1 unreachable OK
 #2 unreachable2 OK
 #3 out of range jump OK
 #4 out of range jump2 OK
 #5 test1 ld_imm64 OK
 ...

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

This patch adds verifier core which simulates execution of every insn and
records the state of registers and program stack. Every branch instruction seen
during simulation is pushed into state stack. When verifier reaches BPF_EXIT,
it pops the state from the stack and continues until it reaches BPF_EXIT again.
For program:
1: bpf_mov r1, xxx
2: if (r1 == 0) goto 5
3: bpf_mov r0, 1
4: goto 6
5: bpf_mov r0, 2
6: bpf_exit
The verifier will walk insns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
then it will pop the state recorded at insn#2 and will continue: 5, 6

This way it walks all possible paths through the program and checks all
possible values of registers. While doing so, it checks for:
- invalid instructions
- uninitialized register access
- uninitialized stack access
- misaligned stack access
- out of range stack access
- invalid calling convention
- instruction encoding is not using reserved fields

Kernel subsystem configures the verifier with two callbacks:

- bool (*is_valid_access)(int off, int size, enum bpf_access_type type);
  that provides information to the verifer which fields of 'ctx'
  are accessible (remember 'ctx' is the first argument to eBPF program)

- const struct bpf_func_proto *(*get_func_proto)(enum bpf_func_id func_id);
  returns argument constraints of kernel helper functions that eBPF program
  may call, so that verifier can checks that R1-R5 types match the prototype

More details in Documentation/networking/filter.txt and in kernel/bpf/verifier.c

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

check that control flow graph of eBPF program is a directed acyclic graph

check_cfg() does:
- detect loops
- detect unreachable instructions
- check that program terminates with BPF_EXIT insn
- check that all branches are within program boundary

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

eBPF programs passed from userspace are using pseudo BPF_LD_IMM64 instructions
to refer to process-local map_fd. Scan the program for such instructions and
if FDs are valid, convert them to 'struct bpf_map' pointers which will be used
by verifier to check access to maps in bpf_map_lookup/update() calls.
If program passes verifier, convert pseudo BPF_LD_IMM64 into generic by dropping
BPF_PSEUDO_MAP_FD flag.

Note that eBPF interpreter is generic and knows nothing about pseudo insns.

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

add optional attributes for BPF_PROG_LOAD syscall:
union bpf_attr {
    struct {
	...
	__u32         log_level; /* verbosity level of eBPF verifier */
	__u32         log_size;  /* size of user buffer */
	__aligned_u64 log_buf;   /* user supplied 'char *buffer' */
    };
};

when log_level > 0 the verifier will return its verification log in the user
supplied buffer 'log_buf' which can be used by program author to analyze why
verifier rejected given program.

'Understanding eBPF verifier messages' section of Documentation/networking/filter.txt
provides several examples of these messages, like the program:

  BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_10, -8, 0),
  BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10),
  BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -8),
  BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, 0),
  BPF_CALL_FUNC(BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
  BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 1),
  BPF_ST_MEM(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, 4, 0),
  BPF_EXIT_INSN(),

will be rejected with the following multi-line message in log_buf:

  0: (7a) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = 0
  1: (bf) r2 = r10
  2: (07) r2 += -8
  3: (b7) r1 = 0
  4: (85) call 1
  5: (15) if r0 == 0x0 goto pc+1
   R0=map_ptr R10=fp
  6: (7a) *(u64 *)(r0 +4) = 0
  misaligned access off 4 size 8

The format of the output can change at any time as verifier evolves.

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

this patch adds all of eBPF verfier documentation and empty bpf_check()

The end goal for the verifier is to statically check safety of the program.

Verifier will catch:
- loops
- out of range jumps
- unreachable instructions
- invalid instructions
- uninitialized register access
- uninitialized stack access
- misaligned stack access
- out of range stack access
- invalid calling convention

More details in Documentation/networking/filter.txt

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

in native eBPF programs userspace is using pseudo BPF_CALL instructions
which encode one of 'enum bpf_func_id' inside insn->imm field.
Verifier checks that program using correct function arguments to given func_id.
If all checks passed, kernel needs to fixup BPF_CALL->imm fields by
replacing func_id with in-kernel function pointer.
eBPF interpreter just calls the function.

In-kernel eBPF users continue to use generic BPF_CALL.

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

eBPF programs are similar to kernel modules. They are loaded by the user
process and automatically unloaded when process exits. Each eBPF program is
a safe run-to-completion set of instructions. eBPF verifier statically
determines that the program terminates and is safe to execute.

The following syscall wrapper can be used to load the program:
int bpf_prog_load(enum bpf_prog_type prog_type,
                  const struct bpf_insn *insns, int insn_cnt,
                  const char *license)
{
    union bpf_attr attr = {
        .prog_type = prog_type,
        .insns = ptr_to_u64(insns),
        .insn_cnt = insn_cnt,
        .license = ptr_to_u64(license),
    };

    return bpf(BPF_PROG_LOAD, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
where 'insns' is an array of eBPF instructions and 'license' is a string
that must be GPL compatible to call helper functions marked gpl_only

Upon succesful load the syscall returns prog_fd.
Use close(prog_fd) to unload the program.

User space tests and examples follow in the later patches

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel
and userspace.

The maps are accessed from user space via BPF syscall, which has commands:

- create a map with given type and attributes
  fd = bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
  returns fd or negative error

- lookup key in a given map referenced by fd
  err = bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
  using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
  returns zero and stores found elem into value or negative error

- create or update key/value pair in a given map
  err = bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
  using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
  returns zero or negative error

- find and delete element by key in a given map
  err = bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
  using attr->map_fd, attr->key

- iterate map elements (based on input key return next_key)
  err = bpf(BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
  using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->next_key

- close(fd) deletes the map

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>