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Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Issue 94

From Issue #94
February 2002

Feb 01, 2002  By Gianluca Insolvibile
 in
In Part I of this two-part series on the Linux Packet Filter, Gianluca describes a packet's journey through the kernel.
Conclusion

At this point, the packet is more than halfway through its journey. Since space is limited in our beloved magazine, we will leave the packet in the capable hands of upper-layer 3 protocols until next month. What still remains to be explored is layer 4 processing (TCP and UDP), PF_PACKETs handling and, of course, the socket filter hooks and implementation. Be patient!

Resources

Creation of PF_PACKET Sockets

Gianluca Insolvibile has been a Linux enthusiast since kernel 0.99pl4. He currently deals with networking and digital video research and development. He can be reached at g.insolvibile@cpr.it.

______________________

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trackin' phavon

RomeoX's picture
Submitted by RomeoX (not verified) on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 18:09.

Hi Gianluca Insolvibile,

sorry for write here, but for one reason i can't find an e-mail to you. So, my "question">> if you allow me i can write some musical themes or sound effects for PHAVON game, i look into the official page http://phavon.sourceforge.net/ but i can't find a mailing list or something, i want to participate.

pruebaice@hotmail.com

Saludos desde México

wow ...

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 04/03/2010 - 04:31.

wow ...

a very lardable article on packets journey in the linux kernel

Gavin Hu's picture
Submitted by Gavin Hu (not verified) on Fri, 06/16/2006 - 04:39.

I appreciate this article very much.
It explains the packets journey in the linux kernel in a simple but informative way.it reveals the processing internals of packets receiving.

Thanks a lot!

looking forward to Part III

Re: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Mahesh's picture
Submitted by Mahesh (not verified) on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 05:07.

Really very informative.
Thanxs a lot for such nice article.

Linux packet journey revealed!!!!

Balaji Patnala's picture
Submitted by Balaji Patnala (not verified) on Thu, 12/15/2005 - 02:16.

Hi Gianluca Insolvibile,

This article is the most informative about the packet journey in Linux right from Hardware drivers untill now i came across. I request you to reveal the packet journey details when we register to the TCP/IP stack with NF_HOOK.

Thanks in advance,
Balaji.Patnala

Nice article

Rajesh George's picture
Submitted by Rajesh George (not verified) on Tue, 11/15/2005 - 22:17.

Excellent article which reveals the mystery of journey of packets through stack in simple words.

Hats off to the Article

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/09/2005 - 03:34.

The author's terse statements have cleared the mystery of the lxr code, it beautifully unravels the mystery of the step by step procedure of how the packet is passed in the kernel to the user space.

Hats off to the author.

Raghu
University of California.
Los Angeles,CA

I would like to add my own

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/22/2007 - 00:46.

I would like to add my own IP options to the IP packet. Please mention me the steps to do so. Any links for it???

Thanks in advance.

This is an excellent article

Sudhir's picture
Submitted by Sudhir (not verified) on Wed, 06/08/2005 - 07:54.

This is an excellent article for a Linux beginner like me.
Thank you very much.

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/23/2004 - 02:00.

Nice article, I came here searching for Linux Networking Architecture, this article gave quite significant details about that.

Keep it up.

VJ

Pls tell me where I can find

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 12/06/2004 - 04:39.

Pls tell me where I can find this document. i am eager to reading it.

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/11/2004 - 03:00.

It gives really good insight in Networking Stack of Linux.

Thanks buddy.

-Kumar

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/31/2004 - 03:00.

very nice article,i am making a protocol analyzer, it helped me a lot...

imran

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/03/2003 - 03:00.

I agree with the other posters that this is an excellent article and a welcome journal series. The author's terse but information dense style is a refreshing change from all the fluff out there that aims to pass for technical journal writing. I found particularly useful the references to the relevant kernel source modules. Armed with a sharpened conceptual overview and specific references to source code, both seasoned developer and newbie alike can put this knowledge to real use; whether through real world network application development, or targeted educational research.

More a wish list item than a criticism, I'd like to see a few diagrams modelling and summarizing the excellent overview Insolvibile has sketched for us.

Looking forward to part III-mh

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/10/2002 - 02:00.

Great article - Just what I was trying to understand. Thanks.

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/28/2002 - 02:00.

I really appreciate this kind of article. Reading this, and following the code on lxr makes it quite clear, how the whole thing works.

Please, keep on, I am really looking forward to next part. Thanks.

Re: Kernel Korner: Inside the Linux Packet Filter

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/11/2002 - 02:00.

I am working on an filter-based high-traffic packet capturing engine and find this information just more than useful for optimizations.

Thx a lot

I am looking forward to part 3.

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