--- name: "ng_tag" section: "4" platform: "freebsd" package: "base" version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79" release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)" platforms: ["freebsd"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/ng_tag" --- # ng\_tag(4) mbuf tags manipulating netgraph node ## NAME **ng\_tag** – mbuf tags manipulating netgraph node ## SYNOPSIS **#include \** ## DESCRIPTION The **tag** node type allows mbuf packet tags (see [mbuf\_tags(9)](/mbuf_tags/9.md)) to be examined, stripped or applied to data travelling through a Netgraph network. Mbuf tags are used in many parts of the FreeBSD kernel network subsystem, including the storage of VLAN tags as described in [vlan(4)](/vlan/4.md), Mandatory Access Control (MAC) labels as described in [mac(9)](/mac/9.md), IPsec policy information as described in [ipsec(4)](/ipsec/4.md), and packet filter tags used by [pf(4)](/pf/4.md). One should also consider useful setting or checking [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md) tags, which are implemented as mbuf tags, too. Each node allows an arbitrary number of connections to arbitrarily named hooks. With each hook is associated a tag which will be searched in the list of all tags attached to a packet incoming to this hook, a destination hook for matching packets, a destination hook for non-matching packets, a tag which will be appended to data leaving node through this hook, and various statistics counters. The list of incoming packet's tags is traversed to find a tag with specified *type* and *cookie* values. Upon match, if specified *tag\_len* is non-zero, *tag\_data* of tag is checked to be identical to that specified in the hook structure. Packets with matched tags are forwarded to “match” destination hook, or forwarded to “non-match” hook otherwise. Either or both destination hooks can be an empty string, or may not exist, in which case the packet is dropped. Tag list of packets leaving the node is extended with a new tag specified in outgoing hook structure (it is possible to avoid appending a new tag to pass packet completely unchanged by specifying zero *type* and *cookie* values in the structure of the corresponding outgoing hook). Additionally, a tag can be stripped from incoming packet after match if *strip* flag is set. This can be used for simple tag removal or tag replacement, if combined with tag addition on outgoing matching hook. Note that new tag is appended unconditionally, without checking if such a tag is already present in the list (it is up to user to check if this is a concern). New hooks are initially configured to drop all incoming packets (as all hook names are empty strings; zero values can be specified to forward all packets to non-matching hook), and to forward all outgoing packets without any tag appending. Data payload of packets passing through the node is completely unchanged, all operations can affect tag list only. ## HOOKS This node type supports any number of hooks having arbitrary names. In order to allow internal optimizations, user should never try to configure a hook with a structure pointing to hooks which do not exist yet. The safe way is to create all hooks first, then begin to configure them. ## CONTROL MESSAGES This node type supports the generic control messages, plus the following: - NGM\_TAG\_SET\_HOOKIN (**sethookin**) This command sets tag values which will be searched in the tag list of incoming packets on a hook. The following structure must be supplied as an argument: ``` struct ng_tag_hookin { char thisHook[NG_HOOKSIZ]; /* name of hook */ char ifMatch[NG_HOOKSIZ]; /* match dest hook */ char ifNotMatch[NG_HOOKSIZ]; /* !match dest hook */ uint8_t strip; /* strip tag if found */ uint32_t tag_cookie; /* ABI/Module ID */ uint16_t tag_id; /* tag ID */ uint16_t tag_len; /* length of data */ uint8_t tag_data[0]; /* tag data */ }; ``` The hook to be updated is specified in *thisHook*. Data bytes of tag corresponding to specified *tag\_id* (type) and *tag\_cookie* are placed in the *tag\_data* array; there must be *tag\_len* of them. Matching and non-matching incoming packets are delivered out the hooks named *ifMatch* and *ifNotMatch*, respectively. If *strip* flag is non-zero, then found tag is deleted from list of packet tags. - NGM\_TAG\_GET\_HOOKIN (**gethookin**) This command takes an ASCII string argument, the hook name, and returns the corresponding *struct ng\_tag\_hookin* as shown above. - NGM\_TAG\_SET\_HOOKOUT (**sethookout**) This command sets tags values which will be applied to outgoing packets. The following structure must be supplied as an argument: ``` struct ng_tag_hookout { char thisHook[NG_HOOKSIZ]; /* name of hook */ uint32_t tag_cookie; /* ABI/Module ID */ uint16_t tag_id; /* tag ID */ uint16_t tag_len; /* length of data */ uint8_t tag_data[0]; /* tag data */ }; ``` The hook to be updated is specified in *thisHook*. Other variables mean basically the same as in *struct ng\_tag\_hookin* shown above, except used for setting values in a new tag. - NGM\_TAG\_GET\_HOOKOUT (**gethookout**) This command takes an ASCII string argument, the hook name, and returns the corresponding *struct ng\_tag\_hookout* as shown above. - NGM\_TAG\_GET\_STATS (**getstats**) This command takes an ASCII string argument, the hook name, and returns the statistics associated with the hook as a *struct ng\_tag\_hookstat*. - NGM\_TAG\_CLR\_STATS (**clrstats**) This command takes an ASCII string argument, the hook name, and clears the statistics associated with the hook. - NGM\_TAG\_GETCLR\_STATS (**getclrstats**) This command is identical to NGM\_TAG\_GET\_STATS, except that the statistics are also atomically cleared. *Note*: statistics counters as well as three statistics messages above work only if code was compiled with the NG\_TAG\_DEBUG option. The reason for this is that statistics is rarely used in practice, but still consumes CPU cycles for every packet. Moreover, it is even not accurate on SMP systems due to lack of synchronization between threads, as this is very expensive. ## SHUTDOWN This node shuts down upon receipt of a NGM\_SHUTDOWN control message, or when all hooks have been disconnected. ## EXAMPLES It is possible to do a simple L7 filtering by using [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md) tags in conjunction with [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) traffic analyzer. Example below explains how to filter DirectConnect P2P network data traffic, which cannot be done by usual means as it uses random ports. It is known that such data connection always contains a TCP packet with 6-byte payload string "$Send\|". So ipfw's **netgraph** action will be used to divert all TCP packets to an [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) node which will check for the specified string and return non-matching packets to [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md). Matching packets are passed to **ng\_tag** node, which will set a tag and pass them back to [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) node on a hook programmed to accept all packets and pass them back to [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md). A script provided in [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) manual page will be used for programming node. Note that packets diverted from [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md) to Netgraph have no link-level header, so offsets in [tcpdump(1)](/tcpdump/1.md) expressions must be altered accordingly. Thus, there will be expression “ether\[40:2\]=0x244c && ether\[42:4\]=0x6f636b20” on incoming hook and empty expression to match all packets from **ng\_tag**. So, this is [ngctl(8)](/ngctl/8.md) script for nodes creating and naming for easier access: ``` /usr/sbin/ngctl -f- <<-SEQ mkpeer ipfw: bpf 41 ipfw name ipfw:41 dcbpf mkpeer dcbpf: tag matched th1 name dcbpf:matched ngdc SEQ ``` Now “ngdc” node (which is of type **ng\_tag**) must be programmed to echo all packets received on the “th1” hook back, with the [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md) tag 412 attached. MTAG\_IPFW value for *tag\_cookie* was taken from file ⟨netinet/ip\_fw.h⟩ and value for *tag\_id* is tag number (412), with zero tag length: ``` ngctl msg ngdc: sethookin { thisHook=\"th1\" ifNotMatch=\"th1\" } ngctl msg ngdc: sethookout { thisHook=\"th1\" \ tag_cookie=1148380143 \ tag_id=412 } ``` Do not forget to program [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) “ipfw” hook with the above expression (see [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md) for script doing this) and “matched” hook with an empty expression: ``` ngctl msg dcbpf: setprogram { thisHook=\"matched\" ifMatch=\"ipfw\" \ bpf_prog_len=1 bpf_prog=[ { code=6 k=8192 } ] } ``` After finishing with [netgraph(4)](/netgraph/4.md) nodes, [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md) rules must be added to enable packet flow: ``` ipfw add 100 netgraph 41 tcp from any to any iplen 46 ipfw add 110 reset tcp from any to any tagged 412 ``` Note: one should ensure that packets are returned to ipfw after processing inside [netgraph(4)](/netgraph/4.md), by setting appropriate [sysctl(8)](/sysctl/8.md) variable: ``` sysctl net.inet.ip.fw.one_pass=0 ``` ## SEE ALSO [netgraph(4)](/netgraph/4.md), [ng\_bpf(4)](/ng_bpf/4.md), [ng\_ipfw(4)](/ng_ipfw/4.md), [ipfw(8)](/ipfw/8.md), [ngctl(8)](/ngctl/8.md), [mbuf\_tags(9)](/mbuf_tags/9.md) ## HISTORY The **ng\_tag** node type was implemented in FreeBSD 6.2. ## AUTHORS Vadim Goncharov ⟨*vadimnuclight@tpu.ru*⟩ ## BUGS For manipulating any tags with data payload (that is, all tags with non-zero *tag\_len*) one should care about non-portable machine-dependent representation of tags on the low level as byte stream. Perhaps this should be done by another program rather than manually.