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Can such thing really improve security? I remember the times when Desktop Firewalls like ZoneAlarm got popular, there were dozens of tech talks that showed how

by stiGGG 9y ago

Can such thing really improve security? I remember the times when Desktop Firewalls like ZoneAlarm got popular, there were dozens of tech talks that showed how baby simple it was to bypass them. I think it was common sense these times that this tools are nothing than SnakeOil. They are useless against real Trojans and only cause a lot of work for the user with all that false positives. In worst case it's blocking applications from self updating which can lead to a less secure system. Has this changed nowadays? Especially when we are talking about little snitch which has a really good reputation like I noticed the last years.

jlg23 9y ago
No, they cannot except for the few users who actually understand what it is all about. I probably did more harm than good by advising clueless OSX-users (as in "ordinary users") to use the Little Snitch. Now they browse as careless as before but they are "safe" because they have a "firewall" (in which they always click "allow forever" anyway). If you know what you are doing it is a pretty useful "pf with desktop notifications". But what I personally use it most for: Binary traffic shaping for the lengthy conversation my laptop has with apple.com. One click and I can suddenly use ssh and watch something on youtube again.
- gt2 9y ago
  "One click and I can suddenly use ssh and watch something on youtube again." What does this mean?
  - r3bl 9y ago
    Probably that YouTube, phoning home, and using ssh was using all of his bandwidth.
    - gt2 9y ago
      Wow, I know that a ton of requests from Apple are revealed when using Little Snitch, but it's hard to imagine how they use such a significant amount of bandwidth.
r3bl 9y ago
Since this is a Linux clone: > They are useless against real Trojans Highly doubt anyone will consider it as a way of protecting against trojans. > In worst case it's blocking applications from self updating which can lead to a less secure system. Since this is mostly done on the package management level, it makes sense to use a tool similar to Little Snitch. You're detecting how apps phone home and nothing more. I would take it a step further and disallow some apps to connect to the Internet at all, and allow some apps to contact only certain web pages. Seems like a good way without spending a lot of time playing with firewalls.
- stiGGG 9y ago
  >You're detecting how apps phone home and nothing more. But only the harmless or respectively naive ones?

by stiGGG 9y ago

jlg23 9y ago

No, they cannot except for the few users who actually understand what it is all about. I probably did more harm than good by advising clueless OSX-users (as in "ordinary users") to use the Little Snitch. Now they browse as careless as before but they are "safe" because they have a "firewall" (in which they always click "allow forever" anyway). If you know what you are doing it is a pretty useful "pf with desktop notifications". But what I personally use it most for: Binary traffic shaping for the lengthy conversation my laptop has with apple.com. One click and I can suddenly use ssh and watch something on youtube again.

gt2 9y ago
"One click and I can suddenly use ssh and watch something on youtube again." What does this mean?
- r3bl 9y ago
  Probably that YouTube, phoning home, and using ssh was using all of his bandwidth.
  - gt2 9y ago
    Wow, I know that a ton of requests from Apple are revealed when using Little Snitch, but it's hard to imagine how they use such a significant amount of bandwidth.

r3bl 9y ago

Since this is a Linux clone: > They are useless against real Trojans Highly doubt anyone will consider it as a way of protecting against trojans. > In worst case it's blocking applications from self updating which can lead to a less secure system. Since this is mostly done on the package management level, it makes sense to use a tool similar to Little Snitch. You're detecting how apps phone home and nothing more. I would take it a step further and disallow some apps to connect to the Internet at all, and allow some apps to contact only certain web pages. Seems like a good way without spending a lot of time playing with firewalls.

stiGGG 9y ago
>You're detecting how apps phone home and nothing more. But only the harmless or respectively naive ones?