Re: [PATCH bpf-next v5 2/5] bpf: Add ksock kfuncs

[Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@linux.dev>]

On 8/8/26 1:15 AM, Mahe Tardy wrote:
> Add BPF kfuncs that allow BPF LSM programs to create and use sockets for
> sending data. This provides a mechanism for BPF programs to emit
> telemetry. For this first patch set, it's restricted to SOCK_DGRAM
> socket types with IPPROTO_UDP protocol but could be easily extended to
> SOCK_STREAM and IPPROTO_TCP in the future.
>
> The API consists of five kfuncs:
>
>    bpf_ksock_create()   - Create a socket (sleepable)
>    bpf_ksock_connect()  - Connect socket to remote address (sleepable)
>    bpf_ksock_send()     - Send data through the socket (sleepable)
>    bpf_ksock_acquire()  - Acquire a reference to a socket context
>    bpf_ksock_release()  - Release a reference (cleanup via
>                           queue_rcu_work since sock_release sleeps)
>
> The setup kfuncs bpf_ksock_create, bpf_ksock_connect, can be called from
> SYSCALL programs only. While bpf_ksock_acquire, bpf_ksock_release and
> bpf_ksock_send can be called from SYSCALL and LSM programs.
>
> The implementation follows the established kfunc lifecycle pattern
> (create/acquire/release with refcounting, kptr map storage, dtor
> registration). The kernel socket is wrapped in a refcounted bpf_ksock
> struct. Cleanup is deferred via queue_rcu_work() because sock_release()
> may sleep.
>
> The kfuncs are only compiled when CONFIG_INET is enabled, as they
> specifically support AF_INET and AF_INET6 sockets.
>
> The socket operations go through the expected LSM hooks instead of
> by-passing them like many kernel sockets since those are created by BPF
> programs and thus system users. Thus, the bpf_ksock_send() kfunc, which
> is exposed to LSM progs has a verifier filter protection to avoid
> recursion so that the whole bpf_kfunc_set kfunc set cannot be called in
> a program attached to security_socket_sendmsg(). Also, because of the
> LSM checks, we prevent the use of the kfuncs from asynchronous workqueue
> as the current value would then be invalid.
>
> In bpf_ksock_create(), we copy the arg values to avoid TOCTOU races
> since the kfunc can sleep and the arg values could be stored in a map
> that could be re-written by BPF progs or even userspace programs if the
> map is mmaped.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mahe Tardy <mahe.tardy@gmail.com>

Reviewed-by: Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@linux.dev>