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Little Snitch: Network Monitor and Application Firewall for macOS
- talldayo 2y agoAnyone using Linux can also try OpenSnitch, which is free to own: https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
- haunter 2y agoNetguard if you want to use it on Android https://netguard.me/ https://netguard.me/
- dgares 2y agoAnother option for Linux (and Windows) is Portmaster. https://safing.io/ https://safing.io/
- a-dub 2y agoopensnitch is pretty good on a linux desktop, especially with its cool ebpf kernel interface. mostly good for monitoring for malware though. doesn't replace good inbound firewall rules.
- desro 2y agofirst application to get installed on every nuke and pave
- triyambakam 2y agoNever heard of "nuke and pave" before, nice idiom! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuke_and_pave https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuke_and_pave
- rconti 2y agoIt's by far the most common phrase I've heard used to wipe+reinstall a system in the past 20 years? 25 years? Not just the most popular colloquialism, the most popular phrase, period. My experience is US/West Coast/Tech companies, for reference.
- haswell 2y agoI’ve spent 20+ years in tech in roles ranging from IT to engineering at west coast and midwest companies and this thread is the first time I’ve heard “nuke and pave”. At the places I’ve been, systems got “wiped” or “re-imaged” most commonly. I suspect this terminology is hyper local.
- johng 2y agoIn IT (BBS's) since 1993 or so. Owned a computer store and an ISP. New Mexico. First time I've heard it as well.
- jedberg 2y agoI've worked in tech in the Bay Area for 30 years, started in IT at UC Berkeley and then at Sendmail. Never heard this term before. We always "wiped and re-imaged".
- thustherust 2y agoProbably because it is a leftover from the 1990s/2000s when you had to completely reinstall your os. That’s no longer necessary, as long as you’re not using windows.
- Dylan16807 2y agoWindows hasn't needed it either for a long time.
- simondanerd 2y agoI've heard it said in relation to getting a new laptop with manufacturer cruft and using Dave's Boot And Nuke to do some cleanup: https://dban.org/ https://dban.org/
- FreePalestine1 2y ago[dead]
- para_parolu 2y agoLittle Snitch is one of the best pieces of software out there. It’s essential for every macOS user, works very well, and is a one-time payment. I truly hope it stays that way and doesn’t go down the same path as 1Password. I’m very grateful to the developers for creating such an excellent product. I wish more software were like this.
- Hikikomori 2y agoWhats wrong with 1password?
- aosaigh 2y agoI assume its switch to subscription payments
- tiffanyh 2y agoA few years ago, 1password became an electron app - and the Internet seemed to lose its mind when that happened.
- teruakohatu 2y agoI think it’s native (rust) on Linux. The OP is probably referring to subscription and dropping support for syncing via. Dropbox.
- danpalmer 2y agoThe UI is Electron, especially on Linux as it was the move to Electron that allowed them to do a Linux port. The data layer is all Rust and shared widely across their ecosystem as I understand it. Honestly the whole UI thing was overblown. It's a great Electron app, and their macOS app was always a little iffy (old AppKit oddities). The port unlocked: Linux, a fully featured Windows client, noticeably faster improvements (Watchtower, family sharing, improved SSH and CLI support), and seems to have allowed for much better apps on iOS and Android, all at likely no user cost.
- 2y ago
- treetalker 2y agoFor those looking for a good, free firewall for macOS, consider LuLu. https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html
- 0x2a 2y agoOther (paid) alternatives: Vallum, Radio Silence - https://vallumfirewall.com https://vallumfirewall.com - https://radiosilenceapp.com https://radiosilenceapp.com
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoI feel like macOS has been going the direction of iOS, increasingly locking things down and pushing to a walled garden world. What’s the chance that the next major update or two make changes that prevent utilities from having the access they need to provide these power user capabilities?
- 1123581321 2y agoMinimal, but there were some changes a few years ago that made it harder to monitor and block system traffic. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24838816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24838816
- threatofrain 2y agoHow would you compare these to little snitch?
- Pesthuf 2y agoDoesn't macOS also have a built in (but disabled by default) Firewall? Why does nobody use that?
- lapcat 2y agoThe built-in firewall is only for incoming connections, not outgoing connections.
- deadlinermusic 2y ago[dead]
- redrix 2y agoFirewalls and endpoint security are important, and Little Snitch is pretty good, but this feels like an ad being posted. It’s just a link to the main page of their website: nothing specific to warrant discussion.
- dcreater 2y agoAnd it's a very old and well known software..
- stogot 2y agoI used it years ago but did not know they added all these features. I enjoyed seeing this post here
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- whycome 2y agoIt’s an HN “read the room” submission. It’s contextually related to earlier discussion about Apple Photos phoning home without a direct reference to it.
- acomjean 2y agoMy understanding is that there were some issues with Apple often not allowing its own traffic to be filtered via firewalls on its systems. See discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25109724 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25109724 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37500237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37500237 If you want to monitor your own network I’ve heard good things about the pi-hole project https://pi-hole.net/blog/2017/02/22/what-really-happens-on-your-network-find-out-with-pi-hole/ https://pi-hole.net/blog/2017/02/22/what-really-happens-on-y...
- sneak 2y agoThat’s long outdated information. LS can easily block all Apple phone-home. (Some must be unblocked, specifically gs.apple.com, for UpdateBrainService, for OS updates to work.) I have a few macs that don’t communicate with Apple at all except during system updates.
- marcus0x62 2y agoSee also: Patrick Wardle's excellent (and free) Lulu firewall: https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html. He has a bunch of other excellent macOS security tools: Rei Key - identify keyloggers: https://objective-see.org/products/reikey.html https://objective-see.org/products/reikey.html Block Block - get an alert before an auto-start program gets registered: https://objective-see.org/products/blockblock.html https://objective-see.org/products/blockblock.html Oversight - identify when the mic or camera is active on your mac - https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html Ransomwhere - detect and block ransomware: https://objective-see.org/products/ransomwhere.html https://objective-see.org/products/ransomwhere.html
- bromuk 2y agoWhat’s the windows equivalent?
- gnabgib 2y ago[SimpleWall](https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall)
- verst 2y ago[flagged]
- gouggoug 2y agoDid you happen to stop at the gas station that same day? What does “that very transaction caused a fraud alert” mean? It’s not unusual for multiple transactions to be marked as fraud, even legitimate ones, when a credit card is stolen.
- verst 2y agoNo, literally didn't use that card anywhere else. Without doubt I can attribute the fraud activity to the LittleSnitch purchase attempt. It was the second I clicked "pay" for LittleSnitch I got an automated fraud warning from my bank - which was odd because I really did make that purchase. As a result I approved it.. and yet that is what then allowed folks to create a fake physical copy of my card somehow for in-store purchases - and there were at the opposite end of the country. Not likely someone would have been even able to fly it drove from my physical location to where these purchases were made. Nothing against LittleSnitch - I used it after all. But this was my experience buying it, especially as a poor recent college graduate at the time.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI remember installing it on my work machine, and our IT Crowd demanded that I remove it. They didn’t like that it exposed all their sneakware.
- lxgr 2y agoArguably you’re the one installing sneakware on your employer’s machine. Work machines and personal software/data and vice versa don’t mix well in many jobs.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThis is true. I didn’t argue with them, but kept using it on my personal kit. I think it’s less useful, these days, as Apple is really battening down their I/O hatches. I know that Charles Proxy can miss stuff.
- lxgr 2y ago> I know that Charles Proxy can miss stuff. It would miss anything not using macOS high-level HTTP or socket APIs, right? If you're concerned about apps surreptitiously phoning home, I wouldn't count on them using those, or otherwise respecting the system proxy settings.
- patrickhogan1 2y agoThis is a great product!
- unit149 2y agoThis kind of work, collecting meta-data, mediating queries, altering a relational database processing language, on a DNS server through a Matching Code ID on Little Snitch is freakishly effective at times.
- pentagrama 2y agoFor Windows I remember using the open source Portmaster for this, but noticed some apps and the OS lagging a bit on startup.
- interlock 2y agoI’ve been using Little Snitch for ages. It been my go to on all my all new systems and they offer discounts on upgrades to new versions. Their support has been excellent the one time I needed it.
- triilman 2y agosame functionality but without fancy graphic and map interface https://sniffnet.net/ https://sniffnet.net/
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- eviks 2y agoHow is this the same if it says it doesn't support process id? Can it ask you on new connection by a specific app whether to allow it like little snitch does?
- Jiahang 2y agoIs there a similar solution that can run on openwrt
- grahamj 2y agoLS is excellent but if I'm going to go to the trouble of building firewall rules I'd rather them be at the network level so all my devices can benefit. What would be really cool is the LS UI but tied into something like pfsense for the actual filtering.
- anonzzzies 2y agoLittle snitch is great; I give it as a bd present to people.
- pronouncedjerry 2y agoHow’s it compare to Objective See’s LuLu OSS https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu ?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pmkary 2y agoI have had it for years, and every once in a while, there's a red light flashing in my menubar, making me smile as one more tracker goes empty-handed today.
- SebFender 2y agoLittle Snitch + DNS filter = greatness.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y agoBut where is Little Snitch for iOS. At least Android has NetGuard. Firewalling applications is relatively easy on a general purpose computer. Where it becomes excessivelky difficult is on a so-called "smartphone". https://www.obdev.at/support/littlesnitch/bm3q8 https://www.obdev.at/support/littlesnitch/bm3q8 "Will Little Snitch be available for iOS, tvOS and watchOS? Unfortunately Apple's regulations and submission guidelines do not allow applications like Little Snitch that operate on the system level on the iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), tvOS (Apple TV), or watchOS (Apple Watch) platforms." It appears Apple's "regulations" prohibit owner control and increased transparency. No such thing as an option for "experts only" when it comes to Apple computer owners; one size fits all. Apple are the only experts and the only ones entitled to control and transparency, over and into _other peoples'_ computers. Remarkable.
- lucasazevedo 2y agoI love this product! It is a must-have app on macOS! pro: you can literally control all Application Networks on your computer (sometimes it is funny to see completely off-line apps that don't need to collect any data trying to sync a bunch of stuff). cons: it can be annoying when you install new apps and running it on with most secure options.