diff mbox series

[net-next,09/10] docs: bridge: add netfilter doc

Message ID 20231117093145.1563511-10-liuhangbin@gmail.com (mailing list archive)
State Superseded
Delegated to: Netdev Maintainers
Headers show
Series Doc: update bridge doc | expand

Checks

Context Check Description
netdev/series_format success Posting correctly formatted
netdev/tree_selection success Clearly marked for net-next
netdev/fixes_present success Fixes tag not required for -next series
netdev/header_inline success No static functions without inline keyword in header files
netdev/build_32bit success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/cc_maintainers warning 2 maintainers not CCed: corbet@lwn.net linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
netdev/build_clang success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/verify_signedoff success Signed-off-by tag matches author and committer
netdev/deprecated_api success None detected
netdev/check_selftest success No net selftest shell script
netdev/verify_fixes success No Fixes tag
netdev/build_allmodconfig_warn success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/checkpatch success total: 0 errors, 0 warnings, 0 checks, 42 lines checked
netdev/build_clang_rust success No Rust files in patch. Skipping build
netdev/kdoc success Errors and warnings before: 0 this patch: 0
netdev/source_inline success Was 0 now: 0

Commit Message

Hangbin Liu Nov. 17, 2023, 9:31 a.m. UTC 
Add netfilter part for bridge document.

Signed-off-by: Hangbin Liu <liuhangbin@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/networking/bridge.rst | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+)
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/bridge.rst b/Documentation/networking/bridge.rst
index f42c19e59268..772bbe28aefe 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/bridge.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/bridge.rst
@@ -238,6 +238,42 @@  kernel.
 
 Please see the :ref:`switchdev` document for more details.
 
+Netfilter
+=========
+
+The bridge netfilter module is a legacy feature that allows to filter bridged
+packets with iptables and ip6tables. Its use is discouraged. Users should
+consider using nftables for packet filtering.
+
+The older ebtables tool is more feature-limited compared to nftables, but
+just like nftables it doesn't need this module either to function.
+
+The br_netfilter module intercepts packets entering the bridge, performs
+minimal sanity tests on ipv4 and ipv6 packets and then pretends that
+these packets are being routed, not bridged. br_netfilter then calls
+the ip and ipv6 netfilter hooks from the bridge layer, i.e. ip(6)tables
+rulesets will also see these packets.
+
+br_netfilter is also the reason for the iptables *physdev* match:
+This match is the only way to reliably tell routed and bridged packets
+apart in an iptables ruleset.
+
+Note that ebtables and nftables will work fine without the br_netfilter module.
+iptables/ip6tables/arptables do not work for bridged traffic because they
+plug in the routing stack. nftables rules in ip/ip6/inet/arp families won't
+see traffic that is forwarded by a bridge either, but that's very much how it
+should be.
+
+Historically the feature set of ebtables was very limited (it still is),
+this module was added to pretend packets are routed and invoke the ipv4/ipv6
+netfilter hooks from the bridge so users had access to the more feature-rich
+iptables matching capabilities (including conntrack). nftables doesn't have
+this limitation, pretty much all features work regardless of the protocol family.
+
+So, br_netfilter is only needed if users, for some reason, need to use
+ip(6)tables to filter packets forwarded by the bridge, or NAT bridged
+traffic. For pure link layer filtering, this module isn't needed.
+
 FAQ
 ===