Subject: [PATCH AUTOSEL 5.18 020/159] libbpf: Fix a bug with checking bpf_probe_read_kernel() support in old kernels

From: Sasha Levin <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2022 09:22:05 -0400

From: Runqing Yang <[email-masked]>

[ Upstream commit d252a4a499a07bec21c65873f605c3a1ef52ffed ]

Background:
Libbpf automatically replaces calls to BPF bpf_probe_read_{kernel,user}
[_str]() helpers with bpf_probe_read[_str](), if libbpf detects that
kernel doesn't support new APIs. Specifically, libbpf invokes the
probe_kern_probe_read_kernel function to load a small eBPF program into
the kernel in which bpf_probe_read_kernel API is invoked and lets the
kernel checks whether the new API is valid. If the loading fails, libbpf
considers the new API invalid and replaces it with the old API.

static int probe_kern_probe_read_kernel(void)
{
	struct bpf_insn insns[] = {
		BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_1, BPF_REG_10),	/* r1 = r10 (fp) */
		BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_1, -8),	/* r1 += -8 */
		BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_2, 8),		/* r2 = 8 */
		BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_3, 0),		/* r3 = 0 */
		BPF_RAW_INSN(BPF_JMP | BPF_CALL, 0, 0, 0, BPF_FUNC_probe_read_kernel),
		BPF_EXIT_INSN(),
	};
	int fd, insn_cnt = ARRAY_SIZE(insns);

	fd = bpf_prog_load(BPF_PROG_TYPE_KPROBE, NULL,
                           "GPL", insns, insn_cnt, NULL);
	return probe_fd(fd);
}

Bug:
On older kernel versions [0], the kernel checks whether the version
number provided in the bpf syscall, matches the LINUX_VERSION_CODE.
If not matched, the bpf syscall fails. eBPF However, the
probe_kern_probe_read_kernel code does not set the kernel version
number provided to the bpf syscall, which causes the loading process
alwasys fails for old versions. It means that libbpf will replace the
new API with the old one even the kernel supports the new one.

Solution:
After a discussion in [1], the solution is using BPF_PROG_TYPE_TRACEPOINT
program type instead of BPF_PROG_TYPE_KPROBE because kernel does not
enfoce version check for tracepoint programs. I test the patch in old
kernels (4.18 and 4.19) and it works well.

  [0] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v4.19/source/kernel/bpf/syscall.c#L1360
  [1] Closes: https://github.com/libbpf/libbpf/issues/473

Signed-off-by: Runqing Yang <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <[email-masked]>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/[email-masked]
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <[email-masked]>
---
 tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
index 809fe209cdcc..dabf9a1451c3 100644
--- a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
+++ b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
@@ -4587,7 +4587,7 @@ static int probe_kern_probe_read_kernel(void)
 	};
 	int fd, insn_cnt = ARRAY_SIZE(insns);
 
-	fd = bpf_prog_load(BPF_PROG_TYPE_KPROBE, NULL, "GPL", insns, insn_cnt, NULL);
+	fd = bpf_prog_load(BPF_PROG_TYPE_TRACEPOINT, NULL, "GPL", insns, insn_cnt, NULL);
 	return probe_fd(fd);
 }
 
-- 
2.35.1