XDP SYNPROXY sample application

This is a sample application for XDP SYNPROXY. It was cloned from the Linux source code tree under tools/testing/selftests/bpf and called xdp_synproxy. main purpose of it is to demonstrate capabilities of XDP accelerating SYN Proxying for SYN flood DDOS protection. It is a real practical example for user to use. For an overview of accelerating SYNPROXY WITH XDP, Please refer to this paper (https://netdevconf.info/0x15/slides/30/Netdev%200x15%20Accelerating%20synproxy%20with%20XDP.pdf)

This sample application is tested with Ubuntu 22.04 with 6.2 kernel.

Note XDP SYNPROXY requires netfilter connection tracking and here are the sysctl knobs and iptables rules preparation for XDP SYNPROXY:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=2
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1
sudo sysctl -w net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_loose=0
sudo iptables -t raw -I PREROUTING  -i <interface> -p tcp -m tcp --syn --dport <port> -j CT --notrack
sudo iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i <interface> -p tcp -m tcp --dport <port> -m state --state INVALID,UNTRACKED -j SYNPROXY --sack-perm --timestamp --wscale 7 --mss 1460
sudo iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i <interface> -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

Here is how to start the XDP SYNPROXY application:

sudo xdp_synproxy --iface <interface> --mss4 1460 --mss6 1440 --wscale 7 --ttl 64 --ports <port1>,<port2>

XDP SYNPROXY could be built in in container and run by docker

sudo docker build . -t xdp-synproxy:0.1
sudo docker run -it -h xdp-synproxy --network=host --privileged xdp-synproxy:0.1

XDP SYNPROXY could be deployed in Kubernetes cluster as DaemonSet, Please see (https://youtu.be/nIrp0Lv-e0g?si=g-pXl4agVQM6_FYW)

sudo kubectl apply -f xdp-synproxy-daemonset.yaml
sudo kubectl get po  -o wide -l app=xdp-synproxy

NAME                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE    IP              NODE                     NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
xdp-synproxy-6x29j   1/1     Running   0          5d2h   10.169.72.239   cilium-dev               <none>           <none>
xdp-synproxy-xj98j   1/1     Running   0          5d2h   10.169.72.233   centos-dev.localdomain   <none>           <none>

XDP SYNPROXY can coexist with other XDP programs since we use libxdp to attach the XDP SYNPROXY program, meaning you could build chain of XDP programs and attach them to same network interface. Note xdp-loader could be built statically and shipped with xdp-synproxy container.

sudo kubectl exec -it xdp-synproxy-6x29j  -- xdp-loader status

CURRENT XDP PROGRAM STATUS:

Interface        Prio  Program name      Mode     ID   Tag               Chain actions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ens192                 xdp_dispatcher    native   899  90f686eb86991928
=>               50    syncookie_xdp              908  6c6615566a2e0419  XDP_PASS

XDP SYNPROXY can also be deployed in Linux router/Firewall, it requires iptables SYNPROXY to be added in filter table FORWARD chain. see https://youtu.be/Cj7SeviTXrw?si=adZ0FrGq84Ygmmy0 for example.

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=2
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1
sudo sysctl -w net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_loose=0
sudo iptables -t raw -I PREROUTING -i ens7 -p tcp -m tcp --syn --dport 80 -j CT --notrack
sudo iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i ens7 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -m state --state INVALID,UNTRACKED -j SYNPROXY --sack-perm --timestamp --wscale 7 --mss 1460
sudo iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i ens7 -m state --state INVALID -j DROP
sudo ./xdp_synproxy --iface ens7 --ports 80 --mss4 1460 --mss6 1440 --wscale 7 --ttl 64

Simple test diagram

client:                                                  server:
ip r add 10.6.6.0/24                                     ip r add 10.3.3.0/24
   via 10.3.3.8                                             via 10.6.6.8

+---------------+      +----------------------------+    +--------------+
|               |      |                            |    |              |
| client        |      |     Firewall/router        |    |  server      |
| 10.3.3.9      eno2---ens7 10.3.3.8   10.6.6.8  ens9----ens9 10.6.6.6  |
|               |      |                            |    |              |
|               |      |                            |    |              |
+---------------+      +----------------------------+    +--------------+