Protecting your data, securing your software.
libmguard is a small software library designed to safeguard the integrity of critical data stored in computer memory. It acts as a digital guardian, ensuring that your valuable information remains safe and unchanged, even in challenging environments.
Whether you’re a developer building security software or working with sensitive data, libmguard offers essential protection against unauthorized modifications. By creating a secure context and specifying which memory areas to safeguard, libmguard calculates unique digital fingerprints, or hashes, for those memory regions.
These hashes serve as a reference point, allowing you to periodically check if any unauthorized changes have occurred. It’s like having a digital lock on your data, ensuring that your information remains intact and unaltered.
In addition to its security benefits, libmguard might also helpful with addressing faulty memory that can arise from environmental factors like extreme temperatures, humidity, electrostatic discharge, magnetic fields, radiation, vibration, and any other factor that may cause faulty memory. libmguard can act as an extra layer of defense against memory errors caused by these external influences, ensuring the reliability and stability of your software.
libmguard may also be helpful in detecting race conditions, which can occur when multiple components or input devices interact simultaneously. By monitoring memory integrity, it helps prevent conflicts and ensures smooth operations even in complex software systems.
libmguard is an open-source project, meaning it’s freely available for anyone to use and contribute to. Join our community of developers and take advantage of this memory protection library to enhance the security, reliability, and performance of your software applications.
Protect your data, secure your software, and unlock the potential of libmguard today.
libmguard is free software and is available for download from the official github repository here.
The easiest way to get started is to clone the libmguard repository.
$ git clone https://github.com/mdoza/libmguard
libmguard comes with a Makefile to assist with the building, installation,
and testing.
$ make
build options:
CFLAGS = --std=c99
CC = cc
PREFIX = /usr/local
cc --std=c99 -c libmguard.c -o libmguard.o
ar -cvq libmguard.a libmguard.o
q - libmguard.o
The default PREFIX for installation is /usr/local. If you wish to have
libmguard installed in a different location, ensure to set the PREFIX
environment variable before installation.
$ make install
cp libmguard.h /usr/local/include/libmguard.h
cp libmguard.a /usr/local/lib/libmguard.a
As mentioned above, you can have libmguard installed in a different location by
setting the PREFIX environment variable.
$ PREFIX=/usr make install
cp libmguard.h /usr/include/libmguard.h
cp libmguard.a /usr/lib/libmguard.a
$ PREFIX=$HOME make install
cp libmguard.h /home/matt/include/libmguard.h
cp libmguard.a /home/matt/lib/libmguard.a
You can uninstall libmguard using the provided Makefile.
$ make uninstall
rm -fP /usr/local/include/libmguard.h
rm -fP /usr/local/lib/libmguard.a
Using the PREFIX environment variable is also used during uninstall.
$ PREFIX=/usr make uninstall
rm -fP /usr/include/libmguard.h
rm -fP /usr/lib/libmguard.a
libmguard is small and quick and very easy to use. Dropping libmguard into an existing project should be quite easy.
The concept behind libmguard starts with creating an MGContext to register
memory you wish to protect. After creating a context you can register memory
to protect by using mg_protect, and update memory with mg_update. You check
if memory has kept its integrity with mg_compromised_p.
MGContext context;
if (!mg_init_context(&context)) {
// Handle context init error ...
}
// ...int data = 34922;
MGContext context;
if (!mg_init_context(&context)) {
// Handle context init error ...
}
if (!mg_protect(&context, &data, sizeof(data))) {
// Handle protect error.
}int data = 34922;
MGContext context;
if (!mg_init_context(&context)) {
// Handle context init error ...
}
if (!mg_protect(&context, &data, sizeof(data))) {
// Handle protect error.
}
if (mg_compromised_p(&context, &data)) {
// Memory compromised.
// Handle what to do when this happens.
// ...
} else {
// Otherwise, memory has not been compromised.
// ...
}int data = 34922;
MGContext context;
if (!mg_init_context(&context)) {
// Handle context init error ...
}
if (!mg_protect(&context, &data, sizeof(data))) {
// Handle protect error.
}
if (mg_compromised_p(&context, &data)) {
// Memory compromised.
// Handle what to do when this happens.
// ...
} else {
// Otherwise, memory has not been compromised.
// ...
}
data = 31337;
mg_update(&context, &data);I would love to have you contribute to libmguard. Your support and contributions to the code base are very much welcome.
Whether you are an experienced developer or just starting out, there are various ways you can contribute. You can:
- Submit Bug Reports
Help identify and address any issues or bugs you encounter while using libmguard. Detailed bug reports are immensely helpful in improving the library.
- Propose New Features
Have a great idea for enhancing libmguard? I want to hear about it! Please share your suggestions for new features or improvements.
- Contribute Code
Check out the codebase, and see what can be optimized, simplified, or just improved overall.
- Documentation and Examples
Improve the documentation to make it more comprehensive and user-friendly. You can also contribute examples and tutorials to help fellow developers understand and utilize libmguard effectively.
- Spread the Word
Help us reach a wider audience by sharing your experiences with libmguard.
Remember, contributing to libmguard is not limited to the above suggestions. If you have any other ideas or contributions in mind, I would love to hear about it.
libmguard is released under the BSD 2-Clause License. The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file.
The BSD 2-Clause License is a permissive open-source license that allows you to freely use, modify, and distribute the libmguard library, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. It grants you the freedom to incorporate libmguard into your own projects without imposing significant restrictions.
Please refer to the LICENSE file for the complete terms and conditions of the BSD 2-Clause License.
libmguard is devloped and maintained by Matt Doza.
I would love to hear how you use libmguard. If you have the time, please send me an email about how you use libmguard. Reach me at [email protected].
If you encounter any issues while using libmguard or have questions regarding its usage, there are several ways to seek support:
- GitHub Issues
Feel free to open an issue on the project’s GitHub repository. This is a great way to report bugs, suggest enhancements, or ask questions related to libmguard.
- Email
You can also reach out to me via email at [email protected] for any specific inquiries or support needs.
When reaching out for support or reporting an issue, please provide as much detail as possible, including steps to reproduce the problem, relevant code snippets, and any error messages you encountered. This will help me better understand and address your concerns in a timely manner.
Note: If you believe you have found a security vulnerability or a critical issue that requires immediate attention, please send me an email at [email protected].
- 2023/06/04 - libmguard is now using its own small, simple testing framework.
- 2023/05/28 - libmguard is released as free software.