VNU Net: Linux boosted by new security software

By Eric Harlow, VNU Net

Linux security was bolstered last week when Lucent’s Bell
Labs said that it is releasing free software for the operating
system to protect enterprise servers against buffer overflow
attacks.

Buffer overflows have been the most common form of computer
security vulnerability for the past 10 years, according to the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The software, called Libsafe, stops intruders deliberately
overflowing application buffer memory chips to gain access to a
computer. Linux vendors Red Hat, Mandrake, Turbolinux and Debian
are working with Bell to incorporate it into their operating
systems. The program can be downloaded from
www.bell-labs.com/org/11356/libsafe.html.

A buffer is a section of memory in which applications
temporarily store information. Some applications write information
to buffers without checking the size of the buffers.

Servers running such applications are most vulnerable to buffer
overflows – when too much data is sent to the buffer it overflows
into the adjacent memory section. Overflow code can write
additional commands to an application, effectively hijacking it.
Libsafe intercepts the use of vulnerable code functions and
prevents overflow.

Butler Group analyst Andrew Frost said that buffer overflow was
still a common problem, and that the only current solution was to
manually fix applications, although this required programming
skills. “Releasing this on Linux is another tick in the box for
deployment as an enterprise server. It will offer greater
availability for users. If only we had something like this for NT,”
he said.

Libsafe will be made available under the GNU public licence.

[ First appeared in Network News ]