Install

Wireblast is one static binary with no runtime dependencies. No libpcap, no DPDK, no kernel modules, no cgo.

Requirements


OS	Linux. AF_XDP is a Linux kernel facility, so there’s no macOS or Windows build.
Kernel	5.4 or newer. 5.9+ is strongly preferred, for the reason below.
Privileges	root, or the `cap_net_raw`, `cap_bpf` and `cap_sys_resource` capabilities.
NIC	Anything AF_XDP works on. Fastest on drivers with native XDP support: Intel `ixgbe` and `i40e`, Mellanox `mlx5`, AWS `ena`.
Locked memory	A few hundred MB, depending on queue count. The default limit is usually too low. See Locked memory.

Why 5.9+ matters. On 5.9 and later the XDP program is held by a BPF link that the kernel tears down when the process dies, so a crashed or kill -9’d Wireblast cleans up after itself. On older kernels a dead process can leave the program attached, and you clear it by hand with sudo ip link set dev eth1 xdp off.

Get the binary

Release binary
go install
From source

Platform	Architecture	Download
Linux	x86-64 / amd64	`wireblast_linux_amd64.tar.gz`
Linux	arm64 / aarch64	`wireblast_linux_arm64.tar.gz`

curl -sSL https://github.com/atoonk/wireblast/releases/latest/download/wireblast_linux_amd64.tar.gz \
  | tar xz
sudo install -m 0755 wireblast /usr/local/bin/
wireblast --version

Swap amd64 for arm64 on ARM hardware. The releases/latest/download/… URLs always resolve to the newest release, so they’re safe to script against. Each release also publishes a checksums.txt for verification.The arm64 build runs on modern 64-bit Raspberry Pis (Pi 4, Pi 5, Zero 2 W and newer, on a 64-bit OS). Their onboard NIC has no native XDP, though, so Wireblast falls back to generic mode there: it works, just not at line rate.

Needs Go 1.25 or newer.

go install github.com/atoonk/wireblast/cmd/wireblast@latest

That drops the binary in $(go env GOPATH)/bin. Since Wireblast needs root, copy it somewhere on root’s PATH or invoke the full path. sudo wireblast will not find a binary that only exists in your user’s GOPATH.

git clone https://github.com/atoonk/wireblast
cd wireblast
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o wireblast ./cmd/wireblast
sudo install -m 0755 wireblast /usr/local/bin/

CGO_ENABLED=0 is the point: you get a fully static binary you can copy to any Linux box of the same architecture.

Privileges

The simple answer is sudo wireblast. AF_XDP has to create raw sockets and load an XDP program, and both need privileges. If you’d rather not run it as root, grant the capabilities once:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_bpf,cap_sys_resource+ep $(command -v wireblast)

After that it runs as your normal user. Re-apply it whenever you replace the binary, since capabilities are attached to the file rather than the name. Skip this and Wireblast tells you before it touches anything:

error  insufficient privileges
       AF_XDP needs to create raw sockets and load an XDP program, which
       requires root or CAP_NET_RAW.

Locked memory

This is the one that catches people on the first run. AF_XDP packet buffers live in a UMEM, a region of memory the kernel keeps locked into RAM, one per queue. A 12-queue run needs roughly 120 MB of locked memory, and the common default limit is 8 MB. Wireblast raises its own soft limit to the hard limit automatically before it checks. If that still isn’t enough, it stops and hands you the exact command:

error  locked-memory limit too low
       this run needs about 118 MiB of locked memory (12 queues x 4096 frames
       x 2048 bytes), but the limit is 8 MiB.
       Raise it for this shell:
         ulimit -l 121634
       or permanently in /etc/security/limits.conf:
         * hard memlock unlimited
         * soft memlock unlimited
       Alternatively use fewer queues (--queues 3).

All three fixes work. ulimit -l is fine for a one-off, limits.conf if you’ll be doing this regularly, and --queues if you’d rather not change host settings at all.

Wireblast never reconfigures your host. It will tell you that ip link set eth1 mtu 3000 would help. It will not run it. That applies to MTU, queue counts, routes, addresses and every other system-wide setting: the recommendations are yours to accept or ignore.

Check it works

wireblast --version

You don’t need a NIC, a link, or root for that one. To actually put packets on a wire, head to the quickstart, which also shows you how to build a throwaway veth pair if you don’t have a spare interface to point it at.

Getting started

Concepts

Traffic patterns

Guides

Reference

Requirements

Get the binary

Privileges

Locked memory

Check it works

​Requirements

​Get the binary

​Privileges

​Locked memory

​Check it works

Requirements

Get the binary

Privileges

Locked memory

Check it works