xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/divert.4 (revision 6af83ee0d2941d18880b6aaa2b4facd1d30c6106)
1.\" $FreeBSD$
2.\"
3.Dd December 17, 2004
4.Dt DIVERT 4
5.Os
6.Sh NAME
7.Nm divert
8.Nd kernel packet diversion mechanism
9.Sh SYNOPSIS
10.In sys/types.h
11.In sys/socket.h
12.In netinet/in.h
13.Ft int
14.Fn socket PF_INET SOCK_RAW IPPROTO_DIVERT
15.Sh DESCRIPTION
16Divert sockets are similar to raw IP sockets, except that they
17can be bound to a specific
18.Nm
19port via the
20.Xr bind 2
21system call.
22The IP address in the bind is ignored; only the port
23number is significant.
24A divert socket bound to a divert port will receive all packets diverted
25to that port by some (here unspecified) kernel mechanism(s).
26Packets may also be written to a divert port, in which case they
27re-enter kernel IP packet processing.
28.Pp
29Divert sockets are normally used in conjunction with
30.Fx Ns 's
31packet filtering implementation and the
32.Xr ipfw 8
33program.
34By reading from and writing to a divert socket, matching packets
35can be passed through an arbitrary ``filter'' as they travel through
36the host machine, special routing tricks can be done, etc.
37.Sh READING PACKETS
38Packets are diverted either as they are ``incoming'' or ``outgoing.''
39Incoming packets are diverted after reception on an IP interface,
40whereas outgoing packets are diverted before next hop forwarding.
41.Pp
42Diverted packets may be read unaltered via
43.Xr read 2 ,
44.Xr recv 2 ,
45or
46.Xr recvfrom 2 .
47In the latter case, the address returned will have its port set to
48some tag supplied by the packet diverter, (usually the ipfw rule number)
49and the IP address set to the (first) address of
50the interface on which the packet was received (if the packet
51was incoming) or
52.Dv INADDR_ANY
53(if the packet was outgoing).
54The interface name (if defined
55for the packet) will be placed in the 8 bytes following the address,
56if it fits.
57.Sh WRITING PACKETS
58Writing to a divert socket is similar to writing to a raw IP socket;
59the packet is injected ``as is'' into the normal kernel IP packet
60processing using
61.Xr sendto 2
62and minimal error checking is done.
63Packets are distinguished as either incoming or outgoing.
64If
65.Xr sendto 2
66is used with a destination IP address of
67.Dv INADDR_ANY ,
68then the packet is treated as if it were outgoing, i.e., destined
69for a non-local address.
70Otherwise, the packet is assumed to be
71incoming and full packet routing is done.
72.Pp
73In the latter case, the
74IP address specified must match the address of some local interface,
75or an interface name
76must be found after the IP address.
77If an interface name is found,
78that interface will be used and the value of the IP address will be
79ignored (other than the fact that it is not
80.Dv INADDR_ANY ) .
81This is to indicate on which interface the packet
82.Dq arrived .
83.Pp
84Normally, packets read as incoming should be written as incoming;
85similarly for outgoing packets.
86When reading and then writing back
87packets, passing the same socket address supplied by
88.Xr recvfrom 2
89unmodified to
90.Xr sendto 2
91simplifies things (see below).
92.Pp
93The port part of the socket address passed to the
94.Xr sendto 2
95contains a tag that should be meaningful to the diversion module.
96In the
97case of
98.Xr ipfw 8
99the tag is interpreted as the rule number
100.Em after which
101rule processing should restart.
102.Sh LOOP AVOIDANCE
103Packets written into a divert socket
104(using
105.Xr sendto 2 )
106re-enter the packet filter at the rule number
107following the tag given in the port part of the socket address, which
108is usually already set at the rule number that caused the diversion
109(not the next rule if there are several at the same number).
110If the 'tag'
111is altered to indicate an alternative re-entry point, care should be taken
112to avoid loops, where the same packet is diverted more than once at the
113same rule.
114.Sh DETAILS
115To enable divert sockets, a kernel must be compiled with
116.Cd "options IPDIVERT"
117or the
118.Pa ipdivert.ko
119module can be loaded at run-time:
120.Pp
121.Dl "kldload ipdivert"
122.Pp
123If a packet is diverted but no socket is bound to the
124port, or if
125.Dv IPDIVERT
126is not enabled or loaded in the kernel, the packet is dropped.
127.Pp
128Incoming packet fragments which get diverted are fully reassembled
129before delivery; the diversion of any one fragment causes the entire
130packet to get diverted.
131If different fragments divert to different ports,
132then which port ultimately gets chosen is unpredictable.
133.Pp
134Note that packets arriving on the divert socket by the
135.Xr ipfw 8
136.Cm tee
137action are delivered as-is and packet fragments do not get reassembled
138in this case.
139.Pp
140Packets are received and sent unchanged, except that
141packets read as outgoing have invalid IP header checksums, and
142packets written as outgoing have their IP header checksums overwritten
143with the correct value.
144Packets written as incoming and having incorrect checksums will be dropped.
145Otherwise, all header fields are unchanged (and therefore in network order).
146.Pp
147Binding to port numbers less than 1024 requires super-user access, as does
148creating a socket of type SOCK_RAW.
149.Sh ERRORS
150Writing to a divert socket can return these errors, along with
151the usual errors possible when writing raw packets:
152.Bl -tag -width Er
153.It Bq Er EINVAL
154The packet had an invalid header, or the IP options in the packet
155and the socket options set were incompatible.
156.It Bq Er EADDRNOTAVAIL
157The destination address contained an IP address not equal to
158.Dv INADDR_ANY
159that was not associated with any interface.
160.El
161.Sh SEE ALSO
162.Xr bind 2 ,
163.Xr recvfrom 2 ,
164.Xr sendto 2 ,
165.Xr socket 2 ,
166.Xr ipfw 8
167.Sh AUTHORS
168.An Archie Cobbs Aq archie@FreeBSD.org ,
169Whistle Communications Corp.
170.Sh BUGS
171This is an attempt to provide a clean way for user mode processes
172to implement various IP tricks like address translation, but it
173could be cleaner, and it is too dependent on
174.Xr ipfw 8 .
175.Pp
176It is questionable whether incoming fragments should be reassembled
177before being diverted.
178For example, if only some fragments of a
179packet destined for another machine do not get routed through the
180local machine, the packet is lost.
181This should probably be
182a settable socket option in any case.
183