eBPF

Hooks

eXpress Data Path (XDP) - network packet processing

kprobe - syscool processing

tracepoints - A TC program is similar to XDP. The main difference is that it runs a bit later in the networking stack. It also can run on packet ingress and egress. The benefit to running later in the networking stack is that it offers more context around the packet. This allows more data to be gathered about the packet and where it’s headed.

vmlinux.h

You can create the vmlinux.h file using the bpftool, which is a necessary utility for eBPF tasks.

bpftool btf dump file /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux format c > vmlinux.h

tracepoint vs kprobe

To hook into syscall, we need to identify the eBPF hook point. This can be done using a tracepoint (i.e. a predefined event directly in the kernel), or a kprobe (a specific kernel function).