Tempesta FW is a hybrid solution that combines a reverse proxy and a firewall at the same time. It accelerates Web applications and provides high performance framework with access to all network layers for running complex network traffic classification and blocking modules.
Tempesta FW is built into Linux TCP/IP stack for better and more stable performance characteristics in comparison with TCP servers on top of common Socket API or even kernel sockets.
- x86-64 Haswell or later CPU. Tempesta FW requires SSE 4.2, AVX2 and 2MB huge pages enabled (check sse4_2, avx2 and pse flags in your /proc/cpuinfo);
- At least 2GB RAM;
- RSS capable network adapter;
- Linux CentOS/RHEL 7 or Debian 8;
- Filesystem with
fallocate(2)system call (e.g. ext4, btrfs or xfs); - GNU Make 3.82 or higher;
- GCC and G++ compilers of versions 4.8 or higher;
- Boost library of version 1.53 or higher;
Tempesta requires that the following Linux kernel configuration options are switched on:
- CONFIG_SECURITY
- CONFIG_SECURITY_NETWORK
- CONFIG_SECURITY_TEMPESTA
- CONFIG_DEFAULT_SECURITY_TEMPESTA
- CONFIG_DEFAULT_SECURITY="tempesta"
We suggest that CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE is used for better throughput. However, please use CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY for debugging since this mode causes additional stress to synchronization of several algorithms. Also note that CONFIG_PREEMPT is not supported at all.
To build the module you need to do the following steps:
-
Download the patched Linux kernel
-
Build, install, and then boot the kernel. Classic build and install procedure is used. For that, go to the directory with the patched kernel sources, make sure you have a correct
.configfile, and then do the following (<N>is the number of CPU cores on the system):make -j<N> make -j<N> modules make -j<N> modules_install make install -
Optionally, add kernel parameter
tempesta_dbmemto the kernel command line. The value is the order of 2MB memory blocks reserved on each NUMA node for Tempesta database. Huge pages are used if possible. The default value is 8 which stands for 512Mb reserved on each NUMA node.tempesta_dbmem=1 -
Run
maketo build Tempesta FW and Tempesta DB modules:$ cd tempesta && make
Use tempesta.sh script to run and stop Tempesta. The script provides help
information with --help switch. Usage example:
$ ./scripts/tempesta.sh --start
$ ./scripts/tempesta.sh --stop
Tempesta is configured via plain-text configuration file.
The file location is determined by the TFW_CFG_PATH environment variable:
$ TFW_CFG_PATH="/opt/tempesta.conf" ./scripts/tempesta.sh --start
By default, the tempesta_fw.conf from this directory is used.
See tempesta_fw.conf for the list of available configuration directives,
options and their descriptions.
Tempesta listens to incoming connections on specified address and port. The syntax is as follows:
listen <PORT> | <IPADDR>[:PORT] [proto=http|https];
IPADDR may be either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Host names are not allowed.
IPv6 address must be enclosed in square brackets (e.g. "[::0]" but not "::0").
If only PORT is specified, then address 0.0.0.0 (but not [::1]) is used.
If only IPADDR is specified, then default HTTP port 80 is used.
Tempesta opens one socket for each listen directive. Multiple listen
directives may be defined to listen on multiple addresses/ports.
If listen directive is not defined in the configuration file,
then by default Tempesta listens on IPv4 address 0.0.0.0 and port 80,
which is an equivalent to listen 80 directive.
Below are examples of listen directive:
listen 80;
listen 443 proto=https;
listen [::0]:80;
listen 127.0.0.1:8001;
listen [::1]:8001;
It is allowed to specify the type of listening socket via the proto. At
the moment HTTP and HTTPS protos are supported. If no proto
option was given, then HTTP is supposed by the default.
Tempesta allows to use TLS-encrypted HTTP connections (HTTPS). It is required that public certificate and private key have been configured as follows:
ssl_certificate /path/to/tfw-root.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/tfw-root.key;
Also, proto=https option is needed for the listen directive.
In case of using a self-signed certificate with Tempesta, it's convenient to use OpenSSL to generate a key and a certificate. The following shell command can be used:
openssl req -nodes -new -x509 -keyout tfw-root.key -out tfw-root.crt
You'll be prompted to fill out several X.509 certificate fields. The values are the same for the subject and the issuer in a self-signed certificate. Use any valid values as you like.
The file tfw-root.key contains the private key, and the file
tfw-root.crt contains the public X.509 certificate. Both are in PEM
format. These files are used in Tempesta configuration as follows:
ssl_certificate /path/to/tfw-root.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/tfw-root.key;
Tempesta may use a single TCP connection to send and receive multiple HTTP requests/responses. The syntax is as follows:
keepalive_timeout <TIMEOUT>;
TIMEOUT is a timeout in seconds during which a keep-alive client connection
will stay open in Tempesta. The zero value disables keep-alive client
connections. Default value is 75.
Below are examples of keepalive_timeout directive:
keepalive_timeout 75;
Tempesta caches Web-content by default, i.e. works as reverse proxy.
Configuration directive cache manages the cache befavior:
0- no caching at all, pure proxying mode;1- cache sharding when each NUMA node contains independent shard of whole cache. This mode has the smallest memory requirements;2- (default) replicated mode when each NUMA node has whole replica of the cache. It requires more RAM, but delivers the highest performance.
cache_db specifies path to a cache database files.
The PATH must be absolute and the directory must exist. The database file
must end with .tbd. E.g. cache_db /opt/tempesta/db/cache.tdb is
the right Tmpesta DB path. However, this is the only path pattern rather than
real path. Tempesta creates per NUMA node database files, so if you have two
processor packages on modern hardware, then the following files will be
created (one for each processor package) for the example above:
/opt/tempesta/db/cache0.tdb
/opt/tempesta/db/cache1.tdb
cache_size defines size (in bytes, suffixes like 'MB' are not supported
yet) of each Tempesta DB file used as Web cache storage. The size must be
multiple of 2MB (Tempesta DB extent size). Default value is 268435456
(256MB).
cache_methods specifies the list of cacheable request methods. Responses
to requests with these methods will be cached. If this directive is skipped,
then the default cacheable request method is GET. Note that not all of
HTTP request methods are cacheable by the HTTP standards. Besides, some
request methods may be cachable only when certain additional restrictions
are satisfied. Also, note that not all HTTP request methods may be supported
by Tempesta at this time. Below is an example of this directive:
cache_methods GET HEAD;
Caching policy is controlled by rules that match the destination URL agsinst the pattern specified in the rule and using the match operator specified in the same rule. The full syntax is as follows:
<caching policy> <OP> <string> [<string>];
<caching policy> directive can be one of the following:
- cache_fulfill - Serve the request from cache. If the response is not found in cache, then forward the request to a back end server, and store the response in cache to serve future requests for the same resource. Update the cached response when necessary.
- cache_bypass - Skip the cache. Simply forward the request to a server. Do not store the response in cache.
<string> is the anticipated substring of URL. It is matched against
the URL in a request according to the match operator specified by <OP>.
Note that the string must be verbatim. Regular expressions are not
supported at this time.
The following <OP> keywords (match operators) are supported:
- eq - URL is fully equal to
<string>. - prefix - URL starts with
<string>. - suffix - URL ends with
<string>.
Caching policy directives are processed strictly in the order they are defined in the configuration file. Below are examples of caching policy directives:
cache_fulfill suffix ".jpg" ".png";
cache_bypass suffix ".avi";
cache_bypass prefix "/static/dynamic_zone/";
cache_fulfill prefix "/static/";
Also, a special variant of wildcard matching is supported. It makes all requests and responses either use or skip the cache. It should be used with caution.
cache_fulfill * *;
cache_bypass * *;
Cached responses may be purged manually using the PURGE request method and the URL of the cached response. A typical use case is that when some content is changed on the upstream server, then a PURGE request followed by a GET request will update an appropriate entry in the cache.
This functionality is controlled with the following directives:
- cache_purge
[invalidate]; - Defines the purge modeinvalidatejust makes the cache record invalid. The cached response may still be returned to a client under certain conditions. This is the default mode. Other modes will be added in future. - cache_purge_acl
<ip_address>; - Specifies the IP addresses of hosts that are permitted to send PURGE requests. PURGE requests from all other hosts will be denied. That makes this directive mandatory whencache_purgedirective is specified. Multilple addresses are separated with white spaces.
<ip_address> can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address. An IP address can be specified
in CIDR format where the address is followed by a slash character and the
prefix (or mask) with the number of significant bits in the addresss. Below
are examples of a valid IP address specification:
127.0.0.1
192.168.10.50/24
::ffff:c0a8:b0a
[::ffff:c0a8:a0a]
::ffff:c0a8:b0b/120
[::ffff:c0a8:b0b]/120
A PURGE request can be issued using any tool that is convenient. Below is just one example:
curl -X PURGE http://192.168.10.10/
Location is a way of grouping certain directives that are applied only to that specific location. Location is defined by a string and a match operator that are used to match the string against URL in requests. The syntax is as follows:
location <OP> "<string>" {
<directive>;
...
<directive>;
}
<OP> and <string> are specified the same way as defined in the
[Caching Policy](#Caching Policy) section.
Multiple locations may be defined. Location directives are processed strictly in the order they are defined in the configuration file.
Only caching policy directives may currently be grouped by the location directive. Caching policy directives defined outside of any specific location are considered the default policy for all locations.
When locations are defined in the configuration, the URL of each request is matched against strings specified in the location directives and using the corresponding match operator. If a matching location is found, then caching policy directives for that location are matched against the URL.
In case there's no matching location, or there's no matching caching directive in the location, the default caching policy directives are matched against the URL.
If a matching caching policy directive is not found, then the default action is to skip the cache - do not serve requests from cache, and do not store responses in cache.
Below is an example of location directive definition:
cache_bypass suffix ".php";
cache_fulfill suffix ".mp4";
location prefix "/static/" {
cache_bypass prefix "/static/dynamic_zone/";
cache_fulfill * *;
}
location prefix "/society/" {
cache_bypass prefix "/society/breaking_news/";
cache_fulfill suffix ".jpg" ".png";
cache_fulfill suffix ".css";
}
A back end HTTP server is defined with server directive. The full syntax is
as follows:
server <IPADDR>[:<PORT>] [conns_n=<N>];
IPADDR can be either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Hostnames are not allowed.
IPv6 address must be enclosed in square brackets (e.g. "[::0]" but not "::0").
PORT defaults to 80 if not specified.
conns_n=<N> is the number of parallel connections to the server.
N defaults to 4 if not specified.
Multiple back end servers may be defined. For example:
server 10.1.0.1;
server [fc00::1]:80;
Back end servers can be grouped together into a single unit for the purpose of load balancing. Servers within a group are considered interchangeable. The load is distributed evenly among servers within a group. If a server goes offline, other servers in a group take the load. The full syntax is as follows:
srv_group <NAME> [sched=<SCHED_NAME>] {
server <IPADDR>[:<PORT>] [conns_n=<N>];
...
}
NAME is a unique identifier of the group that may be used to refer to it
later.
SCHED_NAME is the name of scheduler module that distributes load among
servers within the group. Default scheduler is used if sched parameter is
not specified.
Servers that are defined outside of any group implicitly form a special group
called default.
Below is an example of server group definition:
srv_group static_storage sched=hash {
server 10.10.0.1:8080;
server 10.10.0.2:8080;
server [fc00::3]:8081 conns_n=1;
}
Scheduler is used to distribute load among known servers. The syntax is as follows:
sched <SCHED_NAME>;
SCHED_NAME is the name of a scheduler available in Tempesta.
Currently there are two schedulers available:
- round-robin - Rotates all servers in a group in round-robin manner so that requests are distributed uniformly across servers. This is the default scheduler.
- hash - Chooses a server based on a URI/Host hash of a request. Requests are distributed uniformly, and requests with the same URI/Host are always sent to the same server.
If no scheduler is defined, then scheduler defaults to round-robin.
The defined scheduler affects all server definitions that are missing a
scheduler definition. If srv_group is missing a scheduler definition,
and there is a scheduler defined, then that scheduler is set for the group.
Multiple sched directives may be defined in the configuration file.
Each directive affects server groups that follow it.
HTTP scheduler plays a special role as it distributes HTTP requests among groups of back end servers. Then requests are futher distributed among individual back end servers within a chosen group.
HTTP scheduler is able to look inside of an HTTP request and examine its contents such as URI and headers. The scheduler distributes HTTP requests depending on values of those fields. The work of HTTP scheduler is controlled by pattern-matching rules that map certain header field values to server groups. The full syntax is as follows:
sched_http_rules {
match <SRV_GROUP> <FIELD> <OP> <ARG>;
...
}
SRV_GROUP is the reference to a previously defined server group.
FIELD is an HTTP request field, such as uri, host, etc.
OP is a string comparison operator, such as eq, prefix, etc.
ARG is an argument for the operator, such as /foo/bar.html, example.com,
etc.
A match entry is a single instruction for the load balancer that says:
take FIELD of an HTTP request, compare it with ARG using OP.
If they match, then send the request to the specified SRV_GROUP.
For every HTTP request, the load balancer executes all match instructions
sequentially until it finds a match. If no match is found, then the request
is dropped.
The following FIELD keywords are supported:
- uri Only a part of URI is looked at that contains the path and the query
string if any. (e.g.
/abs/path.html?query&key=val#fragment). - host The host part from URI in HTTP request line, or the value of
Hostheader. Host part in URI takes priority over theHostheader value. - hdr_host The value of
Hostheader. - hdr_conn The value of
Connectionheader. - hdr_raw The contents of any other HTTP header field as specified by
ARG.ARGmust include contents of an HTTP header starting with the header field name. ThesuffixOPis not supported for thisFIELD. Processing ofhdr_rawmay be slow because it requires walking over all headers of an HTTP request.
The following OP keywords are supported:
- eq
FIELDis fully equal to the string specified inARG. - prefix
FIELDstarts with the string specified inARG. - suffix
FIELDends with the string specified inARG.
Below are examples of pattern-matching rules that define the HTTP scheduler:
srv_group static { ... }
srv_group foo_app { ... }
srv_group bar_app { ... }
sched_http_rules {
match static uri prefix "/static";
match static uri suffix ".php";
match static host prefix "static.";
match static host suffix "tempesta-tech.com";
match foo_app host eq "foo.example.com";
match bar_app hdr_conn eq "keep-alive";
match bar_app hdr_host prefix "bar.";
match bar_app hdr_host suffix "natsys-lab.com";
match bar_app hdr_host eq "bar.natsys-lab.com";
match bar_app hdr_raw prefix "X-Custom-Bar-Hdr: ";
}
There's a special default match rule that matches any request. If defined,
the default rule must come last in the list of rules. All requests that didn't
match any rule are routed to the server group specified in the default rule.
If a default match rule is not defined, and there's the group default with
servers defined outside of any group, then the default rule is added
implicitly to route requests to the group default. The syntax is as follows:
match <SRV_GROUP> * * * ;
By default no rules are defined. If there's the group default,
then the default match rule is added to route HTTP requests to the group
default. Otherwise, requests don't match any rule, and therefore they're
dropped.
Sticky cookie is a special HTTP cookie that is generated by Tempesta. It allows for unique identification of each client or can be used as challenge cookie for simple L7 DDoS mitigation when bots are unable to process cookies.
When used, Tempesta sticky cookie is expected in HTTP requests. Otherwise, Tempesta asks in an HTTP response that sticky cookie is present in HTTP requests from a client. Default behaviour is that Tempesta sticky cookies are not used.
The use and behaviour of Tempesta sticky cookies is controlled by a single configuration directive that can have several parameters. The full form of the directive and parameters is as follows:
sticky [name=<COOKIE_NAME>] [enforce];
name parameter specifies a custom Tempesta sticky cookie name COOKIE_NAME
for use in HTTP requests. It is expected that it is a single word without
whitespaces. When not specified explicitly, a default name is used.
enforce parameter demands that Tempesta sticky cookie is present in each
HTTP request. If it is not present in a request, a client receives HTTP 302
response from Tempesta that redirects the client to the same URI, and prompts
that Tempesta sticky cookie is set in requests from the client.
Below are examples of Tempesta sticky cookie directive.
-
sticky; Enable Tempesta sticky cookie. Default cookie name is used. Tempesta expects that Tempesta sticky cookie is present in each HTTP request. If it is not present, then Tempesta includes
Set-Cookieheader field in an HTTP response, which prompts that Tempesta sticky cookie with default name is set in requests from the client. -
sticky enforce; Enable Tempesta sticky cookie. Default cookie name is used. Tempesta expects that Tempesta sticky cookie is present in each HTTP request. If it is not present, Tempesta sends HTTP 302 response that redirects the client to the same URI and includes
Set-Cookieheader field, which prompts that Tempesta sticky cookie with default name is set in requests from the client. -
sticky name=
__cookie__; Enable Tempesta sticky cookie. The name of the cookie is__cookie__. Tempesta expects that Tempesta sticky cookie is present in each HTTP request. If it is not present, then Tempesta includesSet-Cookieheader field in an HTTP response, which prompts that Tempesta sticky cookie with the name__cookie__is set in requests from the client. -
sticky name=
__cookie__enforce; Enable Tempesta sticky cookie. The name of the cookie is__cookie__. Tempesta expects that Tempesta sticky cookie is present in each HTTP request. If it is not present, Tempesta sends HTTP 302 response that redirects the client to the same URI and includesSet-Cookieheader field, which prompts that Tempesta sticky cookie with the name__cookie__is set in requests from the client.
Sticky cookie value is calculated on top of client IP, User-Agent, session
timestamp and the secret used as a key for HMAC. sticky_secret config
option sets the secret string used for HMAC calculation. It's desirable to
keep this value in secret to prevent automatic cookies generation on attacker
side. By default Tempesta generates a new random value for the secret on start.
This means that all user HTTP sessions are invalidated on Tempesta restart.
Maximum length of the key is 20 bytes.
sess_lifetime config option defines HTTP session lifetime in seconds. Default
value is 0, i.e. unlimited life time. When HTTP session expires the client
receives 302 redirect with new cookie value if enforced sticky cookie is used.
This option doesn't affect sticky cookie expire time - it's a session, temporal,
cookie.
Frang is a separate Tempesta module for HTTP DoS and DDoS attacks prevention. It uses static limiting and checking of ingress HTTP requests. The main portion of it's logic is at HTTP layer, so it's recommended that ip_block option (enabled by default) is used to block malicious users at IP layer.
Use -f command key to start Tempesta with Frang:
$ ./scripts/tempesta.sh -f --start
Frang has a separate section in the configuration file, "frang_limits". The list of available options:
-
ip_block - if the option is switched on, then Frang will add IP addresses of clients who reaches the limits to
filter_dbtable, so that the clients traffic will be dropped much earlier. See also Filter section. -
request_rate - maximum number of requests per second from a client;
-
request_burst - maximum number of requests per fraction of a second;
-
connection_rate - maximum number of connections per client;
-
connection_burst - maximum number of connections per fraction of a second;
-
concurrent_connections - maximum number of concurrent connections per client;
-
client_header_timeout - maximum time for receiving the whole HTTP message header of incoming request;
-
client_body_timeout - maximum time between receiving parts of HTTP message body of incoming request;
-
http_uri_len - maximum length of URI part in a request;
-
http_field_len - maximum length of a single HTTP header field of incoming request. This limit is helpful to prevent HTTP Response Splitting and other attacks using arbitrary injections in HTTP headers;
-
http_body_len - maximum length of HTTP message body of incoming request;
-
http_header_cnt - maximum number of HTTP header in a HTTP message;
-
http_header_chunk_cnt - limit number of chunks in all headers for HTTP request;
-
http_body_chunk_cnt - limit number of chunks for HTTP request body;
-
http_host_required - require presence of
Hostheader in a request; -
http_ct_required - require presence of
Content-Typeheader in a request; -
http_ct_vals - the list of accepted values for
Content-Typeheader; -
http_methods - the list of accepted HTTP methods;
Various back end servers may differ in interpretation of certain aspects of
the standards. Some may follow strict standards, whereas others may allow a
more relaxed interpretation. An example of this is the Host: header field.
It must be present in all HTTP/1.1 requests. However, the Host: field value
may be empty in certain cases. Nginx is strict about that, while Apache allows
an empty Host: field value in more cases. This can present an opportunity
for a DoS attack. Frang's http_host_required option should be used in this
case. That would leave handling of the Host: header field to Tempesta.
Invalid requests would be denied before they reach a back end server.
Let's see a simple example to understand Tempesta filtering.
Run Tempesta with Frang enabled and put some load onto the system to make Frang generate a blocking rule:
$ dmesg | grep frang
[tempesta] Warning: frang: connections max num. exceeded for ::ffff:7f00:1: 9 (lim=8)
::ffff:7f00:1 is IPv4 mapped loopback address 127.0.0.1. Frang's rate limiting
calls the filter module that stores the blocked IPs in Tempesta DB, so now we
can run some queries on the database (you can read more about
tdbq):
# ./tdbq -a info
Tempesta DB version: 0.1.14
Open tables: filter
INFO: records=1 status=OK zero-copy
The table filter contains all blocked IP addresses.
Tempesta has a number of additional directives that control varios aspects of a running system. Possible directives are listed below.
- hdr_via [string]; - As an intermediary between a client and a back end server, Tempesta adds HTTP Via: header field to each message. This directive sets the value of the header field, not includng the mandatory HTTP protocol version number. Note that the value should be a single token. Multiple tokens can be specified in apostrophes, however everything after the first token and a white space will be considered a Via: header field comment. If no value is specified in the directive, the default value is used.
Tempesta has a set of performance statistics counters that show various aspects of Tempesta operation. The counters and their values are self-explanatory. Performance statistics can be shown when Tempesta is loaded and running. Below is an example of the command to show the statistics, and the output:
$ cat /proc/tempesta/perfstat
Client messages received : 450
Client messages forwarded : 450
Client messages parsing errors : 0
Client messages filtered out : 0
Client messages other errors : 0
Client connections total : 30
Client connections active : 0
Client RX bytes : 47700
Server messages received : 447
Server messages forwarded : 447
Server messages parsing errors : 0
Server messages filtered out : 0
Server messages other errors : 0
Server connections total : 2220
Server connections active : 4
Server RX bytes : 153145
Also, there's Application Performance Monitoring statistics. These stats show
the time it takes to receive a complete HTTP response to a complete HTTP request.
It's measured from the time Tempesta forwards an HTTP request to a back end server,
and until the time it receives an HTTP response to the request (the turnaround
time). The times are taken per each back end server. Minimum, maximim, median,
and average times are measured, as well as 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th
percentiles. A file per each back end server/port is created in
/proc/tempesta/servers/ directory. The APM stats can be seen as follows:
# cat /proc/tempesta/servers/192.168.10.230\:8080
Minimal response time : 0ms
Average response time : 4ms
Median response time : 3ms
Maximum response time : 66ms
Percentiles
50%: 3ms
75%: 7ms
90%: 11ms
95%: 15ms
99%: 29ms
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