400G 原生线速解密 Line-rate Decryption
< 20μs 超低安全附加延迟 Ultra-low Security Latency
0-Day 自主漏洞热补丁 Autonomous Exploit Protection
1:1 数字孪生策略验证 Digital Twin Validation
01.挑战 02.基石 03.硬件 04.隐喻 05.流程 06.全景 07.实战 08.AI加速 09.TCO对比 10.实时模拟 11.总结

织就安全之茧:Cisco Hypershield 深度解析

从 eBPF 内核感知到 P4 硬件加速,构建 AI 时代的主动防御基座

01. 愿景与挑战:为什么需要 Hypershield? 01. Vision & Challenge: Why Hypershield?

在超大规模云原生环境下,传统的“护城河”式防御已经崩溃。现代数据中心面临三大瓶颈:

  • 软件定义的局限: 纯软件防火墙在处理 100G/400G 流量时会消耗主机 30% 以上的 CPU 资源。
  • 分段死角: 容器间的“东西向流量”庞大且隐蔽,集中式网关无法做到细粒度的微分段。
  • 零日漏洞真空期: 从漏洞发现到补丁部署存在“风险时间差”,攻击者利用此窗口期横向渗透。

Cisco Hypershield 的出现是为了将安全功能直接织入网络结构中,实现真正的“全分布式、硬件加速、自愈式”安全。

In hyper-scale cloud-native environments, traditional "moat" defense has collapsed. Modern data centers face three major bottlenecks:

  • Software Limitations: Pure software firewalls consume over 30% of host CPU when handling 100G/400G traffic.
  • Segmentation Blind Spots: Massive and hidden East-West traffic between containers cannot be micro-segmented by centralized gateways.
  • Zero-Day Gaps: The "time-to-vulnerability" gap between discovery and patching is a prime target for lateral movement.

核心驱动 (Why)

The Why

消除安全与性能的博弈。让安全像空气一样无处不在,却不消耗业务算力。

Eliminate the trade-off between security and performance. Ubiquitous security without CPU tax.

技术路径 (How)

The How

通过 DPU (AMD Pensando) 卸载安全算力,结合 eBPF 实现实时内核级深度观测。

Offload security to DPU (AMD Pensando) and use eBPF for real-time kernel observability.

产品愿景 (What)

The What

一种分布式的“安全织物”,能够自动防御、自动更新、自动测试的安全繭。

A distributed security fabric that acts as a self-defending, self-updating cocoon.

02. 核心组件深度定义 (Technical Foundation) 02. Deep Dive into Core Components

关键技术Key Technology 技术原理 (Mechanism)Mechanism 架构价值 (Value)Architectural Value
DPU / SmartNIC 专为数据中心设计的处理器,集成 ARM 核心与硬件流水线。 Processors for DC with ARM cores and hardware pipelines. 物理隔离: 安全逻辑运行在独立于主机的 DPU 内存中,即便 OS 沦陷,安全依然稳固。 Physical isolation: Security logic runs in separate memory. OS compromise doesn't affect security.
P4 Runtime 基于“匹配-动作”流水线的编程语言,直接操作硬件。 Match-Action pipeline language for hardware control. 毫秒级动态执行: 将安全规则转化为 ASIC 逻辑。无需查找表,直接在线速下丢弃非法包。 Line-rate enforcement. Converts rules into ASIC logic for zero-latency drops.
eBPF (Tetragon) Linux 内核沙箱,通过 Hook 系统调用捕获行为元数据。 Kernel sandbox capturing metadata via syscall hooks. 上下文感知: 不仅看 IP/端口,还能识别“哪个用户执行了哪个进程,打开了哪个文件”。 Context awareness: Identifies users, processes, and file activities, not just IP/Ports.

Hypershield 的三大自治支柱 (The Three Pillars)

The Three Pillars of Hypershield

1. 自主分段 (Autonomous Segmentation)

1. Autonomous Segmentation

利用 AI 分析流量行为,自动创建和优化微分段规则,消除传统防火墙复杂的维护工作。

Uses AI to analyze traffic patterns, automatically creating and refining micro-segmentation rules.

2. 分布式漏洞防护 (Exploit Protection)

2. Distributed Exploit Protection

在漏洞补丁发布前,自动在 DPU 层面拦截针对漏洞的攻击尝试,实现“补偿性控制”。

Automatically blocks exploit attempts at the DPU level before vendor patches are deployed.

3. 自愈式策略更新 (Self-qualifying Policy)

3. Self-qualifying Policy

通过双胞胎测试 (Shadow Testing) 持续验证策略变更,确保安全加固不会意外中断业务。

Continuously validates policy changes via Shadow Testing to prevent business downtime.

专家洞察: P4 与 eBPF 的结合实现了“上下联动”。eBPF 负责在主机端提供“为什么阻断”的上下文,而 P4 在网络交换端提供“如何阻断”的极致性能。这是一种**感官与肌肉**的完美协同。

Expert Insight: The synergy between P4 and eBPF connects context with performance. eBPF provides the "why" (observability), while P4 provides the "how" (high-speed enforcement).

03. 硬件基座:Cisco Nexus 9300 Smart Switch 03. Hardware Foundation: Nexus 9300 Smart Switch

N9300 不仅仅是一个交换机,它是一个集成了 AMD Pensando DPU 的智能控制节点。它在传统交换架构基础上增加了“第三条路径”:

N9300 is more than a switch; it's an intelligent control node integrating AMD Pensando DPUs. It adds a "third path" to traditional switch architectures:

1. 并行安全处理流水线

1. Parallel Security Pipeline

流量在经过交换芯片的同时,被镜像到内置 DPU。在 DPU 中进行状态防火墙 (Stateful FW)、负载均衡和深度加密检测,且不影响主转发路径的延迟。

Traffic is mirrored to the built-in DPU for stateful FW, LB, and encryption inspection, without impacting primary forwarding latency.

2. 弹性规则引擎

2. Elastic Rule Engine

传统的 ACL 受到 TCAM 硬件容量限制。N9300 利用 DPU 的大容量存储和 P4 灵活性,可以支持数百万条细粒度的动态安全规则。

Unlike traditional ACLs limited by TCAM, N9300 uses DPU memory and P4 flexibility to support millions of fine-grained dynamic rules.

3. 线速加解密 (Line-rate Crypto)

3. Line-rate Crypto

内置硬件加速器处理 IPsec/TLS,实现网络透明的全流量加密。这是实现“零信任”物理层的关键。

Built-in accelerators handle IPsec/TLS for transparent encryption, key to achieving Zero Trust at the physical layer.

硬件规格透视:AMD Pensando DPU

Hardware Specs: AMD Pensando DPU

  • P4 可编程流水线: 提供处理 400Gbps 流量的完全灵活性,支持自定义协议解析。
  • P4 Programmable Pipeline: Full flexibility for 400Gbps traffic, supporting custom protocol parsing.
  • 大规模会话表: 在交换机硬件中维护数百万个有状态连接(Stateful Sessions)。
  • Massive Session Table: Maintains millions of stateful connections directly in switch hardware.
  • 2025 前瞻 (Salina 架构): 引入超大规模并行处理引擎,专门优化 AI 工作负载下的微秒级跳数延迟。
  • 2025 Roadmap (Salina): Next-gen engine optimized for sub-microsecond hop latency in AI-intensive workloads.
▼ 理解了坚实的硬件“肌肉”,让我们换个视角,看看这些组件如何组合成智慧的“免疫系统” ▼ Having understood the hardware "muscles," let's see how they orchestrate into an intelligent "immune system"

04. 隐喻解析:数字免疫系统 04. Analogy: The Digital Immune System

Patrick Henry Winston 曾说:类比是通向理解的桥梁。 我们可以把 Cisco Hypershield 看作一个高度进化的生物防御系统:

As Patrick Henry Winston noted: Analogy is the bridge to understanding. We can view Cisco Hypershield as a highly evolved biological defense system:

🔍

白细胞 (Tetragon/eBPF)

White Blood Cells

穿梭在 Linux 内核的每一个血管中,实时检测“细胞”(进程)的 DNA 是否发生变异或行为异常。

Cruising through every vein of the Linux kernel, detecting if "cell" (process) behavior is abnormal.

中枢神经 (Hypershield AI)

Central Nervous System

接收感官信号,并在毫秒内推演这是否是一次攻击。它负责在全球数千个节点间同步防御姿态。

Receives signals and reasons within milliseconds. Synchronizes defense postures across thousands of nodes.

🛡️

抗体/皮肤 (Smart Switch DPU)

Antibodies / Skin

物理屏障。它在病毒(恶意包)接触到核心业务之前,直接在网络接口层级将其灭活。

Physical barrier. Neutralizes viruses (malicious packets) at the interface level before they touch the core logic.

05. 运作流水线:感知、推演与双胞胎测试 05. Workflow: Sensing, Reasoning & Shadow Testing

Hypershield 引入了革命性的“双胞胎测试 (Shadow Testing)”机制,解决了安全运维中“怕改错规则导致业务中断”的痛点:

Hypershield introduces a revolutionary Shadow Testing mechanism, solving the fear of breaking business with new security rules:

第 1 步:实时感知 (Kernel Observability) Step 1: Real-time Sensing Tetragon 捕获行为指纹。例如:Apache 进程突然 fork 了 bash。这是一个典型的 RCE 攻击信号。 Tetragon captures fingerprints. E.g., Apache forking bash—a classic RCE signal.
第 2 步:双胞胎验证 (Shadow Execution) Step 2: Shadow Validation 在 DPU 的独立分片中运行新策略。新策略会处理真实的流量镜像,但不进行实际阻断,只报告“如果是正式环境,这笔流量会被丢弃”。 Run new policies on mirrored traffic in isolated DPU shards without blocking. Report "what-if" outcomes.
第 3 步:AI 推演与确信 (Reasoning & Confidence) Step 3: Reasoning & Confidence Hypershield 分析双胞胎测试的结果。如果没有误杀正常业务,AI 会给出 100% 确信度,建议正式部署。 Analyze shadow results. If no false positives, AI grants 100% confidence for deployment.
第 4 步:分布式强制执行 (Distributed Enforcement) Step 4: Distributed Enforcement 通过 P4 驱动全网 N9300 和服务器 DPU。在全网范围内瞬间封死受攻击的漏洞路径。 Push via P4 to all N9300s and DPUs. Instantly seal the vulnerability path across the entire fabric.

技术协同:从内核感知到硬件阻断的时序流

Technical Synergy: From Kernel Sensing to Hardware Enforcement

Host (eBPF/Tetragon) Hypershield AI Fabric Smart Switch (P4 DPU) STEP 1 eBPF 捕获系统调用异常 eBPF detects syscall anomaly STEP 2 AI 推演策略并进行双胞胎验证 AI reasons policy & validates via Shadow Test STEP 3 下发 P4 规则至硬件流水线 Push P4 rules to hardware pipeline DROP STEP 4 DPU 线速拦截恶意包 (Elba ASIC) DPU drops packets at line-rate

06 全景视角:一致的安全织物 06 Panorama: A Unified Security Fabric

Hypershield 不止于 N9300。它是分布在 **网络节点 (Switch)**、**计算节点 (Server DPU)** 和 **云端 (K8s Sidecar)** 的统一安全层:

Hypershield is not just N9300. it's a unified security layer across **Switches**, **Server DPUs**, and **Cloud (K8s Sidecars)**:

部署点Deployment Point 角色与职责Role & Responsibility
N9300 Smart Switch 物理入口屏障: 拦截未授权的东西向流量,保护不具备安装 DPU 条件的遗留服务器。 Physical Entry Barrier: Micro-segments E-W traffic for legacy servers without DPUs.
Server DPU (AMD Pensando) 深度工作负载保护: 在应用入口处进行零信任强制执行,完全卸载 CPU 安全负担。 Deep Workload Protection: Zero-trust enforcement at the application's doorstep, offloading CPU.
Fabric Manager (Cloud Native) 指挥中心: AI 驱动的统一策略管理,跨私有云、公有云实现安全逻辑一致。 Control Center: AI-driven policy management ensuring consistent security across Hybrid Cloud.

07 实战场景:当 Log4j 再次发生时 07 Scenario: Facing a Log4j-style Crisis

场景引入: 架构的精妙最终要接受烈火的检验。当 0-Day 漏洞突袭,这套“织物”如何反应?

Context: Architectural elegance is proven under fire. How does the "fabric" react when a 0-day exploit strikes?

传统方式 (The Hard Way)

  • 手动搜索数万个容器的补丁状态。
  • 更新 WAF 规则,容易造成业务误伤。
  • 等待数周才能完成全量补丁。

The Old Way

  • Manual scanning of thousands of containers.
  • Updating WAF rules, risking false positives.
  • Weeks to patch everything.

Hypershield 方式 (The Smart Way)

  • 检测: Tetragon 在内核发现 Java 进程尝试出站连接非预期的 LDAP。
  • 自治: Hypershield 自动生成针对性的 P4 过滤规则。
  • 阻断: DPU 在网络入口阻断该反弹 Shell 流量,业务逻辑无需任何改动。

Hypershield Way

  • Detection: Tetragon detects Java process initiating unexpected LDAP outbound.
  • Autonomy: Hypershield generates targeted P4 filtering rules.
  • Blocking: DPU blocks the reverse shell at the entry. Zero business downtime.

08. 赋能 AI:加速与安全并重 08. Empowering AI: Security at the Speed of GPU

AI 集群依赖 RDMA (RoCEv2) 实现 GPU 间的零拷贝通信。传统的 CPU 软件过滤会带来难以承受的尾延迟 (Tail Latency)。

AI clusters rely on RDMA (RoCEv2) for zero-copy GPU communication. Traditional CPU filtering adds prohibitive tail latency.

Performance

RoCEv2 硬件卸载

RoCEv2 Offload

N9300 利用 AMD Pensando Elba 架构,在硬件层直接解析 RDMA 头部,实现微秒级延迟下的安全检测。

N9300 uses AMD Pensando Elba to parse RDMA headers in hardware, enabling microsecond-level security.

Security

GPU 东西向分段

GPU E-W Segmentation

自主分段 (Autonomous Segmentation) 自动识别 GPU 训练作业的流量模式,动态闭合未使用的端口。

Autonomous Segmentation identifies GPU training patterns and dynamically closes unused ports.

Scale

400G 硬件加解密

400G Line-rate Encryption

支持 400G 线速的 MACsec/IPsec,保护 AI 训练数据的跨机架传输安全,不消耗服务器 GPU 算力。

MACsec/IPsec at 400G protects cross-rack AI data without consuming GPU/CPU cycles.

09. 架构演进:传统防火墙 vs. Hypershield 09. Evolution: Traditional FW vs. Hypershield

维度 (Dimension) 传统边界防御 (Legacy) Legacy Perimeter Defense Cisco Hypershield (AI-Native) Cisco Hypershield (AI-Native)
部署粒度
Granularity
粗粒度

基于 IP/VLAN 的中心化网关

IP/VLAN-based centralized gateways

超细粒度

基于进程、用户、容器标识的分布式织物

Process/User/Container identity-based fabric

性能开销
Performance
高损耗 (CPU Tax)

占用主机 30% CPU 或增加 50ms+ 延迟

30% Host CPU tax or 50ms+ latency

零开销 (Offloaded)

硬件线速转发,主机 CPU 零消耗

Hardware line-rate, Zero CPU tax

策略变更
Policy Change
手动/风险高

维护数万条 ACL,变更需窗口期,怕断网

Manual ACLs, maintenance windows required

自主/自验证

AI 自动生成并通过双胞胎测试验证策略

AI-generated & self-validated via Shadow Test

漏洞防御
Vulnerability
被动补丁

等待厂商补丁平均需 21 天,窗口期风险巨大

Average 21 days for patching, high exposure risk

主动热修复

数小时内完成分布式硬件补偿控制 (DEP)

Distributed Exploit Protection (DEP) within hours

决策洞察: 从 TCO 角度看,Hypershield 释放的 30% 服务器算力通常可以在大型数据中心中抵消硬件升级本身的成本,同时将安全响应从“天”降低到“分钟”。

Executive Insight: From a TCO perspective, reclaiming 30% of server CPU power often offsets hardware costs in large DCs, while slashing MTTR from days to minutes.

10. 实时模拟:eBPF 捕获 RCE 攻击 10. Live Simulation: eBPF Detecting RCE

以下模拟展示了 Tetragon 如何在内核层级发现 Apache 进程尝试反弹 Shell 的瞬间:

Simulation of Tetragon detecting a reverse shell attempt from an Apache process at the kernel level:

root@hypershield-node-01:~#

11. 总结:安全架构的新纪元 11. Summary: A New Era of Security Architecture

Cisco Hypershield 代表了安全从“边界设备”到“原生织物”的根本转变:

  • 极致性能: 硬件级的阻断意味着安全不再是延迟的代名词。
  • 极致可见: eBPF 提供了深入骨髓的内生可见性。
  • 极致韧性: 独立的 DPU 运行环境确保了即使操作系统受损,安全系统依然在离线(Out-of-band)运行。

结论: 面对 AI 驱动的新型威胁,我们的防御必须同样具备 AI 的进化速度。Cisco Hypershield 并非只是一个新的防火墙,它是数据中心的外骨骼 (Exoskeleton)

Cisco Hypershield represents a radical shift from "perimeter appliances" to "native fabric":

  • Extreme Performance: Hardware-level enforcement means security is no longer a latency penalty.
  • Extreme Visibility: eBPF provides deep-seated, endogenous observability.
  • Extreme Resilience: Independent DPU environments ensure security operates out-of-band even if the OS is compromised.