psc

psc (ps container) is a fast process scanner that uses eBPF iterators and Google CEL to query system state with precision and full container context.

Why psc?

Fast Kernel-Level Access with eBPF Iterators

psc uses eBPF iterators to read process and file descriptor information directly from kernel data structures. This approach is:

• Fast: eBPF iterators are highly efficient compared to the proc filesystem, where traditional tooling spends most of its time executing system calls
• Complete: Access kernel information not traditionally exposed through /proc. I plan to add also a way to access certain fields of the task_struct on demand for advanced use, but this is just an idea
• Tamper-resistant: Bypasses the /proc filesystem entirely, providing visibility that cannot be subverted by userland rootkits or LD_PRELOAD tricks

Readable Queries with CEL

Traditional Linux tools like ps, lsof, and ss are powerful but inflexible. They output fixed formats that require extensive piping through grep, awk, and sed:

# Traditional: Find nginx processes owned by root
ps aux | grep nginx | grep root | grep -v grep

# psc: Express exactly what you mean
psc 'process.name == "nginx" && process.user == "root"'

# Traditional: Find processes with established connections on port 443
ss -tnp | grep ESTAB | grep :443 | awk '{print $6}' | cut -d'"' -f2

# psc: One clear expression
psc 'socket.state == established && socket.dstPort == 443'

psc uses the Common Expression Language (CEL) to filter processes. CEL expressions read almost like natural language, making your scripts self-documenting and maintainable. No more deciphering complex pipelines of grep | awk | sed | xargs.

The -o flag lets you output exactly the fields you need, eliminating post-processing entirely:

psc 'socket.state == listen' -o process.name,socket.srcPort

Output presets are also available to quickly print common information:

psc 'socket.type == tcp && socket.dstPort == 443' -o sockets 

Native Container Context

Traditional tools have no concept of containers. Getting container information requires parsing cgroup paths, querying container runtimes, and correlating PIDs manually:

# Traditional: Find containerized processes (fragile, incomplete)
ps aux | xargs -I{} sh -c 'cat /proc/{}/cgroup 2>/dev/null | grep -q docker && echo {}'

# psc: Native container support
psc 'container.runtime == docker'

psc extracts container context (ID, name, image, runtime, labels) automatically for Docker, containerd, CRI-O, and Podman. Debug any container's processes, files, and network connections directly from the host:

# Show all processes in a specific container
psc 'container.name == "my-app"' --tree

# Find containers running as root
psc 'container.runtime == docker && process.user == "root"'

# List containers with their images
psc 'container.id != ""' -o process.pid,process.name,container.name,container.image

Building

Requirements

• Linux kernel 5.8 or later (eBPF iterators were introduced in this version)
• Go 1.25 or later
• Clang and LLVM
• libbpf development headers
• Linux kernel headers
• bpftool (for generating vmlinux.h)

Install Dependencies

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install clang llvm libbpf-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-tools-$(uname -r)

On Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install clang llvm libbpf-devel kernel-devel bpftool

Build

# Generate vmlinux.h (required once per kernel version)
make vmlinux

# Build the binary
make build

Or manually:

bpftool btf dump file /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux format c > bpf/vmlinux.h
go generate ./...
go build -o psc

Install

sudo make install

Usage

psc requires root privileges to load eBPF programs.

Basic Usage

# List all processes
sudo psc

# List all processes as a tree
sudo psc --tree

Filtering with CEL Expressions

Pass a CEL expression as the first argument to filter processes:

# Filter by process name
psc 'process.name == "nginx"'

# Filter by user
psc 'process.user == "root"'

# Filter by command line content
psc 'process.cmdline.contains("--config")'

# Filter by PID range
psc 'process.pid > 1000 && process.pid < 2000'

# Combine conditions
psc 'process.name == "bash" || process.name == "zsh"'

Container Filtering

# Show only containerized processes
psc 'container.id != ""'

# Filter by container runtime (constants: docker, containerd, crio, podman)
psc 'container.runtime == docker'

# Filter by container name
psc 'container.name == "nginx"'

# Filter by container image
psc 'container.image.contains("nginx:latest")'

# Show as tree to see container process hierarchy
psc 'container.runtime == docker' --tree

Socket and File Descriptor Filtering

Understanding why a process exists often requires looking at its open file descriptors and network connections:

# Find processes with listening TCP sockets
psc 'socket.type == tcp && socket.state == listen'

# Find processes with established connections
psc 'socket.state == established'

# Find processes connected to a specific port
psc 'socket.dstPort == 443'

# Find processes using Unix sockets
psc 'socket.family == unix'

# Find processes with files open in /etc
psc 'file.path.startsWith("/etc")'

Available Fields

Process fields (process.X):

• name - Process name (string)
• pid - Process ID (int)
• ppid - Parent process ID (int)
• tid - Thread ID (int)
• euid - Effective user ID (int)
• ruid - Real user ID (int)
• suid - Saved set-user-ID (int)
• user - Username (string)
• cmdline - Full command line (string)
• state - Process state (uint)

Capability fields (process.capabilities.X):

• effective - Effective capabilities bitmask (uint)
• permitted - Permitted capabilities bitmask (uint)
• inheritable - Inheritable capabilities bitmask (uint)

Namespace fields (process.namespaces.X):

• net - Network namespace inode (int)
• pid - PID namespace inode (int)
• mnt - Mount namespace inode (int)
• uts - UTS namespace inode (int)
• ipc - IPC namespace inode (int)
• cgroup - Cgroup namespace inode (int)

Container fields (container.X):

• id - Container ID (string)
• name - Container name (string)
• image - Container image (string)
• runtime - Container runtime (string)
• labels - Container labels (map)

File/Socket fields (file.X or socket.X):

• path - File path (string)
• fd - File descriptor number (int)
• srcPort - Source port (int)
• dstPort - Destination port (int)
• type - Socket type (tcp, udp)
• state - Socket state (for filtering, use constants like listen, established)
• family - Address family (unix, inet, inet6)
• unixPath - Unix socket path (string)
• fdType - FD type (file_type, socket_type)

Available Constants

Use these without quotes in expressions:

• Runtimes: docker, containerd, crio, podman
• Socket types: tcp, udp
• Address families: unix, inet, inet6
• Socket states (for filtering): established, listen, syn_sent, syn_recv, fin_wait1, fin_wait2, , , , ,

Note: Output uses ss-style state names: ESTAB, LISTEN, SYN-SENT, etc. For UDP sockets, only UNCONN (unconnected) or ESTAB (connected) are shown since UDP is connectionless.

String Functions

CEL provides string manipulation functions:

• .contains("substr") - Check if string contains substring
• .startsWith("prefix") - Check if string starts with prefix
• .endsWith("suffix") - Check if string ends with suffix

Options

• --tree, -t - Display processes as a tree
• --no-color - Disable colored output
• -o, --output - Custom output columns (comma-separated field names or preset)

Subcommands

• psc fields - List all available CEL fields, constants, and output presets
• psc version - Show version information

Custom Output with -o

The -o flag lets you specify exactly which fields to display. You can use presets for common use cases or specify individual fields.

Presets:

• sockets - Process info + full socket details (family, type, state, addresses, ports)
• files - Process info + file descriptor details (fd, type, path)
• containers - Process info + container details (name, image, runtime)
• network - Compact network view (pid, name, type, state, ports)

# Use a preset
psc 'socket.state == listen' -o sockets
psc 'container.id != ""' -o containers

# Or specify individual fields
psc -o process.pid,process.name,process.user
psc 'socket.state == listen' -o process.pid,process.name,socket.srcPort,socket.state

When the output includes file/socket fields and the filter matches multiple files per process, each match gets its own row:

$ psc 'socket.state == listen' -o network

PID      NAME      TYPE   STATE    SRCPORT   DSTPORT
1234     nginx     tcp    LISTEN   80        0
1234     nginx     tcp    LISTEN   443       0
5678     sshd      tcp    LISTEN   22        0

Examples

Find all web servers:

psc 'process.name == "nginx" || process.name == "apache2" || process.name == "httpd"'

Find processes listening on privileged ports:

psc 'socket.state == listen && socket.srcPort < 1024'

Find processes in a different network namespace (useful for container/pod inspection):

psc 'process.namespaces.net != 4026531840' -o process.pid,process.name,process.namespaces.net

Show capabilities for privileged processes:

psc 'process.euid == 0' -o process.pid,process.name,process.capabilities.effective,process.capabilities.permitted

Find processes that elevated privileges via SUID binaries (real UID differs from effective UID):

psc 'process.ruid != process.euid'

Find processes with connections to external services:

psc 'socket.state == established && socket.dstPort == 443'

Show network connections with custom columns:

psc 'socket.state == established' -o process.pid,process.name,socket.srcPort,socket.dstPort,socket.dstAddr

License

MIT