eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter)

eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) is a Linux kernel technology that allows sandboxed programs to run safely inside the kernel without modifying kernel source code or loading kernel modules. Originally designed for network packet filtering, eBPF has evolved into a general-purpose in-kernel virtual machine capable of hooking into syscalls, tracepoints, kprobes, XDP, and LSM hooks. Programs are written in C, compiled to eBPF bytecode via Clang/LLVM, and verified for safety before JIT-compilation and execution in kernel space.

In 2026, eBPF underpins production networking at hyperscale companies via tools like Cilium and is the engine behind observability platforms such as Pixie, Falco, and Tetragon — all in heavy use at cloud-native AI infrastructure companies. Security and platform engineering roles increasingly list eBPF literacy as a requirement because it enables zero-instrumentation observability and kernel-level security enforcement without reboots or code changes. As AI workloads demand tighter per-process resource accounting and low-latency networking, eBPF is the lowest-overhead mechanism available in the Linux stack.