What is the BSD (or portable) way to get ToS byte (like IP_RECVTOS from linux)? - c

Question

What is the right (portable, stable) way to get the ToS byte of a received packet? I'm doing UDP with recvmsg() and on linux I can get the ToS if I setsockopt() IP_RECVTOS/IPV6_RECVTCLASS, but IP_RECVTOS doesn't seem to be available on my BSD systems. What is the right way to do this?
I primarily want this to work on the BSDs and Solaris.
Edit:
To clarify:
I currently use recvmsg() where I get the TTL and TOS in the msg_control field on Linux, but in order to get TTL and TOS I need to setsockopt()-enable IP_RECVTTL and IP_RECVTOS. And since Solaris and BSD (working with FreeBSD at the moment) don't have IP_RECVTOS from what I can see I don't get TOS when looping over the CMSG data.
I tried enabling IP_RECVOPTS and IP_RECVRETOPTS, but I still don't get any IP_TOS type CMSG.
Edit 2:
I want ToS to be able to verify (as much as possible) that it wasn't overwritten in transit. If for example a VoIP app all of a sudden notices that it's not getting EF tagged packets, then something is wrong and there should be an alarm. (and no, I'm not expecting EF to be respected or preserved over the public internet)
I want TTL basically just because I can. Hypothetically this could be used to trigger "something changed in the network between me and the other side" alerts, which can be useful to know if somethings stops working at the same time.

Answer 1

I was thinking if you can create two sockets.
One socket of type DGRAM used exclusively for sending
One Raw socket used exclusively for receiving.
Since you are using UDP, you can call a bind + recvFrom on the Raw Sock Fd and then manually unpack the IP header to determine the TOS or TTL.
When you want to send, use the DGRAM sockFd so you dont have to bother to actually create the UDP & IP packet yourself.
There may be issues like the kernel may pass the received buffer to both sockets or to the UDP socket instead of Raw socket or just to the Raw socket. If that is the case (or if it is implementation dependent) then we are back to square one. However, you can try calling bind on the Raw socket and see if it helps. I am aware this maybe a hack but searching on the net for a setsockopt for BSD returned nothing.
EDIT: I wrote a sample program
It kind of achieves the objective.
The code below creates two sockets (one raw & one udp). The udp socket is bound on the actual port I am expecting to receive data whereas the raw socket is bound on Port 0. I tested this on Linux and like I expected any data for port 2905 is received by both the sockets. I am however able to retrieve the TTL & TOS values. Dont downvote for the quality of the code. I am just experimenting whether it will work.
Further EDIT: Disabled the receive by UDP socket.
I have further enhanced the code to disable the receive by the UDP packet. Using setsockopt, I set the UDP's socket receive buffer to 0. This ensures the kernel does not pass the packet to the UDP socket. IMHO,You can now use the UDP socket exclusively for sending and the raw socket for reading. This should work for you in BSD and Solaris also.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<sys/socket.h>
#include<netinet/in.h>
#include<netinet/ip.h>
#include<arpa/inet.h>
#include<string.h>
#include "protHeaders.x"
#include "gen.h"
int main(void)
{
S32 rawSockFd;
S32 udpSockFd;
struct sockaddr_in rsin;
struct sockaddr_in usin;
S32 one = 1;
const S32* val = &one;
struct timeval tv;
fd_set rfds;
S32 maxFd;
S16 ret;
S8 rawBuffer[2048];
S8 udpBuffer[2048];
struct sockaddr udpFrom,rawFrom;
socklen_t rLen,uLen;
memset(rawBuffer,0,sizeof(rawBuffer));
memset(udpBuffer,0,sizeof(udpBuffer));
memset(udpFrom,0,sizeof(udpFrom));
memset(rawFrom,0,sizeof(rawFrom));
if ((rawSockFd = socket(PF_INET,SOCK_RAW,IPPROTO_UDP)) < 0)
{
perror("socket:create");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
/* doing the IP_HDRINCL call */
if (setsockopt(rawSockFd,IPPROTO_IP,IP_HDRINCL,val,sizeof(one)) < 0)
{
perror("Server:setsockopt");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
rsin.sin_family = AF_INET;
rsin.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY);
rsin.sin_port = htons(0);
usin.sin_family = AF_INET;
usin.sin_addr.s_addr = htons(INADDR_ANY);
usin.sin_port = htons(2905);
if(bind(rawSockFd,(struct sockaddr *)&rsin, sizeof(rsin)) < 0 )
{
perror("Server: bind failed");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
if ((udpSockFd = socket(PF_INET,SOCK_DGRAM,IPPROTO_UDP)) < 0)
{
perror("socket:create");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
if(bind(udpSockFd,(struct sockaddr *)&usin, sizeof(usin)) < 0 )
{
perror("Server: bind failed on udpsocket");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
/*set upd socket receive buffer to 0 */
one = 0;
if (setsockopt(udpSockFd,SOL_SOCKET,SO_RCVBUF,(char *)&one,sizeof(one)) < 0)
{
perror("Server:setsockopt on udpsocket failed");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
tv.tv_sec = 0;
tv.tv_usec = 0;
maxFd = (rawSockFd > udpSockFd)? rawSockFd:udpSockFd;
while(1)
{
FD_ZERO(&rfds);
FD_SET(rawSockFd,&rfds);
FD_SET(udpSockFd,&rfds);
ret = select(maxFd+1,&rfds,0,0,&tv);
if ( ret == -1)
{
perror("Select Failed");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
if(FD_ISSET(rawSockFd,&rfds))
{
printf("Raw Socked Received Message\n");
if(recvfrom(rawSockFd,rawBuffer,sizeof(rawBuffer),0,&rawFrom,&rLen) == -1)
{
perror("Raw socket recvfrom failed");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
/*print the tos */
printf("TOS:%x\n",*(rawBuffer+1));
printf("TTL:%x\n",*(rawBuffer+8));
}
if(FD_ISSET(udpSockFd,&rfds))
{
printf("UDP Socked Received Message\n");
if(recvfrom(udpSockFd,udpBuffer,sizeof(udpBuffer),0,&udpFrom,&uLen) == -1)
{
perror("Udp socket recvfrom failed");
RETVALUE(RFAILED);
}
printf("%s\n",udpBuffer);
}
}
RETVALUE(ROK);
}

Answer 2

The "proper" and standard solution is probably to use cmsg(3). You'll find a complete description in Stevens' "Unix network programming" book, a must-read.
Google Code Search found me this example of use.

Answer 3

My understanding is that firstly BSD does not support IP_RECVTOS like functionality and secondly BSD raw sockets do not support the reception of UDP nor TCP packets. However there are two other ways of doing this, firstly by using the /dev/bpf interface - either directly or via libpcap. Or secondly by using DIVERT sockets which allow for diversion of specified traffic flows to userland.
Has anyone actually tested the code above on a BSD box? (it may work on Solaris...)
On Linux this approach will work but as mentioned it is also possible (and more convenient) to use setsockopt() with IP_TOS on the outgoing socket to set the outgoing TOS byte and setsockopt() with IP_RECVTOS on the incoming socket and use recvmsg() to retrieve the TOS byte.

Answer 4

Unfortuneatly this sort of thing usually varies across different *ixs. On Solaris you want to use getsockopt with IP_TOS; I don't know about BSD.
See man 7 ip for details.