ProPolice/SSP (Fantastic Japanese Stuff) gcc modifications that catch some very common stack-smashing problems http://www.trl.ibm.com/projects/security/ssp/ Since integration into OpenBSD more than a year ago, 26+ ProPolice bugs have been found and fixed: gcc with ProPolice equal quality as gcc without ProPolice (hah) Much better than StackGuard http://www1.corest.com/files/files/11/StackguardPaper.pdf And does more than just i386 ... Places the canary in the right place Re-orders objects on the stack for safety Weakness: Poor algorithm for skipping protection on functions (work in progress) (A kernel compiled with -fstack-protector-all is 1.3% slower at make build) BENEFITS SECURITY: Finds bugs and makes them unexploitable VERY LOW COST: Everyone should use it