Many security vulnerabilities result from bugs in trusted programs. A trusted program runs with privilege that some attacker would like to have. The program fails to keep that trust if there is a bug in the program that allows the attacker to acquire that privilege.
Novell® AppArmor is an application security solution designed specifically to provide least privilege confinement to suspect programs. AppArmor allows the administrator to specify the domain of activities the program can perform by developing a security profile for that application—a listing of files that the program may access and the operations the program may perform. AppArmor secures applications by enforcing good application behavior without relying on attack signatures, so it can prevent attacks even if they are exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities.
Novell AppArmor consists of:
A library of AppArmor profiles for common Linux* applications describing what files the program needs to access.
A library of AppArmor profile foundation classes (profile building blocks) needed for common application activities, such as DNS lookup and user authentication.
A tool suite for developing and enhancing AppArmor profiles, so that you can change the existing profiles to suit your needs and create new profiles for your own local and custom applications.
Several specially modified applications that are AppArmor enabled to provide enhanced security in the form of unique subprocess confinement, including Apache and Tomcat.
The Novell AppArmor–loadable kernel module and associated control scripts to enforce AppArmor policies on your openSUSE® system.