eBPF Token-Bucket Rate Limiting for Security Message Loss Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security monitoring applications using eBPF face computational overhead and message loss due to full message buffers, particularly in highly concurrent environments, leading to the dropping of important security information.
Innovation Solution
Implement token-bucket rate limiting in eBPF to selectively send relevant messages from kernel space to user space by using unique process identifiers (UPIDs) and message types, managing a map with token counts and discrete time units to determine message transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If token-bucket rate limiting is implemented in eBPF, then computational overhead is reduced and message loss is minimized, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a message buffer as an intermediary component between the eBPF security monitoring application and the user space. This buffer temporarily stores messages that cannot be immediately processed, preventing message loss while avoiding the computational overhead of processing every message in real-time. The buffer acts as a mediator that decouples the production of security events from their processing, thereby improving throughput without significantly increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements token-bucket rate limiting by dynamically adjusting parameters such as token generation rates, bucket capacities, and message prioritization thresholds. These parameter changes allow the system to adapt to varying workloads and security requirements, optimizing the balance between computational overhead and message delivery completeness without requiring complex structural changes to the eBPF architecture.
2Loss of information
If all messages are sent from kernel space to user space, then no security information is lost, but computational overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The eBPF security monitoring application performs self-service by autonomously managing its own message buffer and rate limiting parameters without requiring external intervention. The application automatically adjusts token bucket parameters, prioritizes messages based on security relevance, and manages buffer occupancy, thereby reducing the need for additional control mechanisms and minimizing computational overhead while ensuring important security information is not lost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by selectively sending only the most relevant security messages from kernel space to user space, rather than transmitting all messages. The token-bucket rate limiting mechanism ensures that a sufficient number of important messages are transmitted while allowing less critical messages to be buffered or dropped, thereby reducing computational energy consumption while maintaining security information completeness for critical events.
3Loss of information
If message buffer size is increased to prevent message loss, then memory usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic buffer management where the message buffer size and token bucket capacities are adjusted based on real-time system conditions, workload characteristics, and security requirements. This dynamic approach allows the system to maintain adequate message retention during high-security-event periods while reducing memory consumption during normal operation, thereby balancing message loss prevention with memory efficiency without requiring a permanently large buffer.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides techniques for context-sensitive token-bucket rate limiting. A processing device obtains, in a kernel space of an operating system (OS), a message comprising a unique process identifier (UPID) and a message type. The processing device determines whether to send the message from the kernel space to a user space of the OS based on at least one of: the UPID, the message type, or a token count and a discrete time unit in an entry in a data structure in the kernel space. The processing device processes the message based on the determination of whether to send the message from the kernel space to the user space.