github.com/google/syzkaller@v0.0.0-20251211124644-a066d2bc4b02/docs/syscall_descriptions_syntax.md

# Syscall description language

aka `syzlang` (`[siːzˈlæŋg]`)

Pseudo-formal grammar of syscall description:

```
syscallname "(" [arg ["," arg]*] ")" [type] ["(" attribute* ")"]
arg = argname type
argname = identifier
type = typename [ "[" type-options "]" ]
typename = "const" | "intN" | "intptr" | "flags" | "array" | "ptr" |
	   "string" | "filename" | "glob" | "len" |
	   "bytesize" | "bytesizeN" | "bitsize" | "vma" | "proc" |
	   "compressed_image"
type-options = [type-opt ["," type-opt]]
```

common type-options include:

```
"opt" - the argument is optional (like mmap fd argument, or accept peer argument)
```

rest of the type-options are type-specific:

```
"const": integer constant, type-options:
	value, underlying type (one of "intN", "intptr")
"intN"/"intptr": an integer without a particular meaning, type-options:
	either an optional range of values (e.g. "5:10", or "100:200")
	or a reference to flags description (see below),
	or a single value
	optionally followed by an alignment parameter if using a range
"flags": a set of values, type-options:
	reference to flags description (see below), underlying int type (e.g. "int32")
"array": a variable/fixed-length array, type-options:
	type of elements, optional size (fixed "5", or ranged "5:10", boundaries inclusive)
"ptr"/"ptr64": a pointer to an object, type-options:
	direction (in/out/inout); type of the object
	ptr64 has size of 8 bytes regardless of target pointer size
"string": a zero-terminated memory buffer (no pointer indirection implied), type-options:
	either a string value in quotes for constant strings (e.g. "foo" or `deadbeef` for hex literal),
	or a reference to string flags (special value `filename` produces file names),
	optionally followed by a buffer size (string values will be padded with \x00 to that size)
"stringnoz": a non-zero-terminated memory buffer (no pointer indirection implied), type-options:
	either a string value in quotes for constant strings (e.g. "foo" or `deadbeef` for hex literal),
	or a reference to string flags,
"glob": glob pattern to match on the target files, type-options:
	a pattern string in quotes (syntax: https://golang.org/pkg/path/filepath/#Match)
	(e.g. "/sys/" or "/sys/**/*"),
	or include exclude glob too (e.g. "/sys/**/*:-/sys/power/state")
"fmt": a string representation of an integer (not zero-terminated), type-options:
	format (one of "dec", "hex", "oct") and the value (a resource, int, flags or proc)
	the resulting data is always fixed-size (formatted as "%020llu", "0x%016llx" or "%023llo", respectively)
"len": length of another field (for array it is number of elements), type-options:
	argname of the object
"bytesize": similar to "len", but always denotes the size in bytes, type-options:
	argname of the object
"bitsize": similar to "len", but always denotes the size in bits, type-options:
	argname of the object
"offsetof": offset of the field from the beginning of the parent struct, type-options:
	field
"vma"/"vma64": a pointer to a set of pages (used as input for mmap/munmap/mremap/madvise), type-options:
	optional number of pages (e.g. vma[7]), or a range of pages (e.g. vma[2-4])
	vma64 has size of 8 bytes regardless of target pointer size
"proc": per process int (see description below), type-options:
	value range start, how many values per process, underlying type
"compressed_image": zlib-compressed disk image
	syscalls accepting compressed images must be marked with `no_generate`
	and `no_minimize` call attributes. if the content of the decompressed image
	can be checked by a `fsck`-like command, use the `fsck` syscall attribute
"text": machine code of the specified type, type-options:
	text type (x86_real, x86_16, x86_32, x86_64, arm64)
"void": type with static size 0
	mostly useful inside of templates and varlen unions, can't be syscall argument
```

flags/len/flags also have trailing underlying type type-option when used in structs/unions/pointers.

Flags are described as:

```
flagname = const ["," const]*
```

or for string flags as:

```
flagname = "\"" literal "\"" ["," "\"" literal "\""]*
```

Call attributes are:

```
"disabled": the call will not be used in fuzzing; useful to temporary disable some calls
	or prohibit particular argument combinations.
"timeout[N]": additional execution timeout (in ms) for the call on top of some default value
"prog_timeout[N]": additional execution timeout (in ms) for the whole program if it contains this call;
	if a program contains several such calls, the max value is used.
"ignore_return": ignore return value of this syscall in fallback feedback; need to be used for calls
	that don't return fixed error codes but rather something else (e.g. the current time).
"breaks_returns": ignore return values of all subsequent calls in the program in fallback feedback (can't be trusted).
"no_generate": do not try to generate this syscall, i.e. use only seed descriptions to produce it.
"no_minimize": do not modify instances of this syscall when trying to minimize a crashing program.
"no_squash": do not attempt to pass squashed arguments to this syscall.
	Without that, the fuzzer will sometimes attempt to replace complex structures with arrays of bytes,
	possibly triggering interesting mutations, but also making programs hard to reason about.
"fsck": the content of the compressed buffer argument for this syscall is a file system and the
    string argument is a fsck-like command that will be called to verify the filesystem
"remote_cover": wait longer to collect remote coverage for this call.
"kfuzz_test": the call is a kfuzztest target
```

## Ints

`int8`, `int16`, `int32` and `int64` denote an integer of the corresponding size.
`intptr` denotes a pointer-sized integer, i.e. C `long` type.

By appending `be` suffix (e.g. `int16be`) integers become big-endian.

It's possible to specify a range of values for an integer in the format of `int32[0:100]` or `int32[0:4096, 512]` for a 512-aligned int.

Integers can also take a reference to flags description or a value as its first type-option.
In that case, the alignment parameter is not supported.

To denote a bitfield of size N use `int64:N`.

It's possible to use these various kinds of ints as base types for `const`, `flags`, `len` and `proc`.

```
example_struct {
	f0	int8			# random 1-byte integer
	f1	const[0x42, int16be]	# const 2-byte integer with value 0x4200 (big-endian 0x42)
	f2	int32[0:100]		# random 4-byte integer with values from 0 to 100 inclusive
	f3	int32[1:10, 2]		# random 4-byte integer with values {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
	f4	int64:20		# random 20-bit bitfield
	f5	int8[10]		# const 1-byte integer with value 10
	f6	int32[flagname]		# random 4-byte integer from the set of values referenced by flagname
}
```

## Structs

Structs are described as:

```
structname "{" "\n"
	(fieldname type ("(" fieldattribute* ")")? (if[expression])? "\n")+
"}" ("[" attribute* "]")?
```

Fields can have attributes specified in parentheses after the field, independent
of their type. `in/out/inout` attribute specify per-field direction, for example:

```
foo {
	field0	const[1, int32]	(in)
	field1	int32		(inout)
	field2	fd		(out)
}
```

You may specify conditions that determine whether a field will be included:

```
foo {
	field0	int32
	field1	int32 (if[value[field0] == 0x1])
}
```

See [the corresponding section](syscall_descriptions_syntax.md#conditional-fields)
for more details.

`out_overlay` attribute allows to have separate input and output layouts for the struct.
Fields before the `out_overlay` field are input, fields starting from `out_overlay` are output.
Input and output fields overlap in memory (both start from the beginning of the struct in memory).
For example:

```
foo {
	in0	const[1, int32]
	in1	flags[bar, int8]
	in2	ptr[in, string]
	out0	fd	(out_overlay)
	out1	int32
}
```

Structs can have attributes specified in square brackets after the struct.
Attributes are:

- `packed`: the struct does not have paddings between fields and has alignment 1; this is similar to GNU C `__attribute__((packed))`; struct alignment can be overridden with `align` attribute
- `align[N]`: the struct has alignment N and padded up to multiple of `N`; contents of the padding are unspecified (though, frequently are zeros); similar to GNU C `__attribute__((aligned(N)))`
- `size[N]`: the struct is padded up to the specified size `N`; contents of the padding are unspecified (though, frequently are zeros)

## Unions

Unions are described as:

```
unionname "[" "\n"
	(fieldname type (if[expression])? "\n")+
"]" ("[" attribute* "]")?
```

During fuzzing, syzkaller randomly picks one of the union options.

You may also specify conditions that determine whether the corresponding
option may or may not be selected, depending on values of other fields. See
[the corresponding section](syscall_descriptions_syntax.md#conditional-fields)
for more details.

Unions can have attributes specified in square brackets after the union.
Attributes are:

- `varlen`: union size is the size of the particular chosen option (not statically known); without this attribute unions are statically sized as maximum of all options (similar to C unions)
- `size[N]`: the union is padded up to the specified size `N`; contents of the padding are unspecified (though, frequently are zeros)

## Resources

Resources represent values that need to be passed from output of one syscall to input of another syscall. For example, `close` syscall requires an input value (fd) previously returned by `open` or `pipe` syscall. To achieve this, `fd` is declared as a resource. This is a way of modelling dependencies between syscalls, as defining a syscall as the producer of a resource and another syscall as the consumer defines a loose sense of ordering between them. Resources are described as:

```
"resource" identifier "[" underlying_type "]" [ ":" const ("," const)* ]
```

`underlying_type` is either one of `int8`, `int16`, `int32`, `int64`, `intptr` or another resource (which models inheritance, for example, a socket is a subtype of fd). The optional set of constants represent resource special values, for example, `0xffffffffffffffff` (-1) for "no fd", or `AT_FDCWD` for "the current dir". Special values are used once in a while as resource values. If no special values specified, special value of `0` is used. Resources can then be used as types, for example:

```
resource fd[int32]: 0xffffffffffffffff, AT_FDCWD, 1000000
resource sock[fd]
resource sock_unix[sock]

socket(...) sock
accept(fd sock, ...) sock
listen(fd sock, backlog int32)
```

Resources don't have to be necessarily returned by a syscall. They can be used as any other data type. For example:

```
resource my_resource[int32]

request_producer(..., arg ptr[out, my_resource])
request_consumer(..., arg ptr[inout, test_struct])

test_struct {
	...
	attr	my_resource
}
```

For more complex producer/consumer scenarios, field attributes can be utilized.
For example:

```
resource my_resource_1[int32]
resource my_resource_2[int32]

request_produce1_consume2(..., arg ptr[inout, test_struct])

test_struct {
	...
	field0	my_resource_1	(out)
	field1	my_resource_2	(in)
}
```

Each resource type must be "produced" (used as an output) by at least one syscall
(outside of unions and optional pointers) and "consumed" (used as an input)
by at least one syscall.

## Type Aliases

Complex types that are often repeated can be given short type aliases using the
following syntax:

```
type identifier underlying_type
```

For example:

```
type signalno int32[0:65]
type net_port proc[20000, 4, int16be]
```

Then, type alias can be used instead of the underlying type in any contexts.
Underlying type needs to be described as if it's a struct field, that is,
with the base type if it's required. However, type alias can be used as syscall
arguments as well. Underlying types are currently restricted to integer types,
`ptr`, `ptr64`, `const`, `flags` and `proc` types.

There are some builtin type aliases:

```
type bool8	int8[0:1]
type bool16	int16[0:1]
type bool32	int32[0:1]
type bool64	int64[0:1]
type boolptr	intptr[0:1]

type fileoff[BASE] BASE

type filename string[filename]

type buffer[DIR] ptr[DIR, array[int8]]
```

## Type Templates

Type templates can be declared as follows:

```
type buffer[DIR] ptr[DIR, array[int8]]
type fileoff[BASE] BASE
type nlattr[TYPE, PAYLOAD] {
	nla_len		len[parent, int16]
	nla_type	const[TYPE, int16]
	payload		PAYLOAD
} [align_4]
```

and later used as follows:

```
syscall(a buffer[in], b fileoff[int64], c ptr[in, nlattr[FOO, int32]])
```

There is builtin type template `optional` defined as:

```
type optional[T] [
	val	T
	void	void
] [varlen]
```

## Length

You can specify length of a particular field in struct or a named argument by
using `len`, `bytesize` and `bitsize` types, for example:

```
write(fd fd, buf ptr[in, array[int8]], count len[buf])

sock_fprog {
	len	len[filter, int16]
	filter	ptr[in, array[sock_filter]]
}
```

If `len`'s argument is a pointer, then the length of the pointee argument is used.

To denote the length of a field in N-byte words use `bytesizeN`, possible values
for N are 1, 2, 4 and 8.

To denote the length of the parent struct, you can use `len[parent, int8]`.
To denote the length of the higher level parent when structs are embedded into
one another, you can specify the type name of the particular parent:

```
s1 {
    f0      len[s2]  # length of s2
}

s2 {
    f0      s1
    f1      array[int32]
    f2      len[parent, int32]
}
```

`len` argument can also be a path expression which allows more complex
addressing. Path expressions are similar to C field references, but also allow
referencing parent and sibling elements. A special reference `syscall` used
in the beginning of the path allows to refer directly to the syscall arguments.
For example:

```
s1 {
	a	ptr[in, s2]
	b	ptr[in, s3]
	c	array[int8]
}

s2 {
	d	array[int8]
}

s3 {
# This refers to the array c in the parent s1.
	e	len[s1:c, int32]
# This refers to the array d in the sibling s2.
	f	len[s1:a:d, int32]
# This refers to the array k in the child s4.
	g	len[i:j, int32]
# This refers to syscall argument l.
	h	len[syscall:l, int32]
	i	ptr[in, s4]
}

s4 {
	j	array[int8]
}

foo(k ptr[in, s1], l ptr[in, array[int8]])
```

## Proc

The `proc` type can be used to denote per process integers.
The idea is to have a separate range of values for each executor, so they don't interfere.

The simplest example is a port number.
The `proc[20000, 4, int16be]` type means that we want to generate an `int16be`
integer starting from `20000` and assign `4` values for each process.
As a result the executor number `n` will get values in the `[20000 + n * 4, 20000 + (n + 1) * 4)` range.

## Integer Constants

Integer constants can be specified as decimal literals, as `0x`-prefixed
hex literals, as `'`-surrounded char literals, or as symbolic constants
extracted from kernel headers or defined by `define` directives. For example:

```
foo(a const[10], b const[-10])
foo(a const[0xabcd])
foo(a int8['a':'z'])
foo(a const[PATH_MAX])
foo(a int32[PATH_MAX])
foo(a ptr[in, array[int8, MY_PATH_MAX]])
define MY_PATH_MAX	PATH_MAX + 2
```

## Conditional fields

### In structures

In syzlang, it's possible to specify a condition for every struct field that
determines whether the field should be included or omitted:

```
header_fields {
  magic       const[0xabcd, int16]
  haveInteger int8
} [packed]

packet {
  header  header_fields
  integer int64  (if[value[header:haveInteger] == 0x1])
  body    array[int8]
} [packed]

some_call(a ptr[in, packet])
```

In this example, the `packet` structure will include the field `integer` only
if `header.haveInteger == 1`. In memory, `packet` will have the following
layout:

| header.magic = 0xabcd | header.haveInteger = 0x1 | integer | body |
| --------------------- | ------------------------ | ------- | ---- |

That corresponds to e.g. the following program:

```
some_call(&AUTO={{AUTO, 0x1}, @value=0xabcd, []})
```

If `header.haveInteger` is not `1`, syzkaller will just pretend that the field
`integer` does not exist.

```
some_call(&AUTO={{AUTO, 0x0}, @void, []})
```

| header.magic = 0xabcd | header.haveInteger = 0x0 | body |
| --------------------- | ------------------------ | ---- |

Every conditional field is assumed to be of variable length and so is the struct
to which this field belongs.

When a variable length field appears in the middle of a structure, the structure
must be marked with `[packed].`

Conditions on bitfields are prohibited:

```
struct {
  f0 int
  f1 int:3 (if[value[f0] == 0x1])  # It will not compile.
}
```

But you may reference bitfields in your conditions:

```
struct {
  f0 int:1
  f1 int:7
  f2 int   (if[value[f0] == value[f1]])
} [packed]
```

### In unions

Let's consider the following example.

```
struct {
  type int
  body alternatives
}

alternatives [
  int     int64 (if[value[struct:type] == 0x1])
  arr     array[int64, 5] (if[value[struct:type] == 0x2])
  default int32
] [varlen]

some_call(a ptr[in, struct])
```

In this case, the union option will be selected depending on the value of the
`type` field. For example, if `type` is `0x1`, then it can be either `int` or
`default`:

```
some_call(&AUTO={0x1, @int=0x123})
some_call(&AUTO={0x1, @default=0x123})
```

If `type` is `0x2`, it can be either `arr` or `default`.

If `type` is neither `0x1` nor `0x2`, syzkaller may only select `default`:

```
some_call(&AUTO={0x0, @default=0xabcd})
```

To ensure that a union can always be constructed, the last union field **must always
have no condition**.

Thus, the following definition would fail to compile:

```
alternatives [
  int int64 (if[value[struct:type] == 0x1])
  arr array[int64, 5] (if[value[struct:type] == 0x1])
] [varlen]
```

During prog mutation and generation syzkaller will select a random union field
whose condition is satisfied.

### Expression syntax

Currently, only `==`, `!=`, `&` and `||` operators are supported. However, the
functionality was designed in such a way that adding more operators is easy.
Feel free to file a GitHub issue or write us an email in case it's needed.

Expressions are evaluated as `int64` values. If the final result of an
expression is not 0, it's assumed to be satisfied.

If you want to reference a field's value, you can do it via
`value[path:to:field]`, which is similar to the `len[]` argument.

```
sub_struct {
  f0 int
  # Reference a field in a parent struct.
  f1 int (if[value[struct:f2]]) # Same as if[value[struct:f2] != 0].
}

struct {
  f2 int
  f3 sub_struct
  f4 int (if[value[f2] == 0x2]) # Reference a sibling field.
  f5 int (if[value[f3:f0] == 0x1]) # Reference a nested field.
  f6 int (if[value[f3:f0] == 0x1 || value[f3:f0] == 0x2]) # Reference a nested field which either equals to 0x1 or 0x2.
} [packed]

call(a ptr[in, struct])
```

The referenced field must be of integer type and there must be no
conditional fields in the path to it. For example, the following
descriptions will not compile.

```
struct {
  f0 int
  f1 int (if[value[f0] == 0x1])
  f2 int (if[value[f1] == 0x1])
}
```

You may also reference constants in expressions:

```
struct {
  f0 int
  f1 int
  f2 int (if[value[f0] & SOME_CONST == OTHER_CONST])
}
```

## Meta

Description files can also contain `meta` directives that specify meta-information for the whole file.

```
meta noextract
```

Tells `make extract` to not extract constants for this file.
Though, `syz-extract` can still be invoked manually on this file.

```
meta arches["arch1", "arch2"]
```

Restricts this file only to the given set of architectures.
`make extract` and `make generate` will not use it on other architectures.

## Misc

Description files also contain `include` directives that refer to Linux kernel header files,
`incdir` directives that refer to custom Linux kernel header directories
and `define` directives that define symbolic constant values.

The syzkaller executor defines some [pseudo system calls](./pseudo_syscalls.md)
that can be used as any other syscall in a description file. These pseudo
system calls expand to literal C code and can perform user-defined
custom actions. You can find some examples in
[executor/common_linux.h](../executor/common_linux.h).

Also see [tips](syscall_descriptions.md#tips) on writing good descriptions.