---
name: "hardened-ld"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "hardening-wrapper"
version: "2.6"
release: "Debian 8 (Jessie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/hardened-ld"
---

# hardened-ld(1)

linker wrapper to enforce hardening toolchain improvements

## NAME

hardened-ld - linker wrapper to enforce hardening toolchain improvements

## SYNOPSIS

**export DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING=1**\

**ld** *...*

## DESCRIPTION

The **hardened-ld** wrapper is normally used by calling **ld** as usual with **DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING** set to 1. It will configure the necessary toolchain hardening features. By default, all features are enabled. If a given feature does not work correctly and needs to be disabled, the corresponding environment variables mentioned below can be set to 0.

## ENVIRONMENT

- DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING=1

  Enable hardening features.

- DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING\_DEBUG=1

  Print the full resulting gcc command line to STDERR before calling gcc.

- DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING\_RELRO=0

  Don't mark ELF sections read-only after start. See README.Debian for details.

- DEB\_BUILD\_HARDENING\_BINDNOW=0

  Don't mark ELF loader for start-up dynamic resolution. See README.Debian for details.

## NOTES

System-wide settings can be added to */etc/hardening-wrapper.conf*, one per line.

The real **ld** is renamed **ld.real**, and a diversion is registered with [**dpkg-divert**(1)](/dpkg-divert/1.md). Thus **hardened-ld**'s idea of the default **ld** is dictated by whatever package installed */usr/bin/ld*.

## SEE ALSO

[**hardened-cc**(1)](/hardened-cc/1.md) [**ld**(1)](/ld/1.md)