eBPF Archives

Winsage

November 5, 2024

Exploring eBPF for Windows: Opportunities and Limitations

The extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) allows for the execution of custom code in kernel space, enhancing application performance management and security. Windows has introduced support for eBPF, but it has limitations. Microsoft began a project in 2021 to enable eBPF capabilities on Windows, allowing the use of existing Linux eBPF tools and libraries. To install eBPF on Windows, a kernel debugger or test-signing mode is required, which is impractical for production systems. eBPF for Windows is still in development, suitable for experimentation, but not yet ready for real-world deployment. There is no clear timeline for a production-ready version, and development activity has slowed.

Winsage

October 11, 2024

eBPF Is Coming for Windows

The integration of eBPF into Microsoft Windows is being developed through a collaboration between the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Microsoft. Microsoft researchers are creating a version of eBPF for Windows that will allow developers to execute small programs directly within the Windows kernel using a programmable interface similar to Linux. This project is hosted on GitHub and has 43 contributors, primarily using C and some C++. The implementation will maintain bytecode compatibility with Linux eBPF and will include a comparable interpreter and just-in-time compiler. The IETF is also working on standardizing eBPF to ensure compatibility between Windows and Linux, focusing on solidifying the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and creating a specification for producing portable eBPF binaries through an Application Binary Interface (ABI).