This paper investigates a new class of non-convex optimization, which provides a unified framework for linear precoding in single/multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels with arbitrary input distributions. The new optimization is called generalized quadratic matrix programming (GQMP). Due to the nondeterministic polynomial time (NP)-hardness of GQMP problems, instead of seeking globally optimal solutions, we propose an efficient algorithm which is guaranteed to converge to a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) point. The idea behind this algorithm is to construct explicit concave lower bounds for non-convex objective and constraint functions, and then solve a sequence of concave maximization problems until convergence. In terms of application, we consider a downlink underlay secure cognitive radio (CR) network, where each node has multiple antennas. We design linear precoders to maximize the average secrecy (sum) rate with finite-alphabet inputs and statistical channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter. The precoding problems under secure multicast/broadcast scenarios are GQMP problems, and thus they can be solved efficiently by our proposed algorithm. Several numerical examples are provided to show the efficacy of our algorithm.