Skip to content

Prerequisites for running Tracee

A longterm supported kernel: 5.4, 5.10, 5.15, 5.18, 6.1, 6.2. Check kernel.org for current supported kernels.

Note

Most distributions long-term supported kernels are supported as well, including CentOS8 4.18 kernel.

  • For tracee:v0.17.0 docker image, you should have one of the two:

    1. A kernel that has /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux file available
    2. A kernel supported through BTFHUB

      see libbpf CO-RE documentation for more info

Permissions

For using the eBPF Linux subsystem, Tracee needs to run with sufficient capabilities:

  • Manage eBPF maps limits (CAP_SYS_RESOURCE)
  • Load and Attach eBPF programs:
    1. CAP_BPF+CAP_PERFMON for recent kernels (>=5.8) where the kernel perf paranoid value in /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is equal to 2 or less
    2. or CAP_SYS_ADMIN otherwise
  • CAP_SYS_PTRACE (to collect information about processes)
  • CAP_NET_ADMIN (to use tc for packets capture)
  • CAP_SETPCAP (if given - used to reduce bounding set capabilities)
  • CAP_SYSLOG (to access kernel symbols through /proc/kallsyms)
  • On some environments (e.g. Ubuntu) CAP_IPC_LOCK might be required as well.
  • On cgroup v1 environments, CAP_SYS_ADMIN is recommended if running from a container in order to allow tracee to mount the cpuset cgroup controller.

Alternatively, you may bypass the capabilities dropping feature if facing any issue.