Implement capability dropping and document needed capabilities

README.md

@@ -112,6 +112,42 @@ with your own config baked in.
 
 See [benchmark](benchmark) directory to get an idea of how low ebpf overhead is.
 
+## Required capabilities
+
+While you can run `ebpf_exporter` as `root`, it is not strictly necessary.
+Only the following two capabilities are necessary for normal operation:
+
+* `CAP_BPF`: required for privileged bpf operations and for reading memory
+* `CAP_PERFMON`: required to attach bpf programs to kprobes and tracepoints
+
+If you are using `systemd`, you can use the following configuration to run
+as on otherwise unprivileged dynamic user with the needed capabilities:
+
+```ini
+DynamicUser=true
+AmbientCapabilities=CAP_BPF CAP_PERFMON
+CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_BPF CAP_PERFMON
+```
+
+Prior to Linux v5.8 there was no dedicated `CAP_BPF` and `CAP_PERFMON`,
+but you can use `CAP_SYS_ADMIN` instead of your kernel is older.
+
+If you pass `--capabilities.keep=none` flag to `ebpf_expoter`, then it drops
+all capabilities after attaching the probes, leaving it fully unprivileged.
+
+The following additional capabilities might be needed:
+
+* `CAP_SYSLOG`: if you use `ksym` decoder to have access to `/proc/kallsyms`.
+   Note that you must keep this capability: `--capabilities.keep=cap_syslog`.
+   See: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.4/source/kernel/kallsyms.c#L982
+* `CAP_IPC_LOCK`: if you use `perf_event_array` for reading from the kernel.
+   Note that you must keep it: `--capabilities.keep=cap_perfmon,cap_ipc_lock`.
+* `CAP_NET_ADMIN`: if you use net admin related programs like xdp.
+   See: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.4/source/kernel/bpf/syscall.c#L2450
+* `CAP_SYS_RESOURCE`: if you run an older kernel without memcg accounting for
+   bpf memory. Upstream Linux kernel added support for this in v5.11.
+   See: https://github.com/libbpf/libbpf/blob/v1.2.0/src/bpf.c#L98-L106
+
 ## Supported scenarios
 
 Currently the only supported way of getting data out of the kernel is via maps.

cmd/ebpf_exporter/main.go

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/version"
 	"gopkg.in/alecthomas/kingpin.v2"
+	"kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/cap"
 )
 
 func main() {
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ func main() {
 	debug := kingpin.Flag("debug", "Enable debug.").Bool()
 	listenAddress := kingpin.Flag("web.listen-address", "The address to listen on for HTTP requests (fd://0 for systemd activation).").Default(":9435").String()
 	metricsPath := kingpin.Flag("web.telemetry-path", "Path under which to expose metrics.").Default("/metrics").String()
+	capabilities := kingpin.Flag("capabilities.keep", "Comma separated list of capabilities to keep (cap_syslog, cap_bpf, etc.), 'all' or 'none'").Default("all").String()
 	kingpin.Version(version.Print("ebpf_exporter"))
 	kingpin.HelpFlag.Short('h')
 	kingpin.Parse()
@@ -54,6 +56,11 @@ func main() {
 		log.Fatalf("Error attaching exporter: %s", err)
 	}
 
+	err = ensureCapabilities(*capabilities)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("Error dropping capabilities: %s", err)
+	}
+
 	log.Printf("Started with %d programs found in the config in %dms", len(configs), time.Since(started).Milliseconds())
 
 	err = prometheus.Register(version.NewCollector("ebpf_exporter"))
@@ -115,6 +122,49 @@ func listen(addr string) error {
 
 }
 
+func ensureCapabilities(keep string) error {
+	existing := cap.GetProc()
+	log.Printf("Started with capabilities: %q", existing)
+
+	if keep == "all" {
+		log.Printf("Retaining all existing capabilities")
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	ensure := cap.NewSet()
+
+	values := []cap.Value{}
+	if keep != "none" {
+		for _, name := range strings.Split(keep, ",") {
+			value, err := cap.FromName(name)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error parsing capability %q: %v", name, err)
+			}
+
+			values = append(values, value)
+		}
+	}
+
+	err := ensure.SetFlag(cap.Permitted, true, values...)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("error setting permitted capabilities: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	err = ensure.SetFlag(cap.Effective, true, values...)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("error setting effective capabilities: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	err = ensure.SetProc()
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to drop capabilities: %q -> %q: %v", existing, ensure, err)
+	}
+
+	log.Printf("Dropped capabilities to %q", ensure)
+
+	return nil
+}
+
 func libbpfLogCallback(level int, msg string) {
 	levelName := "unknown"
 	switch level {

exporter/exporter.go

@@ -112,7 +112,10 @@ func (e *Exporter) Attach() error {
 			return fmt.Errorf("multiple configs with name %q", cfg.Name)
 		}
 
-		module, err := libbpfgo.NewModuleFromFile(cfg.BPFPath)
+		module, err := libbpfgo.NewModuleFromFileArgs(libbpfgo.NewModuleArgs{
+			BPFObjPath:      cfg.BPFPath,
+			SkipMemlockBump: true, // Let libbpf itself decide whether it is needed
+		})
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("error creating module from %q for config %q: %v", cfg.BPFPath, cfg.Name, err)
 		}

go.mod

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ require (
 	golang.org/x/sys v0.9.0
 	gopkg.in/alecthomas/kingpin.v2 v2.2.6
 	gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.4.0
+	kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/cap v1.2.69
 )
 
 require (
@@ -25,4 +26,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/prometheus/client_model v0.4.0 // indirect
 	github.com/prometheus/procfs v0.10.1 // indirect
 	google.golang.org/protobuf v1.30.0 // indirect
+	kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/psx v1.2.69 // indirect
 )
+
+replace github.com/aquasecurity/libbpfgo => github.com/bobrik/libbpfgo v0.0.0-20230704220959-d2cc6f8a97da

go.sum

@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@ github.com/alecthomas/template v0.0.0-20190718012654-fb15b899a751 h1:JYp7IbQjafo
 github.com/alecthomas/template v0.0.0-20190718012654-fb15b899a751/go.mod h1:LOuyumcjzFXgccqObfd/Ljyb9UuFJ6TxHnclSeseNhc=
 github.com/alecthomas/units v0.0.0-20211218093645-b94a6e3cc137 h1:s6gZFSlWYmbqAuRjVTiNNhvNRfY2Wxp9nhfyel4rklc=
 github.com/alecthomas/units v0.0.0-20211218093645-b94a6e3cc137/go.mod h1:OMCwj8VM1Kc9e19TLln2VL61YJF0x1XFtfdL4JdbSyE=
-github.com/aquasecurity/libbpfgo v0.4.9-libbpf-1.2.0 h1:pk9L7I6wF1nTfO42+jjXhA8ozRjvtj2ZvHV/i/YC0dE=
-github.com/aquasecurity/libbpfgo v0.4.9-libbpf-1.2.0/go.mod h1:UD3Mfr+JZ/ASK2VMucI/zAdEhb35LtvYXvAUdrdqE9s=
 github.com/beorn7/perks v1.0.1 h1:VlbKKnNfV8bJzeqoa4cOKqO6bYr3WgKZxO8Z16+hsOM=
 github.com/beorn7/perks v1.0.1/go.mod h1:G2ZrVWU2WbWT9wwq4/hrbKbnv/1ERSJQ0ibhJ6rlkpw=
+github.com/bobrik/libbpfgo v0.0.0-20230704220959-d2cc6f8a97da h1:ccRuROY275uHluzDCosqhiKacMivXro66+S54QMm6B0=
+github.com/bobrik/libbpfgo v0.0.0-20230704220959-d2cc6f8a97da/go.mod h1:UD3Mfr+JZ/ASK2VMucI/zAdEhb35LtvYXvAUdrdqE9s=
 github.com/cespare/xxhash/v2 v2.2.0 h1:DC2CZ1Ep5Y4k3ZQ899DldepgrayRUGE6BBZ/cd9Cj44=
 github.com/cespare/xxhash/v2 v2.2.0/go.mod h1:VGX0DQ3Q6kWi7AoAeZDth3/j3BFtOZR5XLFGgcrjCOs=
 github.com/coreos/go-systemd v0.0.0-20191104093116-d3cd4ed1dbcf h1:iW4rZ826su+pqaw19uhpSCzhj44qo35pNgKFGqzDKkU=
@@ -58,3 +58,7 @@ gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.2.2/go.mod h1:hI93XBmqTisBFMUTm0b8Fm+jr3Dg1NNxqwp+5A1VGuI=
 gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.4.0 h1:D8xgwECY7CYvx+Y2n4sBz93Jn9JRvxdiyyo8CTfuKaY=
 gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.4.0/go.mod h1:RDklbk79AGWmwhnvt/jBztapEOGDOx6ZbXqjP6csGnQ=
 gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1 h1:fxVm/GzAzEWqLHuvctI91KS9hhNmmWOoWu0XTYJS7CA=
+kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/cap v1.2.69 h1:N0m3tKYbkRMmDobh/47ngz+AWeV7PcfXMDi8xu3Vrag=
+kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/cap v1.2.69/go.mod h1:Tk5Ip2TuxaWGpccL7//rAsLRH6RQ/jfqTGxuN/+i/FQ=
+kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/psx v1.2.69 h1:IdrOs1ZgwGw5CI+BH6GgVVlOt+LAXoPyh7enr8lfaXs=
+kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/libcap/psx v1.2.69/go.mod h1:+l6Ee2F59XiJ2I6WR5ObpC1utCQJZ/VLsEbQCD8RG24=