eBPF with Rust (Aya)

Purpose

Guide agents through building production eBPF programs in Rust using the Aya framework: writing kernel-side BPF code with aya-bpf, structured logging with aya-log, sharing maps between BPF and userspace, and integrating with async tokio.

Triggers

"How do I write an eBPF program in Rust?"
"How do I use the Aya framework?"
"How do I share a BPF map between kernel and userspace in Rust?"
"How do I log from a BPF program in Rust?"
"My Aya program fails to load — how do I debug it?"
"How do I integrate an eBPF program with tokio?"

Workflow

1. Project setup

# Install aya-tool (generates bindings from vmlinux BTF)
cargo install aya-tool

# Create new Aya project from template
cargo install cargo-generate
cargo generate https://github.com/aya-rs/aya-template

# Workspace layout (generated)
# my-ebpf/
# ├── my-ebpf-ebpf/    <- kernel-side crate (target: bpf)
# ├── my-ebpf/         <- userspace crate (runs on host)
# └── xtask/           <- build helper (cargo xtask build/run)

# Build both sides
cargo xtask build-ebpf          # builds BPF object
cargo xtask run                 # builds + runs with sudo

2. Kernel-side BPF program

// my-ebpf-ebpf/src/main.rs
#![no_std]
#![no_main]

use aya_bpf::{
    macros::{map, tracepoint},
    maps::HashMap,
    programs::TracePointContext,
    helpers::bpf_get_current_pid_tgid,
};
use aya_log_ebpf::info;

#[map]
static CALL_COUNT: HashMap<u32, u64> = HashMap::with_max_entries(1024, 0);

#[tracepoint]
pub fn trace_read(ctx: TracePointContext) -> u32 {
    let pid = (bpf_get_current_pid_tgid() >> 32) as u32;

    // Lookup or insert
    match unsafe { CALL_COUNT.get(&pid) } {
        Some(count) => {
            let _ = CALL_COUNT.insert(&pid, &(count + 1), 0);
        }
        None => {
            let _ = CALL_COUNT.insert(&pid, &1u64, 0);
        }
    }

    info!(&ctx, "read() called by pid {}", pid);
    0
}

#[panic_handler]
fn panic(_info: &core::panic::PanicInfo) -> ! {
    unsafe { core::hint::unreachable_unchecked() }
}

3. Userspace loader with tokio

// my-ebpf/src/main.rs
use aya::{Bpf, programs::TracePoint, maps::HashMap};
use aya_log::BpfLogger;
use tokio::signal;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    // Load compiled BPF object (embedded at build time)
    let mut bpf = Bpf::load(include_bytes_aligned!(
        "../../target/bpf/my-ebpf-ebpf.bpf.o"
    ))?;

    // Initialize structured logging from BPF programs
    BpfLogger::init(&mut bpf)?;

    // Attach tracepoint
    let program: &mut TracePoint = bpf.program_mut("trace_read").unwrap().try_into()?;
    program.load()?;
    program.attach("syscalls", "sys_enter_read")?;

    // Read from shared map
    let map: HashMap<_, u32, u64> = HashMap::try_from(bpf.map("CALL_COUNT").unwrap())?;

    // Wait for Ctrl+C
    signal::ctrl_c().await?;

    // Print final counts
    for (pid, count) in map.iter().filter_map(|r| r.ok()) {
        println!("PID {}: {} reads", pid, count);
    }
    Ok(())
}

4. Map types in Aya

use aya_bpf::maps::{HashMap, Array, RingBuf, PerfEventArray, LruHashMap};

// Hash map
#[map]
static MY_MAP: HashMap<u32, u64> = HashMap::with_max_entries(1024, 0);

// Ring buffer (preferred for events)
#[map]
static EVENTS: RingBuf = RingBuf::with_byte_size(256 * 1024, 0);

// LRU hash (connection tracking)
#[map]
static CONNS: LruHashMap<u32, ConnInfo> = LruHashMap::with_max_entries(10000, 0);

// Sending events via RingBuf (kernel side)
if let Ok(mut entry) = unsafe { EVENTS.reserve::<MyEvent>(0) } {
    entry.write(MyEvent { pid, ts });
    entry.submit(0);
}

// Reading RingBuf events (userspace)
use aya::maps::RingBuf;
use tokio::io::unix::AsyncFd;

let ring = RingBuf::try_from(bpf.take_map("EVENTS").unwrap())?;
let mut ring = AsyncFd::new(ring)?;

loop {
    let mut guard = ring.readable_mut().await?;
    let rb = guard.get_inner_mut();
    while let Some(item) = rb.next() {
        let event: &MyEvent = unsafe { &*(item.as_ptr() as *const MyEvent) };
        println!("Event from PID {}", event.pid);
    }
    guard.clear_ready();
}

5. Supported program types

Aya macro	Program type	Attach target
`#[tracepoint]`	Tracepoint	`"syscalls", "sys_enter_read"`
`#[kprobe]`	kprobe	function name
`#[kretprobe]`	kretprobe	function name
`#[uprobe]`	uprobe	userspace binary + offset
`#[xdp]`	XDP	network interface
`#[tc]`	TC (traffic control)	netdevice + direction
`#[socket_filter]`	Socket filter	raw socket fd
`#[perf_event]`	Perf event	perf_event fd
`#[lsm]`	LSM hook	security hook name
`#[sk_msg]`	Sockmap	socket map

6. Generating kernel type bindings

# Generate bindings from running kernel's BTF
aya-tool generate task_struct > src/vmlinux.rs

# Or use btf_type_tag and CO-RE
# aya-bpf supports CO-RE via bpf_core_read! macro

// CO-RE field access in Aya
use aya_bpf::helpers::bpf_core_read;

let dport: u16 = unsafe {
    bpf_core_read!(sk, __sk_common.skc_dport)?
};

7. Debugging load failures

# Check verifier errors (Aya surfaces them as Rust errors)
# Run with RUST_LOG=debug for verbose output
RUST_LOG=debug cargo xtask run 2>&1 | grep -A 20 "verifier"

# Check BTF info
bpftool btf dump file /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux | grep task_struct

# Inspect loaded programs after load
bpftool prog list
bpftool prog dump xlated name trace_read

Error	Cause	Fix
`invalid mem access`	Unbounded pointer dereference	Add null check before reading
`Type not found`	BTF mismatch with kernel	Regenerate vmlinux bindings
`Permission denied`	No CAP_BPF or CAP_SYS_ADMIN	Run with `sudo` or set capability
`map already exists`	Map pinned, name collision	Unpin or rename map

Related skills

Use skills/observability/ebpf for C-based eBPF with libbpf
Use skills/rust/rust-async-internals for tokio async patterns used in userspace
Use skills/rust/rust-unsafe for unsafe code patterns in BPF helpers

ebpf-rust