xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/divert.4 (revision df7f5d4de4592a8948a25ce01e5bddfbb7ce39dc)
1.\"	$Id: divert.4,v 1.7 1997/02/22 13:24:27 peter Exp $
2.\"
3.Dd June 18, 1996
4.Dt DIVERT 4
5.Os FreeBSD
6.Sh NAME
7.Nm divert
8.Nd kernel packet diversion mechanism
9.Sh SYNOPSIS
10.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
11.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
12.Fd #include <netinet/in.h>
13.Ft int
14.Fn socket PF_INET SOCK_RAW IPPROTO_DIVERT
15.Sh DESCRIPTION
16.Pp
17Divert sockets are similar to raw IP sockets, except that they
18can be bound to a specific
19.Nm
20port via the
21.Xr bind 2
22system call. The 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
30FreeBSD's packet filtering implementation and the
31.Xr ipfw 8
32program. By reading from and writing to a divert socket, matching packets
33can be passed through an arbitrary ``filter'' as they travel through
34the host machine, special routing tricks can be done, etc.
35.Sh READING PACKETS
36Packets are diverted either as they are ``incoming'' or ``outgoing.''
37Incoming packets are diverted after reception on an IP interface,
38whereas outgoing packets are diverted before next hop forwarding.
39.Pp
40Diverted packets may be read unaltered via
41.Xr read 2 ,
42.Xr recv 2 ,
43or
44.Xr recvfrom 2 .
45In the latter case, the address returned will have its port set to
46the divert port and the IP address set to the (first) address of
47the interface on which the packet was received (if the packet
48was incoming) or
49.Dv INADDR_ANY
50(if the packet was outgoing).
51.Sh WRITING PACKETS
52Writing to a divert socket is similar to writing to a raw IP socket;
53the packet is injected ``as is'' into the normal kernel IP packet
54processing and minimal error checking is done.
55Packets are written as either incoming or outgoing:
56if
57.Xr write 2
58or
59.Xr send 2
60is used to deliver the packet, or if
61.Xr sendto 2
62is used with a destination IP address of
63.Dv INADDR_ANY ,
64then the packet is treated as if it were outgoing, i.e., destined
65for a non-local address.  Otherwise, the packet is assumed to be
66incoming and full packet routing is done.
67.Pp
68In the latter case, the
69IP address specified must match the address of some local interface.
70This is to indicate on which interface the packet ``arrived.''
71.Pp
72Normally, packets read as incoming should be written as incoming;
73similarly for outgoing packets.  When reading and then writing back
74packets, passing the same socket address supplied by
75.Xr recvfrom 2
76unmodified to
77.Xr sendto 2
78simplifies things.
79.Sh LOOP AVOIDANCE
80To avoid having a packet sent from a divert socket rediverted back
81to the same socket, use the
82.Xr sendto 2
83system call supplying any non-zero destination port number.
84This indicates to
85.Xr ipfw 8
86and other diverting mechanisms to not divert the packet back
87to the same socket it was written from.
88.Pp
89Since
90.Xr ipfw
91checks incoming as well as outgoing packets,
92a packet written as incoming may get checked twice.
93Loop avoidance will be enabled for both checks.
94.Sh DETAILS
95To enable divert sockets, your kernel must be compiled with the option
96.Dv IPDIVERT .
97.Pp
98If a packet is diverted but no socket is bound to the
99port, or if
100.Dv IPDIVERT
101is not enabled in the kernel, the packet is dropped.
102.Pp
103Incoming packet fragments which get diverted are fully reassembled
104before delivery; the diversion of any one fragment causes the entire
105packet to get diverted.
106If different fragments divert to different ports,
107then which port ultimately gets chosen is unpredictable.
108.Pp
109Packets are received and sent unchanged, except that
110packets written as outgoing have their IP header checksums overwritten
111with the correct value.
112Packets written as incoming and having incorrect checksums will be dropped.
113Otherwise, all header fields are unchanged (and therefore in network order).
114.Pp
115Binding to port numbers less than 1024 requires super-user access, as does
116creating a socket of type SOCK_RAW.
117.Sh ERRORS
118Writing to a divert socket can return these errors, along with
119the usual errors possible when writing raw packets:
120.Bl -tag -width Er
121.It Bq Er EINVAL
122The packet had an invalid header, or the IP options in the packet
123and the socket options set were incompatible.
124.It Bq Er EADDRNOTAVAIL
125The destination address contained an IP address not equal to
126.Dv INADDR_ANY
127that was not associated with any interface.
128.El
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr bind 2 ,
131.Xr recvfrom 2 ,
132.Xr sendto 2 ,
133.Xr socket 2 ,
134.Xr ipfw 8
135.Sh BUGS
136This is an attempt to provide a clean way for user mode processes
137to implement various IP tricks like address translation, but it
138could be cleaner, and it's too dependent on
139.Xr ipfw 8 .
140.Pp
141It's questionable whether incoming fragments should be reassembled
142before being diverted. For example, if only some fragments of a
143packet destined for another machine don't get routed through the
144local machine, the packet is lost. This should probably be
145a settable socket option in any case.
146.Sh AUTHOR
147Archie Cobbs <archie@whistle.com>, Whistle Communications Corp.
148