xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/divert.4 (revision dce6e6518b85561495cff38a3074a69d29d58a55)
1.\" $FreeBSD$
2.\"
3.Dd June 18, 1996
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). In the case of an incoming packet the interface
54name will also be placed in the 8 bytes following the address,
55(assuming it fits).
56.Sh WRITING PACKETS
57Writing to a divert socket is similar to writing to a raw IP socket;
58the packet is injected ``as is'' into the normal kernel IP packet
59processing and minimal error checking is done.
60Packets are written as either incoming or outgoing:
61if
62.Xr write 2
63or
64.Xr send 2
65is used to deliver the packet, or if
66.Xr sendto 2
67is used with a destination IP address of
68.Dv INADDR_ANY ,
69then the packet is treated as if it were outgoing, i.e., destined
70for a non-local address.
71Otherwise, the packet is assumed to be
72incoming and full packet routing is done.
73.Pp
74In the latter case, the
75IP address specified must match the address of some local interface,
76or an interface name
77must be found after the IP address.
78If an interface name is found,
79that interface will be used and the value of the IP address will be
80ignored (other than the fact that it is not
81.Dv INADDR_ANY ) .
82This is to indicate on which interface the packet
83.Dq arrived .
84.Pp
85Normally, packets read as incoming should be written as incoming;
86similarly for outgoing packets.
87When reading and then writing back
88packets, passing the same socket address supplied by
89.Xr recvfrom 2
90unmodified to
91.Xr sendto 2
92simplifies things (see below).
93.Pp
94The port part of the socket address passed to the
95.Xr sendto 2
96contains a tag that should be meaningful to the diversion module.
97In the
98case of
99.Xr ipfw 8
100the tag is interpreted as the rule number
101.Em after which
102rule processing should restart.
103.Sh LOOP AVOIDANCE
104Packets written into a divert socket
105(using
106.Xr sendto 2 )
107re-enter the packet filter at the rule number
108following the tag given in the port part of the socket address, which
109is usually already set at the rule number that caused the diversion
110(not the next rule if there are several at the same number). If 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, your kernel must be compiled with the option
116.Dv IPDIVERT .
117.Pp
118If a packet is diverted but no socket is bound to the
119port, or if
120.Dv IPDIVERT
121is not enabled in the kernel, the packet is dropped.
122.Pp
123Incoming packet fragments which get diverted are fully reassembled
124before delivery; the diversion of any one fragment causes the entire
125packet to get diverted.
126If different fragments divert to different ports,
127then which port ultimately gets chosen is unpredictable.
128.Pp
129Packets are received and sent unchanged, except that
130packets read as outgoing have invalid IP header checksums, and
131packets written as outgoing have their IP header checksums overwritten
132with the correct value.
133Packets written as incoming and having incorrect checksums will be dropped.
134Otherwise, all header fields are unchanged (and therefore in network order).
135.Pp
136Binding to port numbers less than 1024 requires super-user access, as does
137creating a socket of type SOCK_RAW.
138.Sh ERRORS
139Writing to a divert socket can return these errors, along with
140the usual errors possible when writing raw packets:
141.Bl -tag -width Er
142.It Bq Er EINVAL
143The packet had an invalid header, or the IP options in the packet
144and the socket options set were incompatible.
145.It Bq Er EADDRNOTAVAIL
146The destination address contained an IP address not equal to
147.Dv INADDR_ANY
148that was not associated with any interface.
149.El
150.Sh SEE ALSO
151.Xr bind 2 ,
152.Xr recvfrom 2 ,
153.Xr sendto 2 ,
154.Xr socket 2 ,
155.Xr ipfw 8
156.Sh BUGS
157This is an attempt to provide a clean way for user mode processes
158to implement various IP tricks like address translation, but it
159could be cleaner, and it's too dependent on
160.Xr ipfw 8 .
161.Pp
162It's questionable whether incoming fragments should be reassembled
163before being diverted.
164For example, if only some fragments of a
165packet destined for another machine don't get routed through the
166local machine, the packet is lost.
167This should probably be
168a settable socket option in any case.
169.Sh AUTHORS
170.An Archie Cobbs Aq archie@FreeBSD.org ,
171Whistle Communications Corp.
172