eBPF and XDP: Supercharging Linux Network Packet Processing

eBPF and XDP allow in-kernel packet processing at the network interface, enabling fast actions like dropping DDoS traffic, redirecting packets, and modifying headers. The technology runs in a sandboxed virtual machine verified for safety, avoiding kernel crashes. Modern Linux kernels (4.8+) and Clang/LLVM are required to write and compile eBPF programs.