How to protect buggy programs from security vulnerabilities under Linux and UNIX

A Buffer overflows is a serious security problem. It allows an attacker to inject executable code of their choice into an already-running application. This ability to run arbitrary code at certain memory addresses is dangerous as attacker being able to execute the instructions from anywhere in memory.

To protect bufferoverflow security vulnerabilities use diehard

With such problems in mind, Berger created a new program that prevents crashing and makes users safer, he says. Dubbed DieHard, there are versions for programs that run in Windows or Linux. DieHard is available free for non-commercial users at www.diehard-software.org.

DieHard protects applications from as-yet unfixed bugs and security vulnerabilities that exploit them. Think of DieHard as a new line of defense against hackers, together with anti-virus protection and firewalls.

DieHard library helps buggy programs run correctly and protects them from a range of security vulnerabilities. It works under

=> Microsoft Windows
=> Linux
=> Solaris UNIX operating systems

It supports almost any application for Linux and Solaris, DieHard currently protects Firefox on Windows XP and Vista – to use with Vista, right-click on the desktop shortcut, and set the Properties so it runs in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode. DieHard works with Firefox versions 1.5.0.9 and higher, and 2.0.0.1.

Under desktop Linux you may need to protect popular program such as Mozilla Firefox.

How do I use diehard software under Linux?

First download diehard software using wget command:
$ wget 'http://www.cs.umass.edu/%7Eemery/diehard/download/1.0.1/diehard-1.0.1-linux.tar.gz'

Make an installation directory:
$ mkdir diehard

Untar diehard
$ tar -zxvf diehard-1.0.1-linux.tar.gz -C diehard

Setup LD_PRELOAD variable to protect binaries

A dynamic linker is the part of an operating system (OS) that loads and links the shared libraries for an executable when it is run. ld-linux.so is default dynamic linker on Linux (ld.so on BSD). Use LD_PRELOAD environment variable to instructs the loader to load additional libraries into a program, beyond what was specified when it was compiled. This way you can load protection provided by diehard software.

Append following line in /etc/profile or ~/.bash_profile file
$ vi ~/.bash_profile
Append LD_PRELOAD with the full path to the interposer library:
export LD_PRELOAD=/home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so

Save and close the file. You can also type command at shell prompt:
export LD_PRELOAD=/home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so

Now start application such as Firefox or other application:
$ fiefox &
$ mozilla-thunderbird &

NOTE: Replace /home/vivek with your actual home directory name.

Verify that libdiehard.so is working for you with lsof command

$ lsof | grep libdiehard.so
Output:

startx    4386      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
xinit     4397      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
firefox   4600      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
run-mozil 4603      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
firefox-b 4608      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
lsof      4621      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
grep      4622      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so
lsof      4623      vivek  mem       REG       3,65   215612   2150782 /home/vivek/dirhard/libdiehard.so

How do I uninstall this program?

Simply remove export command from your .bash_profile or /etc/profile file. Delete all libdiehard.* files. Reboot the system.

How do I secure Windows XP Firefox version?

Download and install this software to protect Mozilla / Firefox on Windows.

Please note that Exec Shieldproject does almost same thing. It reduces the risk of worm or other automated remote attacks on Linux server systems. It can make the exploitation of several types of security vulnerabilities much more difficult.
Update: See below for more information.

Further readings

=> Diehard software home page
=> Dynamic linker article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Updated for accuracy and additional content.