‘DieHard’ Thwarts Crashes And Hacking Assaults

Even if modern PCs have 2,000 times more memory than those of yesteryears, software developers are still writing programs suitable to low memory supply. This plethora of programs is not only resulting in frequent crashes of software programs, but also putting users at greater risk of hacker attacks, notes computer scientist Emery Berger of the University of Massachusetts Amhert.

Buffer overflows that enable an attacker to insert an executable code into a running application are a serious security problem. In the light of this, Berger has designed a new program that keeps crashing out and users safer. The program named 'DieHard' is freely available from www.diehard-software.org for non-commercial purposes, particularly for Linux, Solaris and Windows. It aims to protect applications, which have un-patched bugs and security holes.

Berger has created 'DieHard' jointly with Ben Zorn, researcher at Microsoft. He has received grants from three companies for his work. Microsoft aided grant of $30,000, Intel - $30,000 and National Science Foundation - $300,000.

Berger explains that everything done on a computer uses some amount of memory space, for instance the graphic displaying on a web page. When a program is running on the system, it keeps demanding different sizes of memory space to hold each component. Berger compares the memory unit to a row of houses, each allotted just that much space for a certain quantity of bytes.

Berger says the problem arises when a program item requests extra memory. The program may unknowingly rent out some already occupied space thereby making an item share another item's area. Mistakes like these can eventually result in crashing down of programs.

DieHard doesn't allow certain kinds of errors to occur at all. It also diminishes the chances of a bug to have any effect. The software works by arranging program objects scattered in the memory. This reduces the probability of overlapping of components. In addition it virtually makes it impossible for a hacker to detect the vulnerable parts of the program.

Today, there is more memory and power in computers than we need, says Berger, so we can use them to make more reliable and safer systems without having to adjust with low speed.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 1/5/2007