testing: add boringtun throughput benchmark and iperf ref-compare harness

New testing/boringtun/ harness runs two Cloudflare BoringTun userspace
WireGuard containers with iperf3 between them, giving a single-hop
userspace tunnel baseline for comparison against FIPS throughput
numbers. Local WG key generation runs through the harness image so the
host needs no wireguard-tools.

New testing/static/scripts/iperf-compare-refs.sh builds two git refs
into separate fips-test:* images via git worktree and runs the same
static iperf topology against both, with RUNS-based repetition and
aggregate avg/min/max reporting.

testing/static/scripts/iperf-test.sh gains DURATION, PARALLEL,
SETTLE_SECONDS, IPERF_TIMEOUT env knobs and a per-path iperf timeout.
testing/static/docker-compose.yml selects the image under test via
FIPS_TEST_IMAGE; testing/scripts/build.sh respects CARGO_TARGET_DIR.

Author benchmark on aarch64 Docker Desktop:
  boringtun bob -> alice : 1000.13 Mbits/sec
This commit is contained in:
Martti Malmi
2026-05-15 18:03:42 +00:00
committed by Johnathan Corgan
parent 09eb5ad6bf
commit b05c80e5f5
12 changed files with 470 additions and 10 deletions
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generated/
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# Minimal boringtun-cli image for throughput benchmarking against FIPS.
# Userspace WireGuard (boringtun) + wireguard-tools + iperf3 in one
# image. Run two containers on a docker bridge, configure a WG peer
# between them, then iperf3 client→server across the tunnel.
FROM rust:1-bookworm AS build
# 0.6.0 (crates.io HEAD) is from 2022 and turns in ~1.7 Mbps in
# this harness — clearly broken. Pull the boringtun-cli binary from
# the cloudflare HEAD instead; it gets the post-0.6 perf fixes and
# the multi-threaded recv loop.
RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cloudflare/boringtun /usr/src/boringtun \
&& cargo install --path /usr/src/boringtun/boringtun-cli
FROM debian:bookworm-slim
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
RUN apt-get update \
&& apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
iperf3 \
iproute2 \
wireguard-tools \
iputils-ping \
netcat-openbsd \
ca-certificates \
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
COPY --from=build /usr/local/cargo/bin/boringtun-cli /usr/local/bin/boringtun-cli
COPY entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x /entrypoint.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.sh"]
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# BoringTun Throughput Baseline
This harness runs two userspace WireGuard peers with Cloudflare BoringTun and
measures single-stream TCP throughput with `iperf3`. It is intended as a simple
baseline for comparing FIPS tunnel throughput against another userspace tunnel.
```bash
docker build -t boringtun-test:latest testing/boringtun
testing/boringtun/scripts/generate-keys.sh
docker compose -f testing/boringtun/docker-compose.yml up -d
testing/boringtun/scripts/bench.sh
docker compose -f testing/boringtun/docker-compose.yml down
```
The generated WireGuard key material is written under
`testing/boringtun/generated/` and is ignored by git.
For FIPS-to-FIPS revision comparisons, use the static topology comparison
script:
```bash
testing/static/scripts/iperf-compare-refs.sh origin/master HEAD mesh
```
That script builds each ref into a separate `fips-test:*` image, runs the
same static `iperf3` topology against both images, and prints a bandwidth
summary for each path. Override `DURATION`, `PARALLEL`, `SETTLE_SECONDS`, or
`IPERF_TIMEOUT` in the environment when needed. Set `RUNS=3` or similar to
repeat each ref and print aggregate results.
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# Minimal 2-node boringtun setup for iperf3 throughput comparison.
# Both containers join the same docker bridge; each runs a boringtun
# userspace WireGuard tunnel and they peer with each other over UDP.
# Inner WG IPs: 10.99.0.1/24 (alice) <-> 10.99.0.2/24 (bob).
networks:
bt-net:
driver: bridge
ipam:
config:
- subnet: 172.99.0.0/24
x-boringtun-common: &boringtun-common
image: boringtun-test:latest
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
devices:
- /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
sysctls:
- net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
restart: "no"
env_file:
- ./generated/peers.env
services:
alice:
<<: *boringtun-common
container_name: bt-alice
hostname: alice
environment:
- ROLE=alice
- PEER_HOST=bob
networks:
bt-net:
ipv4_address: 172.99.0.10
bob:
<<: *boringtun-common
container_name: bt-bob
hostname: bob
environment:
- ROLE=bob
- PEER_HOST=alice
networks:
bt-net:
ipv4_address: 172.99.0.11
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#!/bin/bash
# Bring up a boringtun-userspace WireGuard tunnel and then sleep
# indefinitely so the benchmark scripts can drive it via docker exec.
#
# Required env:
# ROLE "alice" or "bob"
# ALICE_WG_IP WG inner IP for alice (e.g. 10.99.0.1/24)
# BOB_WG_IP WG inner IP for bob (e.g. 10.99.0.2/24)
# ALICE_PUB alice's WG public key
# BOB_PUB bob's WG public key
# ALICE_PRIV alice's WG private key
# BOB_PRIV bob's WG private key
# PEER_HOST the other container's hostname on the docker bridge
# PEER_PORT the other container's WG UDP port (default 51820)
#
# boringtun-cli runs in foreground (--foreground) so wg-quick-style
# configuration is done manually via `ip`, `wg`, and `wg set`.
set -e
PORT="${PEER_PORT:-51820}"
case "$ROLE" in
alice)
OUR_IP="$ALICE_WG_IP"
OUR_PRIV="$ALICE_PRIV"
PEER_PUB="$BOB_PUB"
;;
bob)
OUR_IP="$BOB_WG_IP"
OUR_PRIV="$BOB_PRIV"
PEER_PUB="$ALICE_PUB"
;;
*)
echo "ROLE must be alice or bob, got '$ROLE'" >&2
exit 1
;;
esac
echo "[$ROLE] starting boringtun-cli foreground on wg0"
# `--foreground` keeps the userspace driver in the container
# foreground. boringtun-cli sets WG_TUN_NAME_FILE to /tmp/wg0.name
# when --foreground; we just hardcode the device name.
boringtun-cli --foreground --disable-drop-privileges wg0 &
BORINGTUN_PID=$!
# wait for the tun device to appear
for i in $(seq 1 50); do
if ip link show wg0 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
break
fi
sleep 0.1
done
echo "[$ROLE] configuring wg0 with $OUR_IP listening on $PORT"
PRIV_FILE=$(mktemp)
chmod 600 "$PRIV_FILE"
printf '%s' "$OUR_PRIV" >"$PRIV_FILE"
wg set wg0 private-key "$PRIV_FILE" listen-port "$PORT"
rm -f "$PRIV_FILE"
ip address add "$OUR_IP" dev wg0
ip link set up dev wg0
echo "[$ROLE] adding peer pubkey, endpoint $PEER_HOST:$PORT"
wg set wg0 peer "$PEER_PUB" allowed-ips 10.99.0.0/24 endpoint "$PEER_HOST:$PORT" persistent-keepalive 25
echo "[$ROLE] ready"
wg show wg0
# Park here so the container stays up; we'll run iperf3 etc via
# docker exec.
wait $BORINGTUN_PID
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#!/bin/bash
# End-to-end iperf3 bandwidth test between two boringtun containers.
# Output mirrors testing/static/scripts/iperf-test.sh so the FIPS
# numbers are directly comparable.
set -euo pipefail
DURATION="${DURATION:-10}"
PARALLEL="${PARALLEL:-1}"
echo "=== boringtun iperf3 throughput (single TCP stream, ${DURATION}s) ==="
# Run iperf3 server on alice (background), client on bob.
docker exec -d bt-alice iperf3 -s -1 -B 10.99.0.1 -p 5201
sleep 1
# wait for tun handshake to settle (boringtun + WG keepalive)
sleep 2
# Client: bob → alice over WG (10.99.0.1)
OUT=$(docker exec bt-bob iperf3 -c 10.99.0.1 -p 5201 -t "$DURATION" -P "$PARALLEL" -J)
# Pull SUM bps.
MBPS=$(echo "$OUT" | python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f\"{d['end']['sum_received']['bits_per_second'] / 1_000_000:.2f}\")")
echo "boringtun bob -> alice : ${MBPS} Mbits/sec"
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#!/bin/bash
# Generate WG keypairs for alice and bob and write the
# generated/peers.env file the docker-compose.yml reads.
# Idempotent: skips if file already exists.
set -e
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
OUT_DIR="$SCRIPT_DIR/../generated"
ENV_FILE="$OUT_DIR/peers.env"
if [ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]; then
echo "$ENV_FILE already exists; reusing keys"
exit 0
fi
mkdir -p "$OUT_DIR"
# Use the built boringtun-test image to generate keys — host may
# not have wireguard-tools installed. The `pubkey` step needs `-i`
# so stdin is piped through; `genkey` doesn't need it but matching
# flags keeps the two calls symmetric.
GEN_CMD="docker run --rm --entrypoint wg boringtun-test:latest"
PUB_CMD="docker run --rm -i --entrypoint wg boringtun-test:latest"
ALICE_PRIV=$($GEN_CMD genkey)
ALICE_PUB=$(printf '%s' "$ALICE_PRIV" | $PUB_CMD pubkey)
BOB_PRIV=$($GEN_CMD genkey)
BOB_PUB=$(printf '%s' "$BOB_PRIV" | $PUB_CMD pubkey)
cat >"$ENV_FILE" <<EOF
ALICE_PRIV=$ALICE_PRIV
ALICE_PUB=$ALICE_PUB
BOB_PRIV=$BOB_PRIV
BOB_PUB=$BOB_PUB
ALICE_WG_IP=10.99.0.1/24
BOB_WG_IP=10.99.0.2/24
PEER_PORT=51820
EOF
chmod 600 "$ENV_FILE"
echo "wrote $ENV_FILE"