Binary Hardening Report: May 2026 — 373 Libraries Analyzed
Analysis of 373 binary libraries reveals the current state of compile-time security hardening across the open-source ecosystem.
Methodology: Analysis performed using Repobility’s proprietary multi-dimensional scanning engine.
Hardening Adoption Rates
| Protection | Enabled | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Position Independent (PIE) | 373 | 100.0% |
| NX (Non-Executable Stack) | 373 | 100.0% |
| Stack Canaries | 27 | 7.2% |
| FORTIFY_SOURCE | 31 | 8.3% |
| Full RELRO | 0 | 0.0% |
Key Findings
- PIE is the most widely adopted protection at 100.0%.
- Full RELRO remains the least adopted at 0.0%, representing the largest hardening gap.
- Full hardening (all 5 protections enabled) is the recommended baseline for any production binary.
Data sourced from Repobility’s continuous code intelligence platform analyzing 128,000+ repositories. Updated May 16, 2026.