Ubuntu Manpage: packet - packet interface on device level.

NAME

       packet - packet interface on device level.

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <netpacket/packet.h>
       #include <net/ethernet.h> /* the L2 protocols */

       packet_socket = socket(AF_PACKET, int socket_type, int protocol);

DESCRIPTION

Packet sockets are used to receive or send raw packets at the device driver (OSI Layer 2)
level. They allow the user to implement protocol modules in user space on top of the
physical layer.

The socket_type is either SOCK_RAW for raw packets including the link level header or
SOCK_DGRAM for cooked packets with the link level header removed. The link level header
information is available in a common format in a sockaddr_ll. protocol is the IEEE 802.3
protocol number in network order. See the <linux/if_ether.h> include file for a list of
allowed protocols. When protocol is set to htons(ETH_P_ALL) then all protocols are
received. All incoming packets of that protocol type will be passed to the packet socket
before they are passed to the protocols implemented in the kernel.

Only processes with effective UID 0 or the CAP_NET_RAW capability may open packet sockets.

SOCK_RAW packets are passed to and from the device driver without any changes in the
packet data. When receiving a packet, the address is still parsed and passed in a
standard sockaddr_ll address structure. When transmitting a packet, the user supplied
buffer should contain the physical layer header. That packet is then queued unmodified to
the network driver of the interface defined by the destination address. Some device
drivers always add other headers. SOCK_RAW is similar to but not compatible with the
obsolete AF_INET/SOCK_PACKET of Linux 2.0.

SOCK_DGRAM operates on a slightly higher level. The physical header is removed before the
packet is passed to the user. Packets sent through a SOCK_DGRAM packet socket get a
suitable physical layer header based on the information in the sockaddr_ll destination
address before they are queued.

By default all packets of the specified protocol type are passed to a packet socket. To
get packets only from a specific interface use bind(2) specifying an address in a struct
sockaddr_ll to bind the packet socket to an interface. Only the sll_protocol and the
sll_ifindex address fields are used for purposes of binding.

The connect(2) operation is not supported on packet sockets.

When the MSG_TRUNC flag is passed to recvmsg(2), recv(2), recvfrom(2) the real length of
the packet on the wire is always returned, even when it is longer than the buffer.

Address types
The sockaddr_ll is a device independent physical layer address.

struct sockaddr_ll {
unsigned short sll_family; /* Always AF_PACKET */
unsigned short sll_protocol; /* Physical layer protocol */
int sll_ifindex; /* Interface number */
unsigned short sll_hatype; /* ARP hardware type */
unsigned char sll_pkttype; /* Packet type */
unsigned char sll_halen; /* Length of address */
unsigned char sll_addr[8]; /* Physical layer address */
};

sll_protocol is the standard ethernet protocol type in network order as defined in the
<linux/if_ether.h> include file. It defaults to the socket's protocol. sll_ifindex is
the interface index of the interface (see netdevice(7)); 0 matches any interface (only
permitted for binding). sll_hatype is an ARP type as defined in the <linux/if_arp.h>
include file. sll_pkttype contains the packet type. Valid types are PACKET_HOST for a
packet addressed to the local host, PACKET_BROADCAST for a physical layer broadcast
packet, PACKET_MULTICAST for a packet sent to a physical layer multicast address,
PACKET_OTHERHOST for a packet to some other host that has been caught by a device driver
in promiscuous mode, and PACKET_OUTGOING for a packet originated from the local host that
is looped back to a packet socket. These types make sense only for receiving. sll_addr
and sll_halen contain the physical layer (e.g., IEEE 802.3) address and its length. The
exact interpretation depends on the device.

When you send packets it is enough to specify sll_family, sll_addr, sll_halen,
sll_ifindex. The other fields should be 0. sll_hatype and sll_pkttype are set on
received packets for your information. For bind only sll_protocol and sll_ifindex are
used.

Socket options
Packet sockets can be used to configure physical layer multicasting and promiscuous mode.
It works by calling setsockopt(2) on a packet socket for SOL_PACKET and one of the options
PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP to add a binding or PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP to drop it. They both
expect a packet_mreq structure as argument:

struct packet_mreq {
int mr_ifindex; /* interface index */
unsigned short mr_type; /* action */
unsigned short mr_alen; /* address length */
unsigned char mr_address[8]; /* physical layer address */
};

mr_ifindex contains the interface index for the interface whose status should be changed.
The mr_type parameter specifies which action to perform. PACKET_MR_PROMISC enables
receiving all packets on a shared medium (often known as "promiscuous mode"),
PACKET_MR_MULTICAST binds the socket to the physical layer multicast group specified in
mr_address and mr_alen, and PACKET_MR_ALLMULTI sets the socket up to receive all multicast
packets arriving at the interface.

In addition the traditional ioctls SIOCSIFFLAGS, SIOCADDMULTI, SIOCDELMULTI can be used
for the same purpose.

Ioctls
SIOCGSTAMP can be used to receive the timestamp of the last received packet. Argument is
a struct timeval.

In addition all standard ioctls defined in netdevice(7) and socket(7) are valid on packet
sockets.

Error handling
Packet sockets do no error handling other than errors occurred while passing the packet to
the device driver. They don't have the concept of a pending error.

ERRORS

       EADDRNOTAVAIL
              Unknown multicast group address passed.

       EFAULT User passed invalid memory address.

       EINVAL Invalid argument.

       EMSGSIZE
              Packet is bigger than interface MTU.

       ENETDOWN
              Interface is not up.

       ENOBUFS
              Not enough memory to allocate the packet.

       ENODEV Unknown device name or interface index specified in interface address.

       ENOENT No packet received.

       ENOTCONN
              No interface address passed.

       ENXIO  Interface address contained an invalid interface index.

       EPERM  User has insufficient privileges to carry out this operation.

              In addition other errors may be generated by the low-level driver.

VERSIONS

       AF_PACKET is  a  new  feature  in  Linux  2.2.   Earlier  Linux  versions  supported  only
       SOCK_PACKET.

       The include file <netpacket/packet.h> is present since glibc 2.1.  Older systems need:

           #include <asm/types.h>
           #include <linux/if_packet.h>
           #include <linux/if_ether.h>  /* The L2 protocols */

NOTES

       For  portable  programs it is suggested to use AF_PACKET via pcap(3); although this covers
       only a subset of the AF_PACKET features.

       The SOCK_DGRAM packet sockets make no attempt to create or parse the IEEE 802.2 LLC header
       for  a IEEE 802.3 frame.  When ETH_P_802_3 is specified as protocol for sending the kernel
       creates the 802.3 frame and fills out the length field; the user has  to  supply  the  LLC
       header  to  get  a fully conforming packet.  Incoming 802.3 packets are not multiplexed on
       the DSAP/SSAP protocol  fields;  instead  they  are  supplied  to  the  user  as  protocol
       ETH_P_802_2  with  the  LLC  header  prepended.   It  is  thus  not  possible  to  bind to
       ETH_P_802_3; bind to ETH_P_802_2 instead and do  the  protocol  multiplex  yourself.   The
       default  for  sending  is the standard Ethernet DIX encapsulation with the protocol filled
       in.

       Packet sockets are not subject to the input or output firewall chains.

   Compatibility
       In Linux 2.0, the only  way  to  get  a  packet  socket  was  by  calling  socket(AF_INET,
       SOCK_PACKET,  protocol).   This  is  still  supported  but  strongly deprecated.  The main
       difference between the two methods is that SOCK_PACKET uses the old struct sockaddr_pkt to
       specify an interface, which doesn't provide physical layer independence.

           struct sockaddr_pkt {
               unsigned short spkt_family;
               unsigned char  spkt_device[14];
               unsigned short spkt_protocol;
           };

       spkt_family  contains  the  device  type, spkt_protocol is the IEEE 802.3 protocol type as
       defined in <sys/if_ether.h> and spkt_device  is  the  device  name  as  a  null-terminated
       string, for example, eth0.

       This structure is obsolete and should not be used in new code.

BUGS

       glibc 2.1 does not have a define for SOL_PACKET.  The suggested workaround is to use:

           #ifndef SOL_PACKET
           #define SOL_PACKET 263
           #endif

       This is fixed in later glibc versions and also does not occur on libc5 systems.

       The IEEE 802.2/803.3 LLC handling could be considered as a bug.

       Socket filters are not documented.

       The  MSG_TRUNC  recvmsg(2)  extension  is an ugly hack and should be replaced by a control
       message.  There is currently no way to get the original destination address of packets via
       SOCK_DGRAM.

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,     and    information    about    reporting    bugs,    can    be    found    at
       http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.