15 ms·

Show HN: I got hacked, felt paranoid, made an app – GlassWire

1013 points by greenwalls 12y ago

EGreg 12y ago
How do I know this isn't a trojan? :P
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Feel free to check it out in a virtual machine if you're worried, or upload to VirusTotal.com.
  - schoen 12y ago
    How does VirusTotal.com know this isn't a trojan?
    - digitalboss 12y ago
      Read https://www.virustotal.com/en/about/ https://www.virustotal.com/en/about/
    - MichaelGG 12y ago
      I don't think that's even possible. The best you could do is analyze a program and see if it does things that are "suspicious". Otherwise it's just going to match known binaries/strings. It'd take an amazingly complicated scanner to detect if GlassWire was, for instance, capturing your DNS requests and sending them somewhere. Or allowing updates to get loaded into its process space. I'd guess you'd need a nearly general AI to determine if any program is malicious.
      - schoen 12y ago
        That was actually the point I was hoping to make, but it can be hard to convey whether a question is meant seriously or not.
walterbell 12y ago
Nice graphs. On the site, why did you choose to promote the monitoring features over the outbound firewall features? Can it import existing whitelists or blacklists? If there are competing products (paid or free), a comparison would be helpful.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Our firewall uses the Windows firewall system so it doesn't add instability to your computer. I was afraid it would sound kind of lame to talk about the awesome firewall when it's more of a firewall manager. I think the monitoring feature is the most useful thing because you can go back in time and see your network activity for up to 30 days, or of course clear your history if you want. For Mac there is Little Snitch but for Windows I haven't seen anything that has a "network time machine" like we have and also gives notifications like we do. The way GlassWire organizes the data is kind of unique. I made this application for myself due to my own paranoia.
  - classicsnoot 12y ago
    Your motivation and follow through is equivalent to your product's quality. I hope this is a trend that grows. Thanks for the work.
fra 12y ago
Really nice looking page. I'd love to get an OSX version...
- lumpypua 12y ago
  http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
  - greenwalls 12y ago
    We're working on a Mac version. Also I agree Little Snitch is cool. We concentrate more on visualizing network activity and we have a "network time machine" feature our UI allows you to go back and forth in time. Also I don't like how Little Snitch always pops up those alerts. I wanted the user to see the alerts but not have to always "OK" every little network activity. I felt like users tend to just press "OK" all the time anyway...
    - lumpypua 12y ago
      I like your graphing a lot definitely! LS has a similar network activity visualization. You can of course drill down by process and such: http://i.imgur.com/ZQX0XEa.png http://i.imgur.com/ZQX0XEa.png As a power user, I like alerts for all unclassified network activity on my machine. No affiliation with obdev, just a fan of LS.
tokenizerrr 12y ago
Looks very nice, though as with any security software it would be lots better if it was open source.
morepyplease 12y ago
Looks beautiful, What's it written in?
- dom96 12y ago
  I would also like to know this, and also what GUI toolkit does it use (if any)? Edit: It seems it's using QT, impressive.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
wfjackson 12y ago
What about rootkits that can falsify the data that the app sees? It would be good to have something similar that plugs directly into the router logs.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  The only true network data is via some kind of tap on the actual wire. We're considering adding a plug-in so you can do that but there are so many awesome tools out there for that already I'm not sure if we should. GlassWire is for everyday users to understand what's going on with their computer. There will always be ways to bypass the OS but I think GlassWire will still help in many situations.
gregbarbosa 12y ago
Wow. I hate how so many Windows applications are considerably uglier compared to Mac counterparts. The Windows apps don't seem to push forward Windows design but rather get stuck in the Windows XP design days. This is beautifully designed and clear. The graph visualization is prime, and I love that the peaks are "rounded" out instead of sharp declines (sharp declines would make it look more like a live stock ticker). Extremely well done, and exactly something I have been looking for. I will keep an eye out for the Mac version.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks! It was actually very difficult to make rounded peaks due to the way network activity tends to suddenly spike. Sometimes the mini graph at the bottom of the UI doesn't match up exactly with the top graph due to our rounded graph but we're improving it all the time. I also hate the way spiky graphs look.
- cledet 12y ago
  GitHub for Windows is another beautifully designed Windows app. They even published a blog post about it: https://github.com/blog/1151-designing-github-for-windows https://github.com/blog/1151-designing-github-for-windows
  - gcb0 12y ago
    that app has less features than a rock.
    - rjbwork 12y ago
      While true, it does what i need to do, sync my branches with my github for doing PRs.
      - Brajeshwar 12y ago
        I use Github for Mac, just for that feature - selectively write 'meaningful' comments while pushing files.
ofir_geller 12y ago
Please send my compliments to the designer of both your app and website. both designs are clean, beautiful and work with the UI. bravo. it would be nice to have more info about how you monitor the connection and prevent any Trojans from going around the monitor point.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I will let them know, thank you! GlassWire is kind of like "Little Snitch" in the way that it shows you everything and lets you make your own decision on what you want to do, but we also add in some extra protections like malicious host alerts, ARP spoofing detection, DNS server changes, Host changes, and we let you know about changes to your applications that are accessing the network. For example if Chrome's certificate is changed or it's updated you should be alerted. Unfortunately nothing can stop trojans/viruses but we hope GlassWire helps some.
  - scoot 12y ago
    Beautiful indeed! Only tiny stray semi-colon: "Our Windows network security monitor also looks for; domains or IP addresses..." I wouldn't mention it but for that fact that attention to detail is clearly important to you judging by the design of both the site and the app!
    - greenwalls 12y ago
      Thanks, I'll fix it.
leemac 12y ago
Looks beautiful. I love its simplicity as well. Can you give a quick breakdown of what was used to develop this? Looks like Qt was used.
- MrUnknown 12y ago
  It could very well be WPF using XAML
cyanbane 12y ago
Beautiful app, I looked at the Privacy Policy on the site & breezed through the Install legalize and it doesn't seem to include specific network traffic information being relayed back to remote servers in anyway (I easily could have missed this), can you confirm that you guys are not collecting network usage statistics from the app?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  We absolutely can't see your network data and we don't want to see it. GlassWire checks for software updates and that network activity appears on the GlassWire graph. If you block GlassWire via its own firewall then you won't know about future updates.
  - cyanbane 12y ago
    Thanks for the quick answer. I would pay for this in a heartbeat, great experience. Good luck to you guys.
g3orge 12y ago
something like this for linux?
nkohari 12y ago
Looks like a nice implementation of a good solution to a real problem. Kudos.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you!
purpl3p3rs0n 12y ago
This is immensely helpful (and beautiful). I really like how you can monitor remote boxes. Customization of alerts is great too! Any chance you will support hi-res screens (see http://imgur.com/ztN8cL3 http://imgur.com/ztN8cL3)?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Wow, that looks awful. What kind of screen are you using? I don't have one. Any details would be appreciated so we can fix this.
  - abritishguy 12y ago
    You should be able to simulate one by clicking "make text look larger or smaller" in screen resolution.
  - purpl3p3rs0n 12y ago
    Running Windows 8.1 on Macbook Pro Retina (via bootcamp). I found this on MSDN...not sure if it's applicable: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn469266(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn46...
    - greenwalls 12y ago
      Thanks! We will try to recreate this.
  - Aldo_MX 12y ago
    At Screen Resolution -> Make text and other items larger or smaller you can set the DPI to other value (ex. 125%) This is the information for DPI-Aware applications. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn469266(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn46... I would attach some source code from a game I wrote, but I don't have the source code of it at hand right now.
  - eps 12y ago
    You have to declare that the app is "DPI aware" in the manifest and implement few things that go along with that promise. Just google it, it's fairly simple. While I got you here, can I ask how many people worked on this and how long did it take? Just curious.
serve_yay 12y ago
I don't have Windows so can't evaluate, but this looks quite nice. Good job!
blub 12y ago
This looks brilliant and is badly needed on Windows. However the fact that it's free gives me pause, especially since we're talking about privacy software that is not open source. What usually happens with freeware like this is that it becomes adware or dies. I think you have enough features to charge for it now.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you! The bottom of our index page explains that we plan to make a paid version with more features in the future. We're working on a list of paid features. I don't think it would be appropriate for a privacy type application to include adware so please don't worry about that.
  - higherpurpose 12y ago
    As long as you keep the main functionality free - because more people need to be using this sort of app, and I feel having to pay would be a pretty significant obstacle.
ToastyMallows 12y ago
Site is getting hammered right now, but everything looks awesome. Are there any settings for VPNs? Does it work with VPNs?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  You can use your VPN with GlassWire and it works OK but we haven't tested in detail. I used GlassWire with my own VPN and I didn't see any obvious problems so far.
  - ToastyMallows 12y ago
    Awesome thanks, I'll have to check this out tonight! Just a feature that I'm thinking of right now that would be nice is if it alerted you that your VPN dropped or was disconnected.
    - mback2k 12y ago
      Yep, I second that feature request. My OpenVPN connection with redirect-gateway enabled sometimes looses its route definitions and suddenly all my traffic goes directly to the internet instead.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
  - mback2k 12y ago
    I just tested GlassWire with OpenVPN on Windows 7 64-bit. I get an instant bluescreen as soon as the GlassWire driver is installed and started and OpenVPN is connected. The order doesn't matter, as soon as both applications are active, boom. Please investigate. I had to manually remove the driver, because the bluescreen occurred during installation and corrupted the deinstallation routine.
ninjakeyboard 12y ago
This is cool - looks more appealing than little snitch - needs a mac version :P
duiker101 12y ago
Ok, I need to know. how you made such a beautiful app?
miles 12y ago
Beautiful UI! Just curious: why not block connection attempts from new programs automatically? By the time a user has noticed and blocked future connections, it may well be too late. On a related note, I recently tested a number of firewalls for Windows using Comodo's HIPS and Firewall Leak Test Suite[1]; the only one I found that passed all tests with virtually no setup or changes was SpyShelter Firewall[2]. Not an endorsement by any means, just an observation. [1] http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/cltinfo.html http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/cltinfo.html [2] http://www.spyshelter.com/spyshelter-firewall/ http://www.spyshelter.com/spyshelter-firewall/
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I use Little Snitch on my Mac. I found myself just "allow"ing everything all the time anyway. I think most users just get used to pressing "OK" and stop even paying attention to what they are agreeing to. I know I get lazy and do that myself. Instead I wanted to briefly alert the user and let them make their own decision, then we also added in some malicious host monitoring and other features to help. Users can use our "network time machine" feature to go back and time and see exactly what happened in the past. I haven't seen another product that does that.
  - lechevalierd3on 12y ago
    I've stopped using Little snitch a while back because it felt useless as I would indeed allow everything out of habits. Good decision.
  - snitchprivoxy 12y ago
    Have you tried using Little Snitch along with Privoxy? I find the combination works very well. You get two ways to block things (Little Snitch rules and Privoxy rules) and because Privoxy is so easy to restart you can make "Deny" your default behavior since if the site doesn't show properly, just restart privoxy and hit refresh. Great looking app btw. Haven't had to work on a windows box in a long time but if I do I'm definitely going to try this out.
- hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
woohoo7676 12y ago
Downloaded it, love the idea and UI. My only niggle about the app now is that it could use better support for hidpi (the text is a bit jumbled). Other than that, great work!
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Please post a screenshot to our forum with details or email us and we'll fix it.
sahaskatta 12y ago
I just installed this on a Surface Pro 3. First off great app, but just wanted to give you a heads up: The icons in the taskbar and notification area are blurry due to a HDPI screen. A good portion of the interface is cut off or broken likely due to scaling issues.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks for the heads up. We'll pick up a Surface and fix this.
  - wvenable 12y ago
    No need to pick up a surface; just adjusting the display settings in Windows 8.1 should be enough to simulate the problems. Increase the DPI, etc.
Todoed 12y ago
impressive!
Zakuzaa 12y ago
What are you using for forum software?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Discourse. http://www.discourse.org/ http://www.discourse.org/
mback2k 12y ago
Great application, please create one that can be run on Linux and Windows machines as a service and monitoried using such a beautiful client software.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Check this out https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring. We're considering Linux monitoring also.
  - mback2k 12y ago
    Thanks! I am looking forward to the Linux monitoring.
jelias 12y ago
It's Little Snitch for Windows? Love it.
- miles 12y ago
  Unlike Little Snitch, GlassWire does not block new connection attempts - see the author's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223036 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223036
  - snitchprivoxy 12y ago
    Darn. I hope that's just a default that can be configured otherwise this is useless to me.
agildehaus 12y ago
Beautiful. I can easily see using this regularly on my Windows machines. Some items: 1) It'd be nice to be able to scroll around directly on the graph using mouse gestures (middle-click drag?). 2) Graphing of bandwidth seems to be off somehow. If I do a speedtest.net, my ~104Mbps transfer shows up on the graph as 38 Mbps and the graph scale shows a max of 20 Mbps. http://imgur.com/QkZMVvj http://imgur.com/QkZMVvj
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I use Speedtest quite a bit and I think they estimate your speed via a system that doesn't require you actually hit their transfer rate. I could be wrong though... we'll look closer and see what's going on there. I agree dragging right/left on the graph would be cool. Thanks for the complements and feedback!
  - driverdan 12y ago
    They definitely do real bandwidth measuring.
  - stanmancan 12y ago
    This is happening to me as well, Glasswire reported 10MBps steady (while the chart's max val was 20Mbps) while Speedtest.net is reporting 104Mbps.
  - etcet 12y ago
    The graph shows a discrepancy when downloading from other sources as well. Steam is reporting 4MB/s while GlassWire shows around ~3.3Mb/s (hard to really estimate). Also, the Apps tab under Graphs says 250Mb for Steam. I have no idea what this value is supposed to reflect. Similarly, the Traffic tab shows a similar value (but slightly different value) for HTTP traffic which Steam is the only user of right now.
  - SoreGums 12y ago
    Be great if there could be the data rates / current speed on the graph > traffic view. That's one thing I am missing - takes too long to figure out which app is doing something. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdzovwg9eif5ebp/glasswire_datarate.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdzovwg9eif5ebp/glasswire_datarate...
ejp 12y ago
This is excellent - I was looking for similar functionality just recently in the Windows networking system. I look forward to seeing what the paid features are! Here's my minor feature request (I'm sure you'll get a hundred or so today) - how about a config setting to turn on an automatic virus scan of the executable on first network activity? I imagine this would not be enabled by default for performance reasons, but I'd like to run it this way for a few days before reverting to default settings.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  ejp, you can manually do a virus scan of an exe on first network activity. Click the desktop alert then mouse over the file name and click "virus scan". This uses your own antiviruse software, not ours. Therefore if your antivirus is not up to date your scan won't be. We also thought about adding a virustotal.com upload there. Maybe we will add this as an option that's turned off by default. I worried that some users may complain about too much CPU usage. Thanks for the feedback/compliment!
BorisMelnik 12y ago
really love the color scheme and design on your website. sorry I don't have any more relevant feedback to add. I deal with colors, UX and UI all day long and this was refreshingly lovely.
lechevalierd3on 12y ago
Stunning landing page! You get the message instantly and it got me curious enough to want to boot my windows box to try it out. Great job.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you! The team spent a lot of time on the graph and we wanted to show that to the user before they downloaded.
gcb0 12y ago
well done. but useless for the intended purpose. most malwares will rip thru this like butter. i would only trust something like this running out of the box believed to be compromised. in the router for example.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  The only true way to fully monitor the network is by tapping the actual wire. We started off wanting to make a malware tool but we found it was not reasonable so we tried to add more network monitoring and privacy features. The GlassWire software does look for malicious hosts and other changes to the system that could indicate malware but of course without directly monitoring the wire there is no way to see everything your machine is doing on the network. GlassWire works with your antivirus and is not meant to be an antivirus.
kolev 12y ago
Oh, wow! Amazing! Puts "Little Snitch" on Mac to shame!
frik 12y ago
Nice app. Please test it with the Windows classic theme (Windows 7/2008 R2), the "Glasswire" button is a bit glitchy. What's the overhead of Glasswire? For me it's 2-6% CPU (of my many core systems). What does the gwdrv.sys kernel driver do exactly? Hook into the TCPIP.sys kernel driver? Is the "Glasswire control service" an app update service? Blocking it in the "Firewall" tab has no negative side effect so far.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you. We will test with that theme, thanks for the details. My CPU is nowhere close to 2% when GlassWire is minimized and I have an older PC with 8.1. Please send details if you have time via email or our forum. GlassWire checks for software updates. If you block GlassWire from accessing the network then you won't hear about new versions.
vini 12y ago
Beautiful, would be nice if it had an option to open the folder where the listed apps are located.
- vini 12y ago
  Never mind, it already shows the apps folder, just click on the apps icon.
eps 12y ago
From FAQ page: > GlassWire keeps an up to date list of known suspicious hosts and alerts you if you contact one. Suspicious hosts are often related to botnets, malware, and other malicious behavior How is this implemented exactly? Does the app phone home? Does it do some sort of RBL check (if so, against which servers)? Thanks
- greenwalls 12y ago
  GlassWire checks for software updates and also does an RBL check. You can see it on the graph and block GlassWire if you want, but then you won't be alerted to new versions and your malicious hosts will become outdated. We don't list our malicious host list sources but I guess we could, I'll have to think about it more. We don't get the hosts from our users or access any user data at all. Your graph data is private on your machine, unless you set up our remote monitoring feature and that data also never goes through our servers at all.
  - eps 12y ago
    Sorry, I should've been more specific - does your app talk to your servers when it's up for reasons other than checking for updates? If yes, is there a way to switch it all off? I'm sure you can understand why I'm asking. In fact, it'd be ideal if the update checks would have the "remind" option like Bvckup2 has it - https://bvckup2.com/img/r8/screenshot-4-preferences.png https://bvckup2.com/img/r8/screenshot-4-preferences.png
elwell 12y ago
This is really pretty, but I don't use anything in this vein except for Spybot Search and Destroy. I wonder what other HNers are think about that: am I asking for trouble? I haven't had any problems in years. I'm a Windows user, and I run SS&D every month or so (I don't run the resident process).
- danielweber 12y ago
  YMMV, but not downloading every fool thing that comes my way has been a very reliable way to keep my Windows machines free from infection.
- eps 12y ago
  You want to add EMET to your setup to shield (to a degree) against zero-days - http://microsoft.com/emet http://microsoft.com/emet
danielweber 12y ago
Beautiful! Could you make it so when the graph rescales, it just doesn't snap into place, but gradually (say, animate over a half second) resizes? EDIT: If I have GlassWire on my second monitor, and click "+ 2 more" to see what else is going on, the pop-up opens on my first monitor.
acasetta 12y ago
I actually just signed on to HN to comment on this news. Great job, first of all for a good solution to a real problem. Next, great design: finally an application that does not pale in comparison to its Mac counterparts.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks for the kind words!
Xorlev 12y ago
Beautiful app. Almost (but not quite) regret jettisoning the Windows ecosystem.
JimmaDaRustla 12y ago
Wow. Presentation is everything. You nailed it. Downloaded it just to see if those screenshots were real. Keeping it because its awesome!
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you!
Siliticxx 12y ago
I gotta ask, why not open source? i feel slightly paranoid - too.
service 12y ago
Looks awesome. Little Snitch is one of the things I miss most from my Mac days and this looks like it will feel that hole nicely. e: After trying it, yep, this is excellent. And far too good to be free. I almost feel guilty using it.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks!
huhtenberg 12y ago
Any reason why WhoIs data on glasswire.com is concealed?
- frik 12y ago
  linked on the top of the start page: https://trustsealinfo.websecurity.norton.com/splash?form_file=fdf/splash.fdf&dn=www.glasswire.com&lang=en https://trustsealinfo.websecurity.norton.com/splash?form_fil...
- hrjet 12y ago
  Isn't that standard practice? (genuine question)
- mbrownnyc 12y ago
  I did a corporate search and tracked the owner: ANTON BONDAR. Also affiliated with ManyCam.
stronglikedan 12y ago
Beautiful! And just a future feature request for the paid version: Would it be possible to limit the bandwidth allotted to an individual application? I know it's a monitoring tool, and that would be more of an administration tool feature, but I think it could fit in with the concept.
RubyPinch 12y ago
considering you are also monitoring physical changes to the box (network interface changes for example), would it be within scope to monitor workstation locking/unlocking and hibernation? same question with removal/addition of plug-and-play devices (HDDs for example)
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Instead of monitoring locking/unlocking we monitored idle time instead. You'll notice the graph turns shaded when your computer is idle so if you see some strange spikes you can go back in time on the graph and investigate.
  - RubyPinch 12y ago
    on the alerts page, it tells me that 2 alerts occurred, but it doesn't allow me to view those alerts? that should probably be fixed, not much point in a idle mode if it just makes things more difficult to investigate edit: also currently using 1.3GB of memory. what.
cheeyoonlee 12y ago
Clearly one of the most beautiful app on Windows. Just installed on my desktop, looking forward to the mac version ;)
nilved 12y ago
Cool app, but if you're the kind of person who gets hacked, why should we trust your sec?
- judk 12y ago
  What kind of person doesn't get hacked?
  - boyaka 12y ago
    One that doesn't use x86, iOS, or Android?
- tuananh 12y ago
  valid question. and nothing against the app but i kinda don't trust security app developed by single person. maybe just me.
- markdown 12y ago
  He/she likely didn't get hacked. It's just a narrative created to get clicks. Basically a lie. Marketing.
ddevault 12y ago
All software related to security should be open source. This particular piece of software doesn't sit at a crucial point in a secure system, but a greater deal of transparency would be appreciated. I personally avoid using closed-source tools for security purposes, and especially closed-source tools that are hoping to monetize. I use Linux, though, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me in this case :) I would also say that calling home is a huge no-no for this software. I would seriously consider revisiting that choice if I were you.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks for your feedback. We'll try to add more transparency. The calling home is for software updates and it shows up on the graph, and GlassWire can even block itself.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
    That may be the case, but it's still not acceptable in my opinion. Calling home to fetch a new database of malicious hosts and such is fine, but calling home for analytics is not okay. At the very least, clearly disclose it and make it easy to opt out.
    - specialk 12y ago
      Out of curiosity, do you have any security concerns about calling home for analytic or is it just you would prefer the privacy of not having your usage tracked?
      - Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
        It's mostly privacy concerns, but also the fact that you use this software at all can disclose some interesting information to eavesdropping attackers. Most worrisome is just that it's not very well disclosed - most users just don't know it's happening, and it's not very well justified.
        12y ago
Brosper 12y ago
Wow, this app is the most beautiful app for Windows ever made.
maouida 12y ago
Bug report: After few hours of installing the app. I got a blue screen KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILUR which repeated 3 times. I removed the app from the start up list and disabled the windows service. now everything is back to normal. System: Win 8.1
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I haven't seen this yet. If you have time to post a report to our contact page we'd really appreciate it https://www.glasswire.com/contact/ https://www.glasswire.com/contact/
  - rplnt 12y ago
    I don't see it anywhere on your site, but have you passed (or at least tried) Windows Logo test? That coupled with driver certification kit can show some warnings. It's costly to get signed driver and certified product, but you can just run the tests for free and see if everything is OK.
- codexon 12y ago
  I am surprised he managed to get the driver signed by microsoft, epecially when it is free and causes bluescreens.
  - mback2k 12y ago
    The driver wasn't signed by Microsoft, but VeriSign Class 3 Code Signing 2010 CA.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  If you do report it, see if there was a minidump produced. I hope the OP is also enrolled in the Windows Error Reporting program.
Brosper 12y ago
What about AUTO-UPDATE ?
wnevets 12y ago
Looks pretty but I dont know how well this will help with detecting a compromised system. Once a system has been compromised cant it lie about its network usage?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Yes a system can lie about its network usage. I answered a similar question below, check this link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223296 GlassWire shouldn't be your only security tool.
Joyfield 12y ago
What graphing components do you use?
ferongr 12y ago
Minor nit, not everyone has their notification area at the bottom right of the display (I use a vertical taskbar on the left). It'd be neat if the notifications showed up near the notification area.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I never thought of that. We'll see how we can move the notifications so they are near the GlassWire icon.
codexon 12y ago
Not to be a downer, but I don't see how this is any better than a real firewall like Comodo. If you cannot block new connections, it is likely the valuable information on your computer has been siphoned off, or glasswire bypassed before you noticed it on those fancy but useless graphs.
- wglb 12y ago
  It is also about unexpected outgoing connections. This is mostly what I use little snitch for. And yes, I check each one that pops up and don't put an approved one in permanently unless I know what it is.
superpano 12y ago
Can anyone explain why the Qt DLLs are offset in size? I compared them to Qt 5.3 and even replaced them and app works fine with original Digia compiled versions. Maybe it is the digital signature? I just recall a trojan people used before by re-compiling the Qt Libraries with malicious intent.
kingcan 12y ago
This looks really nice. One thing I'd like is that it would show the current download and upload speed when hovering over the tray icon.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  We're working on something like that.
geoelectric 12y ago
Shamelessly bikeshedding, since I can't use the app until you have an OS X version, but would be nice if it could query my router via SNMP to get whole-network usage. That's what I currently do via NetUse, but this looks quite a bit better.
- winslow 12y ago
  Sounds like that could be a good feature for the Pro version of his/her software.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  +1 on this, it's tricky to find a good SNMP monitor with the right MIBs for ADSL modems. (I hate SNMP, I once had a router I could crash with snmpbulkwalk)
bobbles 12y ago
Does anyone know how to remove the red notification numbers from the icon? I hate these things drawing attention in my taskbar
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I thought people would want to remove the desktop notifications, but not the numbers on the icon. We may need to rethink the settings.
voltagex_ 12y ago
Any plans for a plugin API? I'd love to add my ISPs usage monitor to this.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  How would the plugin work?
  - voltagex_ 12y ago
    Sorry for double posting, I've gone into more detail in another reply to you.
api 12y ago
All OSes should have this built in.
ps4fanboy 12y ago
Any chance of a write up of the design process and UI frameworks used?
voltagex_ 12y ago
I wonder if the OP should set up UserVoice or similar for feature requests/voting. My wishes: * A pay-once Pro version * A plugin API so I can add my ISPs usage monitor * Per-app bandwidth limiting (difficult on Windows I think)
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Good idea! How could we plugin with your ISP exactly? Any ideas that would work for a majority of people? We're still investigating that idea.
  - voltagex_ 12y ago
    Doing this generically is a hard thing. I'd say pull apart http://netusage.iau5.com/ http://netusage.iau5.com/ and see how that works. I feel like ISP usage APIs are mainly an Australian thing (and some of those will work via screen scraping). Supporting Telstra, TPG, Internode and iiNet would get you a large number of Australians, but I have no idea how you'd do the same for Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Contact details are in my profile and I'm happy to be a guinea pig for this kind of thing. Edit: This looks pretty good, actually - http://netusage.iau5.com/ispjs.html http://netusage.iau5.com/ispjs.html
nanexcool 12y ago
I know saying just 'Wow, what a beautiful, useful app' doesn't really add much to the discussion, but it's all I can muster. Beautiful app. Amazingly designed. Insanely useful with zero configuration. Would love to pay money for this, especially if you can bring this sort of zero click usability to a LAN environment. Congratulations!
haukurk 12y ago
Thumbs up! Really.
geographomics 12y ago
I haven't installed the app, so I don't know if this is part of some alert functionality, but why are there Twitter and Facebook API links in the code? https://i.imgur.com/QPIYUfQ.png https://i.imgur.com/QPIYUfQ.png
- greenwalls 12y ago
  You can post your graph to Facebook or Twitter if you want to (completely optional). Check out the hashtag #GlassWire on Twitter. Some people have already posted some graphs. We have no relationship with Facebook or Twitter.
ki11a11hippies 12y ago
ITT: people care way more about the superficial qualities of security software than, ya know, security. This looks way easier and prettier than open sourced NIDS and HIDS like snort and OSSEC, and I think that's why I'm supremely skeptical they hired enough security people versus frontent people.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  GlassWire isn't a replacement for an antivirus. I think the only way to see all network activity is by tapping into the wire itself. I made GlassWire to give myself an easy way to see what my computer was doing in the background but I do understand there are always going to be ways to bypass it along with any other application.
  - ki11a11hippies 12y ago
    I'm not sure you are clear on what distinguishes a host based intrusion detection system, network based intrusion detection system, and antivirus. The feature list you are advertising sounds like a NIDS and HIDS, well known security software used in any secured network. I realize your software isn't antivirus like Norton or ClamAV. I am suggesting you might not be familiar with popular open source software that seems to accomplish your same feature set that large companies often use.
    - fulafel 12y ago
      Intrusion detection systems are in a different business. They use stats or fingerprints to flag bad traffic/behaviour, then log alerts. Glasswire is an inspection tool to see what apps are doing net traffic wise on your computer.
TeMPOraL 12y ago
Holy hell, this was the app I was looking for for a long time! It does exactly what I want it to do and does it beautifully. Thank you! I'll be happy to pay you when you provide that option. By the way, I'm surprised this isn't a default feature of OS'es. I always thought knowing exactly what apps are talking to the world and how much is something one would like to know about.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks! I also felt like I couldn't easily see what was happening in the background and it made me feel nervous.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    I developed the need to know what's talking to the world when I used a mobile Internet connection with a limited plan (16GB/month) (long story). In such situation, one wants to account for every single megabyte being used.
- blaze33 12y ago
  Not really a default, but under Ubuntu I always setup the system load indicator, sits in the top bar, nice little colored charts of CPU/Mem/Network/IO. After a while you notice when something unusual happens. I used nethogs to check which processes use the network but I'd like to see such a nice gui to track network usage.
- lstamour 12y ago
  FYI, Task Manager on Windows now has an "App History" tab which includes both CPU and Network usage. OS X provides similar functionality in Activity Monitor.app. See: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2013/06/06/windows-8-task-manager-in-depth/ http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2013/06/06/windows-... and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890
jnazario 12y ago
very great stuff, nicely packaged and presented. jealous it's only for windows.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thank you. We wanted to see what the reaction would be before considering a Mac version.
kruxor 12y ago
This is such a nicely made app, Thank you!!
biot 12y ago
I've wanted a replacement for CoreForce for quite some time: http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?module=Wiki&action=view&type=project&name=Core_Force http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?module=Wiki&actio... It was a piece of security software modeled after OpenBSD's pf firewall which let you define policies around network, file, and registry access for applications. You were able to setup really fine-grained policies as well, for example to only allow access to the C:\temp directory for list and read access, but to deny delete access, and to ask the user to accept/reject if it tries to open a file for writing. So instead of monitoring access after the fact, CoreForce let you actively grant permissions and would either silently deny or interactively prompt you when an application went outside the resources you granted.
bbarn 12y ago
I know some have mentioned white/black lists, but in addition to known malicious stuff, one feature that might be really helpful is a known list of what connections are used for, or processes/executables. i.e., "spynetus.microsoft.akadns.net" could have some clearly Glasswire edited note that said something like "Used by Windows Defender". You could even add a +1232 Safe/-12 Unsafe that linked to a crowdsourced/forum sourced "what's this" registry. Sort of like reviews on processes or hosts.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I like this idea. Thanks!
- kijin 12y ago
  This is brilliant! Windows users are seriously in need of an authoritative source for information like that. Especially since the URL you mentioned looks just like a phishing site that pretends to be Microsoft and distributes spyware. Search for any common Windows service or .dll filename, and you'll get dozens of forum threads where people who have no idea what they're talking about try to figure out whether it's a normal part of the OS or the worst virus ever. These are the same people who open Task Manager every day and blindly kill everything that they don't recognize. (Doing so does tend to make Windows run faster, which reinforces the impression that svchost.exe was indeed a virus.)
nehz 12y ago
Does it use a kernel driver? and how does handle rootkits ?
guest123 12y ago
what is the charting library that is used for time-series data?.
px1999 12y ago
Impressive software. Simple (looking, and to use) and beautiful; but with plenty of technical depth/value. I've been running it on my machine all day, and plan to roll it out to others in my local network. I'm definitely curious to see what the paid features will be...
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks! If you find any problems please contact us or post in our forum.
wyck 12y ago
oh wow it's so shiny. Seriously people are downloading this and it's not open source, maybe they should blog about it on medium.
Swannie 12y ago
Holy crap, this got popular fast. This will probably stop some drive-by hacking - great. But my understanding from some well informed people, is that increasingly rootkits can hide their network traffic. So, whilst this will add piece of mind, you'll still need to maintain security - because all this will really do is let you know you've been "hacked" again. Sure, it may prevent the dropper from connecting out - but often that would look like Flash or Java just connecting out to a random host. As someone who got hacked, and installed NoScript, I'm amazed at the number of hosts that even mainstream websites connect out to. I struggle to stay on top of my whitelists. I just don't think you're going to see the dropper in time and stop it.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Yes you're right about rootkits and there are other ways to bypass the network that GlassWire can't see.
marcamillion 12y ago
Love this. The installed app looks just as good as the screenshots. One question, what does "powered by Symantec" mean? Is this just a sexy UI on top of a Symantec engine?
- db42 12y ago
  I think its just for domain ssl certificate - http://www.symantec.com/ssl-certificates http://www.symantec.com/ssl-certificates
  - marcamillion 12y ago
    Ahhh....ok. Thanks!
hrjet 12y ago
While this is great for certain types of attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if the really smart attacks try to fly under the radar, by distributing traffic and activity. Does this app somehow help detect that?
shreshthmohan 12y ago
You sound a lot like Linus Torvalds. :-)
fgvb 12y ago
"GlassWire is not compatible with this Operating System." XP x64
- mertd 12y ago
  It is a 13 year old OS.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - idbehold 12y ago
    The best one since Win2k.
GimbalLock 12y ago
This is so gorgeous.
jonalmeida 12y ago
This has been an application idea I've been wanting to build for a long time, but not having much networking know-how when it comes to these things, I put it on a to-do list.
superasn 12y ago
I wish there was something like this for my wifi router (or in the Tomato Firmware) because that way if there is a malware in the phone, or my laptop I can immediately know about it without installing this on each device. Also I hope it has list of known malware hosts for which it should give a huge red alert dialog if a connection is made to it.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  I agree. I wonder what the best way would be for GlassWire to tap into the majority of routers? If you have some ideas please let me know. We're still investigating.
  - sathyabhat 12y ago
    I use Networx( http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/manual/?lang=English http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/manual/?lang=Eng...) , they have SNMP & UPnP for monitoring routers. No idea how they actually do it, I'm afraid.
nmb 12y ago
Thank you.
servowire 12y ago
Reminds me of BlackIce back in the day... awesome tool this Glasswire. This is what I wanted for everyday network paranoia.
itisbiz 12y ago
Great app! Serious question: why hasn't something like this become a standard app if not OS feature? It is something I have always wanted. Want something similar for Android phone too.
fabulist 12y ago
Would you or others care to share the story of how they got hacked? The only time I've been aware of getting hacked, my friend handed me his computer and said, "You're a nerd, find me a live pirate stream of the Big Game. Quick, people are coming over!" Friend may be too strong a word, but I gave it a shot even though I thought it hopeless. I went to some sketchy pirate sites, and I clicked on a link. A popup launched, and immediately there was an error; "Shockwave has crashed." "Do you install updates?" "No, why?" Another time, my brother was lamenting that he couldn't take pictures with his phone because his SD card broke. I never used mine, so I pulled it out and handed it to him. A few days later I had to get some information immediately and the only device available was my phone. I was on a website and an error popped up; it was to the effect of "Can't download someapp.apk because you don't have an SD card." Close call. Edited to add: https://incidents.org https://incidents.org has good reads.
- krrrh 12y ago
  > Safari can not verify the identity of "incidents.org". Would you like to continue anyway? That's what I get in iOS. Teachable moment?
  - fabulist 12y ago
    Perhaps. It reminded me of another incident; I tried to access EFF's Panopticlick, and got a certificate signed by "OHAI THAR" or something like that.
  - thaumaturgy 12y ago
    It's using an isc.sans.org certificate. Connecting to https://isc.sans.org/ https://isc.sans.org/ gives the exact same site, with no warnings.
hammer_of_thor 12y ago
beautiful design! other than that am gonna say what everyone ELSE is thinking, Security + Microsoft, give me(us) a break, last time i checked the word security does NOT exist in Windows am surprised how THIS made it to the top of HN, probably has something to do with those users who were defending IE's developer tools ;)
sinofer 12y ago
The software and graphs look amazing. I started Windows after a long time just to try it out. I hope you will launch the linux equivalent soon.
Fundlab 12y ago
Why does it only pop up internet explorer icon in the alert? Is it possible to show an icon of what application is initiating the connection instead?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  It should show the app that connected, not just IE. Is it only showing IE for you over and over? If so it must be a bug. Please report it to our contact page.
  - nkg 12y ago
    Is there a way to enable e-mail notifications ?
paranoid123 12y ago
See my problem is that I am already paranoid... How do I know glasswire does not provide access to my machine to its developers? My point being it's a closed source project by using it you implicitly trust its developers.
patatino 12y ago
little bug: ireland flag is wrong, you used the flag of italy.
aen0 12y ago
I believe that the hosts history should not be visible by default. It also shows hosts while browsing in private mode. Maybe only visible with an UAC auth.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. You can go into the settings and clear your history also.
luckysahaf 12y ago
This is great app. However, I am facing an issue. I am not able to connect to a remote server. I don't know why! This is what I am doing: 1- Allowing server access in Server tab in Settings on one computer. 2- Trying to connect from another machine using the credentials. I am not able to connect. Does anyone else face the same issue?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  We plan to add more detailed instructions on the user guide this week. Sorry for the problem.
highercenter 12y ago
I got hacked, felt paranoid, made an app... Yeah right! This app is not a one man show! This app, with all it's license stuff, backdoors etc.. all ready to know a lot of all your network traffic going in and out, and you agree upon all this when you install it. Now YOU got hacked! Or do you think the app will also show in detail what data they store and share on their servers and third parties and more? 767 point and counting on HN, amazing... Good luck!
- diminish 12y ago
  I feel paranoid, too: Surprise HN; I'm trying to grasp why this is upvoted so high (1) This submission has a reddit style storified title but doesn't link to the story (2) Uses the word "app" , to catch the mobile crowd, which for Windows wasn't used traditionally (That also explain the top comment, which is about aesthetics) (3) seems to suggest the problem is solved the first time, despite the fact that there are dozens of similar apps, commercial, free or open source.
  - Kudos 12y ago
    It is the best looking and best presented Windows app I can remember seeing. Can you show me a single app with similar functionality that is presented as well as this?
    - Nilzor 12y ago
      Why is that relevant? _diminish_ points out misleading marketing in the HN post title. It aggrevates me as well, even though the presentation on their web site is nice and all that. _edit_: I can see that your post is relevant with regards to (3) - "problem solved for the first time". They may have some features that no others have, such as alerts. There are many similar apps though. One example: Netlimiter http://www.netlimiter.com/ http://www.netlimiter.com/
      - Kudos 12y ago
        You're ignoring the aesthetics of the app and the marketing. It stands apart because of it. To give you an anecdotal idea of how compelling that can be, I booted my gaming Windows machine just to take a closer look at it.
justkos 12y ago
Another request from me for a Linux version! --- maybe related... I remember when switched to linux some years ago, the software I really missed was ZoneAlarm and still haven't find a nice alternative (for fast and easy control of the outbount(!)/inbound net trafic). I liked that I could block and unblock the internet access of each application from the systray icon. Any suggestions?
- jmolinaso 12y ago
  try ufw https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW pretty straight forward
  - justkos 12y ago
    What I would like to have: 1. a notification in real time: "Application FooApp tries to access internet (ip, port, etc)" and options like "Allow Now | Allow Today | Allow Always | Never Allow" (in the gui...) So I will get informed that an application is starting to send data.. and I could block it. I think it's much easier to set the filters and k control list for the applications while you are using the pc rather than setting them up all at once. 2. "Internet & Bandwidth Usage Monitoring" similar to the Glasswire screenshots. (Stats, Application List that access the internet, hosts, etc) and feature to block with a click some of these (apps,ports,hosts) or all do I ask a lot? :)
deleted 12y ago
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SoreGums 12y ago
This is great. Surprising really it has taken so long to get an app like this on Windows. I've been using My Data Manager[1] on Android for a the previous 2-3yrs. The closest I've gotten on Windows up to this date is CFosSpeed[2] in traffic shapping = off mode + process explorer. There have been other apps that attempted to present the data, however none have done it like GlassWire. Looking forward to the paid version, this is awesome :) Got a few rendering issues on Windows 8.1[3] Hopefully these issues get sorted out, quickly. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobidia.android.mdm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobidia.an... [2] http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm [3] http://i.imgur.com/0jOFvos.png http://i.imgur.com/0jOFvos.png
DogeDogeDoge 12y ago
You felt paranoid and made an app which a random binary from internets we should download and run. Feels like a trap.
andrea_s 12y ago
This is awesome. I would be happy to pay for your upcoming "pro" version. Do you already have an in-app mechanism that will warn me when this is available?
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Unless you make GlassWire block itself via its own firewall manager then you will be alerted to software updates.
mbrownnyc 12y ago
Hello all, The company that made this is: SecureMix LLC (est. 04/15/2014); aka Free Firewall Antivirus LLC (est. 10/17/2013); aka Blue Quail Capital, LLC (est. 06/21/2010). Here is the corporate registration: https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaGetTp?Pg=tpid&Search_Nm=SecureMix%20&Button=search&Search_ID=32042084726 https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaGet.... The person opted to use a CPA (EDWARD H. GOWETT) to register their LLC (looks like a nice guy: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=34375436 https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=34375436). And finally, the man, the myth the legend: ANTON BONDAR.
- mbrownnyc 12y ago
  Also affiliated with Manycam LLC. Seems less like NSA, more like marketing guru.
  - greenwalls 12y ago
    My name is Jon Hundley. Anton is my cofounder. I founded ManyCam also with Anton and it was acquired last year. We need an "About" page on our site. GlassWire is now my only project. https://twitter.com/hundley https://twitter.com/hundley
    - unknownBits 12y ago
      I felt paranoid, installed Glasswire, and got hacked!
      - greenwalls 12y ago
        GlassWire is on HackerOne. https://hackerone.com/ https://hackerone.com/
    - mbrownnyc 12y ago
      Honestly, sorry about that Jon. I wanted to bring some transparency where there was none, and this seemed reasonable to actually share some concerns (and I don't consider this "doxxing" or whatever that other guy said, more like "googleing over coffee"). I did install your app and it is great! Coming from using the flow tool argus (part of the CALEA collection toolkit), I always thought that analyzing flow/connection data was the next frontier in client/end user security; and sure enough GlassWire does just this! It is true, however, that further transparency would be good. I suppose that just comes with time. To keep it simple, this app being free really just makes me wonder what the catch it. So, what's the catch? :) I use Ghostery and that catch is pretty obvious.
Semaphor 12y ago
It doesn't seem to do what it says. According to it, Outlook initiated it's first Network connectivity just now. A point in time where I had already sent and received mails for some hours. At least it so much better looking than other windows apps…
- greenwalls 12y ago
  If you check the final installation window it warns you that you should reboot to catch all ongoing connections, but we plan to improve this in the future so a reboot isn't necessary. We didn't want to force users to reboot because I think that would suck.
  - Semaphor 12y ago
    My mistake, but you should at least make that information more visible. Unless there is a yellow or red sign, or some box to check the readme I do not assume installers will tell me about important things in the post-install window.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
whyleyc 12y ago
This is really well done - congrats. How are you planning to monetize - Will there be a "Pro" version ?
cmdrfred 12y ago
I work in IT and I just installed this on one of our servers. This is just the kind of thing I needed.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  Thanks. Remote monitoring setup instructions are here https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring.
The_Double 12y ago
Does anyone else remember sygate? That used to do almost exactly the same as glasswire is advertising, 10 years ago. It died in 2005 when symantec acquired the company and killed the product.
breadrab 12y ago
Really good looking software. Very rare. But... Isn't the best "trojan" horse that one, that comes as a security programm? I'm always afraid, that software programs that aren't open-source steal sensitive data from my computer and upload it to the web. I experienced, how easy that is and no user ever knows, especially on MS Windows.
farmdve 12y ago
A person who failed to keep his computer safe wrote software to protect others? Sorry if I don't feel incredibly safe.
shitlord 12y ago
Really great work! I installed it yesterday and I have to say that I like it. It's different from most AV/security products in that it is very low-profile -- probably because it is intended for a more technically-inclined audience. It doesn't bother you when you try to do stuff, it doesn't really spam notifications, and it doesn't nag you to buy useless shit. Is there any way to opt-in to share network stats? I, personally, would not mind and I think it would lead to a stronger product. Here is a small suggestion. I actually didn't know I could close the tray notifications. When I looked closer at the notification, I saw the X in the top right corner. The X looks just like the background; maybe you should make it a little darker or somehow add more contrast. Also, I think I may have discovered a bug. GlassWire thinks that Microsoft Word has transferred 253.7 MB, when it was actually Microsoft Silverlight (I was watching Netflix and had MS word open for a while). http://i.imgur.com/84qFF42.png http://i.imgur.com/84qFF42.png
AriinPHD 12y ago
greenwalls, thank you for a lovely looking product. It is definitely a keeper even this early in development. I'm looking forward to seeing it grow. I've encountered an issue with the Anti-Virus scan function. I'm using Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and the SEP logs indicate that GlassWire does not perform any scans what so ever. A response to this would be greatly appreciated!
jagermo 12y ago
Installed it under Windows 8.1, got several BSOD and restarts. Looks awesome, but it made my system highly unstable.
listic 12y ago
What are the good tools to monitor network traffic that run on Linux? Probably, there are better open-source alternatives to this?
skrskr 12y ago
@developers: I wonder what your business model behind this product looks like. Please elaborate!
gravedave 12y ago
I'll definitely try this app out. Also, love the title! Getting hacked? Make an app! Feeling paranoid? Make an app! House getting repossessed? Make an app! Hangover? Make an app!

1013 points by greenwalls 12y ago

EGreg 12y ago

How do I know this isn't a trojan? :P

greenwalls 12y ago
Feel free to check it out in a virtual machine if you're worried, or upload to VirusTotal.com.
- schoen 12y ago
  How does VirusTotal.com know this isn't a trojan?
  - digitalboss 12y ago
    Read https://www.virustotal.com/en/about/ https://www.virustotal.com/en/about/
  - MichaelGG 12y ago
    I don't think that's even possible. The best you could do is analyze a program and see if it does things that are "suspicious". Otherwise it's just going to match known binaries/strings. It'd take an amazingly complicated scanner to detect if GlassWire was, for instance, capturing your DNS requests and sending them somewhere. Or allowing updates to get loaded into its process space. I'd guess you'd need a nearly general AI to determine if any program is malicious.
    - schoen 12y ago
      That was actually the point I was hoping to make, but it can be hard to convey whether a question is meant seriously or not.

walterbell 12y ago

Nice graphs. On the site, why did you choose to promote the monitoring features over the outbound firewall features? Can it import existing whitelists or blacklists? If there are competing products (paid or free), a comparison would be helpful.

greenwalls 12y ago
Our firewall uses the Windows firewall system so it doesn't add instability to your computer. I was afraid it would sound kind of lame to talk about the awesome firewall when it's more of a firewall manager. I think the monitoring feature is the most useful thing because you can go back in time and see your network activity for up to 30 days, or of course clear your history if you want. For Mac there is Little Snitch but for Windows I haven't seen anything that has a "network time machine" like we have and also gives notifications like we do. The way GlassWire organizes the data is kind of unique. I made this application for myself due to my own paranoia.
- classicsnoot 12y ago
  Your motivation and follow through is equivalent to your product's quality. I hope this is a trend that grows. Thanks for the work.

fra 12y ago

Really nice looking page. I'd love to get an OSX version...

lumpypua 12y ago
http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
- greenwalls 12y ago
  We're working on a Mac version. Also I agree Little Snitch is cool. We concentrate more on visualizing network activity and we have a "network time machine" feature our UI allows you to go back and forth in time. Also I don't like how Little Snitch always pops up those alerts. I wanted the user to see the alerts but not have to always "OK" every little network activity. I felt like users tend to just press "OK" all the time anyway...
  - lumpypua 12y ago
    I like your graphing a lot definitely! LS has a similar network activity visualization. You can of course drill down by process and such: http://i.imgur.com/ZQX0XEa.png http://i.imgur.com/ZQX0XEa.png As a power user, I like alerts for all unclassified network activity on my machine. No affiliation with obdev, just a fan of LS.

tokenizerrr 12y ago

Looks very nice, though as with any security software it would be lots better if it was open source.

morepyplease 12y ago

Looks beautiful, What's it written in?

dom96 12y ago
I would also like to know this, and also what GUI toolkit does it use (if any)? Edit: It seems it's using QT, impressive.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

wfjackson 12y ago

What about rootkits that can falsify the data that the app sees? It would be good to have something similar that plugs directly into the router logs.

greenwalls 12y ago
The only true network data is via some kind of tap on the actual wire. We're considering adding a plug-in so you can do that but there are so many awesome tools out there for that already I'm not sure if we should. GlassWire is for everyday users to understand what's going on with their computer. There will always be ways to bypass the OS but I think GlassWire will still help in many situations.

gregbarbosa 12y ago

Wow. I hate how so many Windows applications are considerably uglier compared to Mac counterparts. The Windows apps don't seem to push forward Windows design but rather get stuck in the Windows XP design days. This is beautifully designed and clear. The graph visualization is prime, and I love that the peaks are "rounded" out instead of sharp declines (sharp declines would make it look more like a live stock ticker). Extremely well done, and exactly something I have been looking for. I will keep an eye out for the Mac version.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks! It was actually very difficult to make rounded peaks due to the way network activity tends to suddenly spike. Sometimes the mini graph at the bottom of the UI doesn't match up exactly with the top graph due to our rounded graph but we're improving it all the time. I also hate the way spiky graphs look.
cledet 12y ago
GitHub for Windows is another beautifully designed Windows app. They even published a blog post about it: https://github.com/blog/1151-designing-github-for-windows https://github.com/blog/1151-designing-github-for-windows
- gcb0 12y ago
  that app has less features than a rock.
  - rjbwork 12y ago
    While true, it does what i need to do, sync my branches with my github for doing PRs.
    - Brajeshwar 12y ago
      I use Github for Mac, just for that feature - selectively write 'meaningful' comments while pushing files.

ofir_geller 12y ago

Please send my compliments to the designer of both your app and website. both designs are clean, beautiful and work with the UI. bravo. it would be nice to have more info about how you monitor the connection and prevent any Trojans from going around the monitor point.

greenwalls 12y ago
I will let them know, thank you! GlassWire is kind of like "Little Snitch" in the way that it shows you everything and lets you make your own decision on what you want to do, but we also add in some extra protections like malicious host alerts, ARP spoofing detection, DNS server changes, Host changes, and we let you know about changes to your applications that are accessing the network. For example if Chrome's certificate is changed or it's updated you should be alerted. Unfortunately nothing can stop trojans/viruses but we hope GlassWire helps some.
- scoot 12y ago
  Beautiful indeed! Only tiny stray semi-colon: "Our Windows network security monitor also looks for; domains or IP addresses..." I wouldn't mention it but for that fact that attention to detail is clearly important to you judging by the design of both the site and the app!
  - greenwalls 12y ago
    Thanks, I'll fix it.

leemac 12y ago

Looks beautiful. I love its simplicity as well. Can you give a quick breakdown of what was used to develop this? Looks like Qt was used.

MrUnknown 12y ago
It could very well be WPF using XAML

cyanbane 12y ago

Beautiful app, I looked at the Privacy Policy on the site & breezed through the Install legalize and it doesn't seem to include specific network traffic information being relayed back to remote servers in anyway (I easily could have missed this), can you confirm that you guys are not collecting network usage statistics from the app?

greenwalls 12y ago
We absolutely can't see your network data and we don't want to see it. GlassWire checks for software updates and that network activity appears on the GlassWire graph. If you block GlassWire via its own firewall then you won't know about future updates.
- cyanbane 12y ago
  Thanks for the quick answer. I would pay for this in a heartbeat, great experience. Good luck to you guys.

g3orge 12y ago

something like this for linux?

nkohari 12y ago

Looks like a nice implementation of a good solution to a real problem. Kudos.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you!

purpl3p3rs0n 12y ago

This is immensely helpful (and beautiful). I really like how you can monitor remote boxes. Customization of alerts is great too! Any chance you will support hi-res screens (see http://imgur.com/ztN8cL3 http://imgur.com/ztN8cL3)?

greenwalls 12y ago
Wow, that looks awful. What kind of screen are you using? I don't have one. Any details would be appreciated so we can fix this.
- abritishguy 12y ago
  You should be able to simulate one by clicking "make text look larger or smaller" in screen resolution.
- purpl3p3rs0n 12y ago
  Running Windows 8.1 on Macbook Pro Retina (via bootcamp). I found this on MSDN...not sure if it's applicable: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn469266(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn46...
  - greenwalls 12y ago
    Thanks! We will try to recreate this.
- Aldo_MX 12y ago
  At Screen Resolution -> Make text and other items larger or smaller you can set the DPI to other value (ex. 125%) This is the information for DPI-Aware applications. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn469266(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn46... I would attach some source code from a game I wrote, but I don't have the source code of it at hand right now.
- eps 12y ago
  You have to declare that the app is "DPI aware" in the manifest and implement few things that go along with that promise. Just google it, it's fairly simple. While I got you here, can I ask how many people worked on this and how long did it take? Just curious.

serve_yay 12y ago

I don't have Windows so can't evaluate, but this looks quite nice. Good job!

blub 12y ago

This looks brilliant and is badly needed on Windows. However the fact that it's free gives me pause, especially since we're talking about privacy software that is not open source. What usually happens with freeware like this is that it becomes adware or dies. I think you have enough features to charge for it now.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you! The bottom of our index page explains that we plan to make a paid version with more features in the future. We're working on a list of paid features. I don't think it would be appropriate for a privacy type application to include adware so please don't worry about that.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  As long as you keep the main functionality free - because more people need to be using this sort of app, and I feel having to pay would be a pretty significant obstacle.

ToastyMallows 12y ago

Site is getting hammered right now, but everything looks awesome. Are there any settings for VPNs? Does it work with VPNs?

greenwalls 12y ago
You can use your VPN with GlassWire and it works OK but we haven't tested in detail. I used GlassWire with my own VPN and I didn't see any obvious problems so far.
- ToastyMallows 12y ago
  Awesome thanks, I'll have to check this out tonight! Just a feature that I'm thinking of right now that would be nice is if it alerted you that your VPN dropped or was disconnected.
  - mback2k 12y ago
    Yep, I second that feature request. My OpenVPN connection with redirect-gateway enabled sometimes looses its route definitions and suddenly all my traffic goes directly to the internet instead.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
- mback2k 12y ago
  I just tested GlassWire with OpenVPN on Windows 7 64-bit. I get an instant bluescreen as soon as the GlassWire driver is installed and started and OpenVPN is connected. The order doesn't matter, as soon as both applications are active, boom. Please investigate. I had to manually remove the driver, because the bluescreen occurred during installation and corrupted the deinstallation routine.

ninjakeyboard 12y ago

This is cool - looks more appealing than little snitch - needs a mac version :P

duiker101 12y ago

Ok, I need to know. how you made such a beautiful app?

miles 12y ago

Beautiful UI! Just curious: why not block connection attempts from new programs automatically? By the time a user has noticed and blocked future connections, it may well be too late. On a related note, I recently tested a number of firewalls for Windows using Comodo's HIPS and Firewall Leak Test Suite[1]; the only one I found that passed all tests with virtually no setup or changes was SpyShelter Firewall[2]. Not an endorsement by any means, just an observation. [1] http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/cltinfo.html http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/cltinfo.html [2] http://www.spyshelter.com/spyshelter-firewall/ http://www.spyshelter.com/spyshelter-firewall/

greenwalls 12y ago
I use Little Snitch on my Mac. I found myself just "allow"ing everything all the time anyway. I think most users just get used to pressing "OK" and stop even paying attention to what they are agreeing to. I know I get lazy and do that myself. Instead I wanted to briefly alert the user and let them make their own decision, then we also added in some malicious host monitoring and other features to help. Users can use our "network time machine" feature to go back and time and see exactly what happened in the past. I haven't seen another product that does that.
- lechevalierd3on 12y ago
  I've stopped using Little snitch a while back because it felt useless as I would indeed allow everything out of habits. Good decision.
- snitchprivoxy 12y ago
  Have you tried using Little Snitch along with Privoxy? I find the combination works very well. You get two ways to block things (Little Snitch rules and Privoxy rules) and because Privoxy is so easy to restart you can make "Deny" your default behavior since if the site doesn't show properly, just restart privoxy and hit refresh. Great looking app btw. Haven't had to work on a windows box in a long time but if I do I'm definitely going to try this out.
hcarvalhoalves 12y ago

woohoo7676 12y ago

Downloaded it, love the idea and UI. My only niggle about the app now is that it could use better support for hidpi (the text is a bit jumbled). Other than that, great work!

greenwalls 12y ago
Please post a screenshot to our forum with details or email us and we'll fix it.

sahaskatta 12y ago

I just installed this on a Surface Pro 3. First off great app, but just wanted to give you a heads up: The icons in the taskbar and notification area are blurry due to a HDPI screen. A good portion of the interface is cut off or broken likely due to scaling issues.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks for the heads up. We'll pick up a Surface and fix this.
- wvenable 12y ago
  No need to pick up a surface; just adjusting the display settings in Windows 8.1 should be enough to simulate the problems. Increase the DPI, etc.

Todoed 12y ago

impressive!

Zakuzaa 12y ago

What are you using for forum software?

greenwalls 12y ago
Discourse. http://www.discourse.org/ http://www.discourse.org/

mback2k 12y ago

Great application, please create one that can be run on Linux and Windows machines as a service and monitoried using such a beautiful client software.

greenwalls 12y ago
Check this out https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring. We're considering Linux monitoring also.
- mback2k 12y ago
  Thanks! I am looking forward to the Linux monitoring.

jelias 12y ago

It's Little Snitch for Windows? Love it.

miles 12y ago
Unlike Little Snitch, GlassWire does not block new connection attempts - see the author's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223036 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223036
- snitchprivoxy 12y ago
  Darn. I hope that's just a default that can be configured otherwise this is useless to me.

agildehaus 12y ago

Beautiful. I can easily see using this regularly on my Windows machines. Some items: 1) It'd be nice to be able to scroll around directly on the graph using mouse gestures (middle-click drag?). 2) Graphing of bandwidth seems to be off somehow. If I do a speedtest.net, my ~104Mbps transfer shows up on the graph as 38 Mbps and the graph scale shows a max of 20 Mbps. http://imgur.com/QkZMVvj http://imgur.com/QkZMVvj

greenwalls 12y ago
I use Speedtest quite a bit and I think they estimate your speed via a system that doesn't require you actually hit their transfer rate. I could be wrong though... we'll look closer and see what's going on there. I agree dragging right/left on the graph would be cool. Thanks for the complements and feedback!
- driverdan 12y ago
  They definitely do real bandwidth measuring.
- stanmancan 12y ago
  This is happening to me as well, Glasswire reported 10MBps steady (while the chart's max val was 20Mbps) while Speedtest.net is reporting 104Mbps.
- etcet 12y ago
  The graph shows a discrepancy when downloading from other sources as well. Steam is reporting 4MB/s while GlassWire shows around ~3.3Mb/s (hard to really estimate). Also, the Apps tab under Graphs says 250Mb for Steam. I have no idea what this value is supposed to reflect. Similarly, the Traffic tab shows a similar value (but slightly different value) for HTTP traffic which Steam is the only user of right now.
- SoreGums 12y ago
  Be great if there could be the data rates / current speed on the graph > traffic view. That's one thing I am missing - takes too long to figure out which app is doing something. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdzovwg9eif5ebp/glasswire_datarate.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdzovwg9eif5ebp/glasswire_datarate...

ejp 12y ago

This is excellent - I was looking for similar functionality just recently in the Windows networking system. I look forward to seeing what the paid features are! Here's my minor feature request (I'm sure you'll get a hundred or so today) - how about a config setting to turn on an automatic virus scan of the executable on first network activity? I imagine this would not be enabled by default for performance reasons, but I'd like to run it this way for a few days before reverting to default settings.

greenwalls 12y ago
ejp, you can manually do a virus scan of an exe on first network activity. Click the desktop alert then mouse over the file name and click "virus scan". This uses your own antiviruse software, not ours. Therefore if your antivirus is not up to date your scan won't be. We also thought about adding a virustotal.com upload there. Maybe we will add this as an option that's turned off by default. I worried that some users may complain about too much CPU usage. Thanks for the feedback/compliment!

BorisMelnik 12y ago

really love the color scheme and design on your website. sorry I don't have any more relevant feedback to add. I deal with colors, UX and UI all day long and this was refreshingly lovely.

lechevalierd3on 12y ago

Stunning landing page! You get the message instantly and it got me curious enough to want to boot my windows box to try it out. Great job.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you! The team spent a lot of time on the graph and we wanted to show that to the user before they downloaded.

gcb0 12y ago

well done. but useless for the intended purpose. most malwares will rip thru this like butter. i would only trust something like this running out of the box believed to be compromised. in the router for example.

greenwalls 12y ago
The only true way to fully monitor the network is by tapping the actual wire. We started off wanting to make a malware tool but we found it was not reasonable so we tried to add more network monitoring and privacy features. The GlassWire software does look for malicious hosts and other changes to the system that could indicate malware but of course without directly monitoring the wire there is no way to see everything your machine is doing on the network. GlassWire works with your antivirus and is not meant to be an antivirus.

kolev 12y ago

Oh, wow! Amazing! Puts "Little Snitch" on Mac to shame!

frik 12y ago

Nice app. Please test it with the Windows classic theme (Windows 7/2008 R2), the "Glasswire" button is a bit glitchy. What's the overhead of Glasswire? For me it's 2-6% CPU (of my many core systems). What does the gwdrv.sys kernel driver do exactly? Hook into the TCPIP.sys kernel driver? Is the "Glasswire control service" an app update service? Blocking it in the "Firewall" tab has no negative side effect so far.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you. We will test with that theme, thanks for the details. My CPU is nowhere close to 2% when GlassWire is minimized and I have an older PC with 8.1. Please send details if you have time via email or our forum. GlassWire checks for software updates. If you block GlassWire from accessing the network then you won't hear about new versions.

vini 12y ago

Beautiful, would be nice if it had an option to open the folder where the listed apps are located.

vini 12y ago
Never mind, it already shows the apps folder, just click on the apps icon.

eps 12y ago

From FAQ page: > GlassWire keeps an up to date list of known suspicious hosts and alerts you if you contact one. Suspicious hosts are often related to botnets, malware, and other malicious behavior How is this implemented exactly? Does the app phone home? Does it do some sort of RBL check (if so, against which servers)? Thanks

greenwalls 12y ago
GlassWire checks for software updates and also does an RBL check. You can see it on the graph and block GlassWire if you want, but then you won't be alerted to new versions and your malicious hosts will become outdated. We don't list our malicious host list sources but I guess we could, I'll have to think about it more. We don't get the hosts from our users or access any user data at all. Your graph data is private on your machine, unless you set up our remote monitoring feature and that data also never goes through our servers at all.
- eps 12y ago
  Sorry, I should've been more specific - does your app talk to your servers when it's up for reasons other than checking for updates? If yes, is there a way to switch it all off? I'm sure you can understand why I'm asking. In fact, it'd be ideal if the update checks would have the "remind" option like Bvckup2 has it - https://bvckup2.com/img/r8/screenshot-4-preferences.png https://bvckup2.com/img/r8/screenshot-4-preferences.png

elwell 12y ago

This is really pretty, but I don't use anything in this vein except for Spybot Search and Destroy. I wonder what other HNers are think about that: am I asking for trouble? I haven't had any problems in years. I'm a Windows user, and I run SS&D every month or so (I don't run the resident process).

danielweber 12y ago
YMMV, but not downloading every fool thing that comes my way has been a very reliable way to keep my Windows machines free from infection.
eps 12y ago
You want to add EMET to your setup to shield (to a degree) against zero-days - http://microsoft.com/emet http://microsoft.com/emet

danielweber 12y ago

Beautiful! Could you make it so when the graph rescales, it just doesn't snap into place, but gradually (say, animate over a half second) resizes? EDIT: If I have GlassWire on my second monitor, and click "+ 2 more" to see what else is going on, the pop-up opens on my first monitor.

acasetta 12y ago

I actually just signed on to HN to comment on this news. Great job, first of all for a good solution to a real problem. Next, great design: finally an application that does not pale in comparison to its Mac counterparts.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks for the kind words!

Xorlev 12y ago

Beautiful app. Almost (but not quite) regret jettisoning the Windows ecosystem.

JimmaDaRustla 12y ago

Wow. Presentation is everything. You nailed it. Downloaded it just to see if those screenshots were real. Keeping it because its awesome!

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you!

Siliticxx 12y ago

I gotta ask, why not open source? i feel slightly paranoid - too.

service 12y ago

Looks awesome. Little Snitch is one of the things I miss most from my Mac days and this looks like it will feel that hole nicely. e: After trying it, yep, this is excellent. And far too good to be free. I almost feel guilty using it.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks!

huhtenberg 12y ago

Any reason why WhoIs data on glasswire.com is concealed?

frik 12y ago
linked on the top of the start page: https://trustsealinfo.websecurity.norton.com/splash?form_file=fdf/splash.fdf&dn=www.glasswire.com&lang=en https://trustsealinfo.websecurity.norton.com/splash?form_fil...
hrjet 12y ago
Isn't that standard practice? (genuine question)
mbrownnyc 12y ago
I did a corporate search and tracked the owner: ANTON BONDAR. Also affiliated with ManyCam.

stronglikedan 12y ago

Beautiful! And just a future feature request for the paid version: Would it be possible to limit the bandwidth allotted to an individual application? I know it's a monitoring tool, and that would be more of an administration tool feature, but I think it could fit in with the concept.

RubyPinch 12y ago

considering you are also monitoring physical changes to the box (network interface changes for example), would it be within scope to monitor workstation locking/unlocking and hibernation? same question with removal/addition of plug-and-play devices (HDDs for example)

greenwalls 12y ago
Instead of monitoring locking/unlocking we monitored idle time instead. You'll notice the graph turns shaded when your computer is idle so if you see some strange spikes you can go back in time on the graph and investigate.
- RubyPinch 12y ago
  on the alerts page, it tells me that 2 alerts occurred, but it doesn't allow me to view those alerts? that should probably be fixed, not much point in a idle mode if it just makes things more difficult to investigate edit: also currently using 1.3GB of memory. what.

cheeyoonlee 12y ago

Clearly one of the most beautiful app on Windows. Just installed on my desktop, looking forward to the mac version ;)

nilved 12y ago

Cool app, but if you're the kind of person who gets hacked, why should we trust your sec?

judk 12y ago
What kind of person doesn't get hacked?
- boyaka 12y ago
  One that doesn't use x86, iOS, or Android?
tuananh 12y ago
valid question. and nothing against the app but i kinda don't trust security app developed by single person. maybe just me.
markdown 12y ago
He/she likely didn't get hacked. It's just a narrative created to get clicks. Basically a lie. Marketing.

ddevault 12y ago

All software related to security should be open source. This particular piece of software doesn't sit at a crucial point in a secure system, but a greater deal of transparency would be appreciated. I personally avoid using closed-source tools for security purposes, and especially closed-source tools that are hoping to monetize. I use Linux, though, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me in this case :) I would also say that calling home is a huge no-no for this software. I would seriously consider revisiting that choice if I were you.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks for your feedback. We'll try to add more transparency. The calling home is for software updates and it shows up on the graph, and GlassWire can even block itself.
- Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
  That may be the case, but it's still not acceptable in my opinion. Calling home to fetch a new database of malicious hosts and such is fine, but calling home for analytics is not okay. At the very least, clearly disclose it and make it easy to opt out.
  - specialk 12y ago
    Out of curiosity, do you have any security concerns about calling home for analytic or is it just you would prefer the privacy of not having your usage tracked?
    - Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
      It's mostly privacy concerns, but also the fact that you use this software at all can disclose some interesting information to eavesdropping attackers. Most worrisome is just that it's not very well disclosed - most users just don't know it's happening, and it's not very well justified.
      - 12y ago

Brosper 12y ago

Wow, this app is the most beautiful app for Windows ever made.

maouida 12y ago

Bug report: After few hours of installing the app. I got a blue screen KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILUR which repeated 3 times. I removed the app from the start up list and disabled the windows service. now everything is back to normal. System: Win 8.1

greenwalls 12y ago
I haven't seen this yet. If you have time to post a report to our contact page we'd really appreciate it https://www.glasswire.com/contact/ https://www.glasswire.com/contact/
- rplnt 12y ago
  I don't see it anywhere on your site, but have you passed (or at least tried) Windows Logo test? That coupled with driver certification kit can show some warnings. It's costly to get signed driver and certified product, but you can just run the tests for free and see if everything is OK.
codexon 12y ago
I am surprised he managed to get the driver signed by microsoft, epecially when it is free and causes bluescreens.
- mback2k 12y ago
  The driver wasn't signed by Microsoft, but VeriSign Class 3 Code Signing 2010 CA.
voltagex_ 12y ago
If you do report it, see if there was a minidump produced. I hope the OP is also enrolled in the Windows Error Reporting program.

Brosper 12y ago

What about AUTO-UPDATE ?

wnevets 12y ago

Looks pretty but I dont know how well this will help with detecting a compromised system. Once a system has been compromised cant it lie about its network usage?

greenwalls 12y ago
Yes a system can lie about its network usage. I answered a similar question below, check this link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8223296 GlassWire shouldn't be your only security tool.

Joyfield 12y ago

What graphing components do you use?

ferongr 12y ago

Minor nit, not everyone has their notification area at the bottom right of the display (I use a vertical taskbar on the left). It'd be neat if the notifications showed up near the notification area.

greenwalls 12y ago
I never thought of that. We'll see how we can move the notifications so they are near the GlassWire icon.

codexon 12y ago

Not to be a downer, but I don't see how this is any better than a real firewall like Comodo. If you cannot block new connections, it is likely the valuable information on your computer has been siphoned off, or glasswire bypassed before you noticed it on those fancy but useless graphs.

wglb 12y ago
It is also about unexpected outgoing connections. This is mostly what I use little snitch for. And yes, I check each one that pops up and don't put an approved one in permanently unless I know what it is.

superpano 12y ago

Can anyone explain why the Qt DLLs are offset in size? I compared them to Qt 5.3 and even replaced them and app works fine with original Digia compiled versions. Maybe it is the digital signature? I just recall a trojan people used before by re-compiling the Qt Libraries with malicious intent.

kingcan 12y ago

This looks really nice. One thing I'd like is that it would show the current download and upload speed when hovering over the tray icon.

greenwalls 12y ago
We're working on something like that.

geoelectric 12y ago

Shamelessly bikeshedding, since I can't use the app until you have an OS X version, but would be nice if it could query my router via SNMP to get whole-network usage. That's what I currently do via NetUse, but this looks quite a bit better.

winslow 12y ago
Sounds like that could be a good feature for the Pro version of his/her software.
voltagex_ 12y ago
+1 on this, it's tricky to find a good SNMP monitor with the right MIBs for ADSL modems. (I hate SNMP, I once had a router I could crash with snmpbulkwalk)

bobbles 12y ago

Does anyone know how to remove the red notification numbers from the icon? I hate these things drawing attention in my taskbar

greenwalls 12y ago
I thought people would want to remove the desktop notifications, but not the numbers on the icon. We may need to rethink the settings.

voltagex_ 12y ago

Any plans for a plugin API? I'd love to add my ISPs usage monitor to this.

greenwalls 12y ago
How would the plugin work?
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  Sorry for double posting, I've gone into more detail in another reply to you.

api 12y ago

All OSes should have this built in.

ps4fanboy 12y ago

Any chance of a write up of the design process and UI frameworks used?

voltagex_ 12y ago

I wonder if the OP should set up UserVoice or similar for feature requests/voting. My wishes: * A pay-once Pro version * A plugin API so I can add my ISPs usage monitor * Per-app bandwidth limiting (difficult on Windows I think)

greenwalls 12y ago
Good idea! How could we plugin with your ISP exactly? Any ideas that would work for a majority of people? We're still investigating that idea.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  Doing this generically is a hard thing. I'd say pull apart http://netusage.iau5.com/ http://netusage.iau5.com/ and see how that works. I feel like ISP usage APIs are mainly an Australian thing (and some of those will work via screen scraping). Supporting Telstra, TPG, Internode and iiNet would get you a large number of Australians, but I have no idea how you'd do the same for Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Contact details are in my profile and I'm happy to be a guinea pig for this kind of thing. Edit: This looks pretty good, actually - http://netusage.iau5.com/ispjs.html http://netusage.iau5.com/ispjs.html

nanexcool 12y ago

I know saying just 'Wow, what a beautiful, useful app' doesn't really add much to the discussion, but it's all I can muster. Beautiful app. Amazingly designed. Insanely useful with zero configuration. Would love to pay money for this, especially if you can bring this sort of zero click usability to a LAN environment. Congratulations!

haukurk 12y ago

Thumbs up! Really.

geographomics 12y ago

I haven't installed the app, so I don't know if this is part of some alert functionality, but why are there Twitter and Facebook API links in the code? https://i.imgur.com/QPIYUfQ.png https://i.imgur.com/QPIYUfQ.png

greenwalls 12y ago
You can post your graph to Facebook or Twitter if you want to (completely optional). Check out the hashtag #GlassWire on Twitter. Some people have already posted some graphs. We have no relationship with Facebook or Twitter.

ki11a11hippies 12y ago

ITT: people care way more about the superficial qualities of security software than, ya know, security. This looks way easier and prettier than open sourced NIDS and HIDS like snort and OSSEC, and I think that's why I'm supremely skeptical they hired enough security people versus frontent people.

greenwalls 12y ago
GlassWire isn't a replacement for an antivirus. I think the only way to see all network activity is by tapping into the wire itself. I made GlassWire to give myself an easy way to see what my computer was doing in the background but I do understand there are always going to be ways to bypass it along with any other application.
- ki11a11hippies 12y ago
  I'm not sure you are clear on what distinguishes a host based intrusion detection system, network based intrusion detection system, and antivirus. The feature list you are advertising sounds like a NIDS and HIDS, well known security software used in any secured network. I realize your software isn't antivirus like Norton or ClamAV. I am suggesting you might not be familiar with popular open source software that seems to accomplish your same feature set that large companies often use.
  - fulafel 12y ago
    Intrusion detection systems are in a different business. They use stats or fingerprints to flag bad traffic/behaviour, then log alerts. Glasswire is an inspection tool to see what apps are doing net traffic wise on your computer.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

Holy hell, this was the app I was looking for for a long time! It does exactly what I want it to do and does it beautifully. Thank you! I'll be happy to pay you when you provide that option. By the way, I'm surprised this isn't a default feature of OS'es. I always thought knowing exactly what apps are talking to the world and how much is something one would like to know about.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks! I also felt like I couldn't easily see what was happening in the background and it made me feel nervous.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  I developed the need to know what's talking to the world when I used a mobile Internet connection with a limited plan (16GB/month) (long story). In such situation, one wants to account for every single megabyte being used.
blaze33 12y ago
Not really a default, but under Ubuntu I always setup the system load indicator, sits in the top bar, nice little colored charts of CPU/Mem/Network/IO. After a while you notice when something unusual happens. I used nethogs to check which processes use the network but I'd like to see such a nice gui to track network usage.
lstamour 12y ago
FYI, Task Manager on Windows now has an "App History" tab which includes both CPU and Network usage. OS X provides similar functionality in Activity Monitor.app. See: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2013/06/06/windows-8-task-manager-in-depth/ http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2013/06/06/windows-... and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890

jnazario 12y ago

very great stuff, nicely packaged and presented. jealous it's only for windows.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thank you. We wanted to see what the reaction would be before considering a Mac version.

kruxor 12y ago

This is such a nicely made app, Thank you!!

biot 12y ago

I've wanted a replacement for CoreForce for quite some time: http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?module=Wiki&action=view&type=project&name=Core_Force http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?module=Wiki&actio... It was a piece of security software modeled after OpenBSD's pf firewall which let you define policies around network, file, and registry access for applications. You were able to setup really fine-grained policies as well, for example to only allow access to the C:\temp directory for list and read access, but to deny delete access, and to ask the user to accept/reject if it tries to open a file for writing. So instead of monitoring access after the fact, CoreForce let you actively grant permissions and would either silently deny or interactively prompt you when an application went outside the resources you granted.

bbarn 12y ago

I know some have mentioned white/black lists, but in addition to known malicious stuff, one feature that might be really helpful is a known list of what connections are used for, or processes/executables. i.e., "spynetus.microsoft.akadns.net" could have some clearly Glasswire edited note that said something like "Used by Windows Defender". You could even add a +1232 Safe/-12 Unsafe that linked to a crowdsourced/forum sourced "what's this" registry. Sort of like reviews on processes or hosts.

greenwalls 12y ago
I like this idea. Thanks!
kijin 12y ago
This is brilliant! Windows users are seriously in need of an authoritative source for information like that. Especially since the URL you mentioned looks just like a phishing site that pretends to be Microsoft and distributes spyware. Search for any common Windows service or .dll filename, and you'll get dozens of forum threads where people who have no idea what they're talking about try to figure out whether it's a normal part of the OS or the worst virus ever. These are the same people who open Task Manager every day and blindly kill everything that they don't recognize. (Doing so does tend to make Windows run faster, which reinforces the impression that svchost.exe was indeed a virus.)

nehz 12y ago

Does it use a kernel driver? and how does handle rootkits ?

guest123 12y ago

what is the charting library that is used for time-series data?.

px1999 12y ago

Impressive software. Simple (looking, and to use) and beautiful; but with plenty of technical depth/value. I've been running it on my machine all day, and plan to roll it out to others in my local network. I'm definitely curious to see what the paid features will be...

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks! If you find any problems please contact us or post in our forum.

wyck 12y ago

oh wow it's so shiny. Seriously people are downloading this and it's not open source, maybe they should blog about it on medium.

Swannie 12y ago

Holy crap, this got popular fast. This will probably stop some drive-by hacking - great. But my understanding from some well informed people, is that increasingly rootkits can hide their network traffic. So, whilst this will add piece of mind, you'll still need to maintain security - because all this will really do is let you know you've been "hacked" again. Sure, it may prevent the dropper from connecting out - but often that would look like Flash or Java just connecting out to a random host. As someone who got hacked, and installed NoScript, I'm amazed at the number of hosts that even mainstream websites connect out to. I struggle to stay on top of my whitelists. I just don't think you're going to see the dropper in time and stop it.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Yes you're right about rootkits and there are other ways to bypass the network that GlassWire can't see.

marcamillion 12y ago

Love this. The installed app looks just as good as the screenshots. One question, what does "powered by Symantec" mean? Is this just a sexy UI on top of a Symantec engine?

db42 12y ago
I think its just for domain ssl certificate - http://www.symantec.com/ssl-certificates http://www.symantec.com/ssl-certificates
- marcamillion 12y ago
  Ahhh....ok. Thanks!

hrjet 12y ago

While this is great for certain types of attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if the really smart attacks try to fly under the radar, by distributing traffic and activity. Does this app somehow help detect that?

shreshthmohan 12y ago

You sound a lot like Linus Torvalds. :-)

fgvb 12y ago

"GlassWire is not compatible with this Operating System." XP x64

mertd 12y ago
It is a 13 year old OS.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- idbehold 12y ago
  The best one since Win2k.

GimbalLock 12y ago

This is so gorgeous.

jonalmeida 12y ago

This has been an application idea I've been wanting to build for a long time, but not having much networking know-how when it comes to these things, I put it on a to-do list.

superasn 12y ago

I wish there was something like this for my wifi router (or in the Tomato Firmware) because that way if there is a malware in the phone, or my laptop I can immediately know about it without installing this on each device. Also I hope it has list of known malware hosts for which it should give a huge red alert dialog if a connection is made to it.

greenwalls 12y ago
I agree. I wonder what the best way would be for GlassWire to tap into the majority of routers? If you have some ideas please let me know. We're still investigating.
- sathyabhat 12y ago
  I use Networx( http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/manual/?lang=English http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/manual/?lang=Eng...) , they have SNMP & UPnP for monitoring routers. No idea how they actually do it, I'm afraid.

nmb 12y ago

Thank you.

servowire 12y ago

Reminds me of BlackIce back in the day... awesome tool this Glasswire. This is what I wanted for everyday network paranoia.

itisbiz 12y ago

Great app! Serious question: why hasn't something like this become a standard app if not OS feature? It is something I have always wanted. Want something similar for Android phone too.

fabulist 12y ago

Would you or others care to share the story of how they got hacked? The only time I've been aware of getting hacked, my friend handed me his computer and said, "You're a nerd, find me a live pirate stream of the Big Game. Quick, people are coming over!" Friend may be too strong a word, but I gave it a shot even though I thought it hopeless. I went to some sketchy pirate sites, and I clicked on a link. A popup launched, and immediately there was an error; "Shockwave has crashed." "Do you install updates?" "No, why?" Another time, my brother was lamenting that he couldn't take pictures with his phone because his SD card broke. I never used mine, so I pulled it out and handed it to him. A few days later I had to get some information immediately and the only device available was my phone. I was on a website and an error popped up; it was to the effect of "Can't download someapp.apk because you don't have an SD card." Close call. Edited to add: https://incidents.org https://incidents.org has good reads.

krrrh 12y ago
> Safari can not verify the identity of "incidents.org". Would you like to continue anyway? That's what I get in iOS. Teachable moment?
- fabulist 12y ago
  Perhaps. It reminded me of another incident; I tried to access EFF's Panopticlick, and got a certificate signed by "OHAI THAR" or something like that.
- thaumaturgy 12y ago
  It's using an isc.sans.org certificate. Connecting to https://isc.sans.org/ https://isc.sans.org/ gives the exact same site, with no warnings.

hammer_of_thor 12y ago

beautiful design! other than that am gonna say what everyone ELSE is thinking, Security + Microsoft, give me(us) a break, last time i checked the word security does NOT exist in Windows am surprised how THIS made it to the top of HN, probably has something to do with those users who were defending IE's developer tools ;)

sinofer 12y ago

The software and graphs look amazing. I started Windows after a long time just to try it out. I hope you will launch the linux equivalent soon.

Fundlab 12y ago

Why does it only pop up internet explorer icon in the alert? Is it possible to show an icon of what application is initiating the connection instead?

greenwalls 12y ago
It should show the app that connected, not just IE. Is it only showing IE for you over and over? If so it must be a bug. Please report it to our contact page.
- nkg 12y ago
  Is there a way to enable e-mail notifications ?

paranoid123 12y ago

See my problem is that I am already paranoid... How do I know glasswire does not provide access to my machine to its developers? My point being it's a closed source project by using it you implicitly trust its developers.

patatino 12y ago

little bug: ireland flag is wrong, you used the flag of italy.

aen0 12y ago

I believe that the hosts history should not be visible by default. It also shows hosts while browsing in private mode. Maybe only visible with an UAC auth.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. You can go into the settings and clear your history also.

luckysahaf 12y ago

This is great app. However, I am facing an issue. I am not able to connect to a remote server. I don't know why! This is what I am doing: 1- Allowing server access in Server tab in Settings on one computer. 2- Trying to connect from another machine using the credentials. I am not able to connect. Does anyone else face the same issue?

greenwalls 12y ago
We plan to add more detailed instructions on the user guide this week. Sorry for the problem.

highercenter 12y ago

I got hacked, felt paranoid, made an app... Yeah right! This app is not a one man show! This app, with all it's license stuff, backdoors etc.. all ready to know a lot of all your network traffic going in and out, and you agree upon all this when you install it. Now YOU got hacked! Or do you think the app will also show in detail what data they store and share on their servers and third parties and more? 767 point and counting on HN, amazing... Good luck!

diminish 12y ago
I feel paranoid, too: Surprise HN; I'm trying to grasp why this is upvoted so high (1) This submission has a reddit style storified title but doesn't link to the story (2) Uses the word "app" , to catch the mobile crowd, which for Windows wasn't used traditionally (That also explain the top comment, which is about aesthetics) (3) seems to suggest the problem is solved the first time, despite the fact that there are dozens of similar apps, commercial, free or open source.
- Kudos 12y ago
  It is the best looking and best presented Windows app I can remember seeing. Can you show me a single app with similar functionality that is presented as well as this?
  - Nilzor 12y ago
    Why is that relevant? _diminish_ points out misleading marketing in the HN post title. It aggrevates me as well, even though the presentation on their web site is nice and all that. _edit_: I can see that your post is relevant with regards to (3) - "problem solved for the first time". They may have some features that no others have, such as alerts. There are many similar apps though. One example: Netlimiter http://www.netlimiter.com/ http://www.netlimiter.com/
    - Kudos 12y ago
      You're ignoring the aesthetics of the app and the marketing. It stands apart because of it. To give you an anecdotal idea of how compelling that can be, I booted my gaming Windows machine just to take a closer look at it.

justkos 12y ago

Another request from me for a Linux version! --- maybe related... I remember when switched to linux some years ago, the software I really missed was ZoneAlarm and still haven't find a nice alternative (for fast and easy control of the outbount(!)/inbound net trafic). I liked that I could block and unblock the internet access of each application from the systray icon. Any suggestions?

jmolinaso 12y ago
try ufw https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW pretty straight forward
- justkos 12y ago
  What I would like to have: 1. a notification in real time: "Application FooApp tries to access internet (ip, port, etc)" and options like "Allow Now | Allow Today | Allow Always | Never Allow" (in the gui...) So I will get informed that an application is starting to send data.. and I could block it. I think it's much easier to set the filters and k control list for the applications while you are using the pc rather than setting them up all at once. 2. "Internet & Bandwidth Usage Monitoring" similar to the Glasswire screenshots. (Stats, Application List that access the internet, hosts, etc) and feature to block with a click some of these (apps,ports,hosts) or all do I ask a lot? :)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

SoreGums 12y ago

This is great. Surprising really it has taken so long to get an app like this on Windows. I've been using My Data Manager[1] on Android for a the previous 2-3yrs. The closest I've gotten on Windows up to this date is CFosSpeed[2] in traffic shapping = off mode + process explorer. There have been other apps that attempted to present the data, however none have done it like GlassWire. Looking forward to the paid version, this is awesome :) Got a few rendering issues on Windows 8.1[3] Hopefully these issues get sorted out, quickly. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobidia.android.mdm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobidia.an... [2] http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm [3] http://i.imgur.com/0jOFvos.png http://i.imgur.com/0jOFvos.png

DogeDogeDoge 12y ago

You felt paranoid and made an app which a random binary from internets we should download and run. Feels like a trap.

andrea_s 12y ago

This is awesome. I would be happy to pay for your upcoming "pro" version. Do you already have an in-app mechanism that will warn me when this is available?

greenwalls 12y ago
Unless you make GlassWire block itself via its own firewall manager then you will be alerted to software updates.

mbrownnyc 12y ago

Hello all, The company that made this is: SecureMix LLC (est. 04/15/2014); aka Free Firewall Antivirus LLC (est. 10/17/2013); aka Blue Quail Capital, LLC (est. 06/21/2010). Here is the corporate registration: https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaGetTp?Pg=tpid&Search_Nm=SecureMix%20&Button=search&Search_ID=32042084726 https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaGet.... The person opted to use a CPA (EDWARD H. GOWETT) to register their LLC (looks like a nice guy: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=34375436 https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=34375436). And finally, the man, the myth the legend: ANTON BONDAR.

mbrownnyc 12y ago
Also affiliated with Manycam LLC. Seems less like NSA, more like marketing guru.
- greenwalls 12y ago
  My name is Jon Hundley. Anton is my cofounder. I founded ManyCam also with Anton and it was acquired last year. We need an "About" page on our site. GlassWire is now my only project. https://twitter.com/hundley https://twitter.com/hundley
  - unknownBits 12y ago
    I felt paranoid, installed Glasswire, and got hacked!
    - greenwalls 12y ago
      GlassWire is on HackerOne. https://hackerone.com/ https://hackerone.com/
  - mbrownnyc 12y ago
    Honestly, sorry about that Jon. I wanted to bring some transparency where there was none, and this seemed reasonable to actually share some concerns (and I don't consider this "doxxing" or whatever that other guy said, more like "googleing over coffee"). I did install your app and it is great! Coming from using the flow tool argus (part of the CALEA collection toolkit), I always thought that analyzing flow/connection data was the next frontier in client/end user security; and sure enough GlassWire does just this! It is true, however, that further transparency would be good. I suppose that just comes with time. To keep it simple, this app being free really just makes me wonder what the catch it. So, what's the catch? :) I use Ghostery and that catch is pretty obvious.

Semaphor 12y ago

It doesn't seem to do what it says. According to it, Outlook initiated it's first Network connectivity just now. A point in time where I had already sent and received mails for some hours. At least it so much better looking than other windows apps…

greenwalls 12y ago
If you check the final installation window it warns you that you should reboot to catch all ongoing connections, but we plan to improve this in the future so a reboot isn't necessary. We didn't want to force users to reboot because I think that would suck.
- Semaphor 12y ago
  My mistake, but you should at least make that information more visible. Unless there is a yellow or red sign, or some box to check the readme I do not assume installers will tell me about important things in the post-install window.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

whyleyc 12y ago

This is really well done - congrats. How are you planning to monetize - Will there be a "Pro" version ?

cmdrfred 12y ago

I work in IT and I just installed this on one of our servers. This is just the kind of thing I needed.

greenwalls 12y ago
Thanks. Remote monitoring setup instructions are here https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Remote_Monitoring.

The_Double 12y ago

Does anyone else remember sygate? That used to do almost exactly the same as glasswire is advertising, 10 years ago. It died in 2005 when symantec acquired the company and killed the product.

breadrab 12y ago

Really good looking software. Very rare. But... Isn't the best "trojan" horse that one, that comes as a security programm? I'm always afraid, that software programs that aren't open-source steal sensitive data from my computer and upload it to the web. I experienced, how easy that is and no user ever knows, especially on MS Windows.

farmdve 12y ago

A person who failed to keep his computer safe wrote software to protect others? Sorry if I don't feel incredibly safe.

shitlord 12y ago

Really great work! I installed it yesterday and I have to say that I like it. It's different from most AV/security products in that it is very low-profile -- probably because it is intended for a more technically-inclined audience. It doesn't bother you when you try to do stuff, it doesn't really spam notifications, and it doesn't nag you to buy useless shit. Is there any way to opt-in to share network stats? I, personally, would not mind and I think it would lead to a stronger product. Here is a small suggestion. I actually didn't know I could close the tray notifications. When I looked closer at the notification, I saw the X in the top right corner. The X looks just like the background; maybe you should make it a little darker or somehow add more contrast. Also, I think I may have discovered a bug. GlassWire thinks that Microsoft Word has transferred 253.7 MB, when it was actually Microsoft Silverlight (I was watching Netflix and had MS word open for a while). http://i.imgur.com/84qFF42.png http://i.imgur.com/84qFF42.png

AriinPHD 12y ago

greenwalls, thank you for a lovely looking product. It is definitely a keeper even this early in development. I'm looking forward to seeing it grow. I've encountered an issue with the Anti-Virus scan function. I'm using Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and the SEP logs indicate that GlassWire does not perform any scans what so ever. A response to this would be greatly appreciated!

jagermo 12y ago

Installed it under Windows 8.1, got several BSOD and restarts. Looks awesome, but it made my system highly unstable.

listic 12y ago

What are the good tools to monitor network traffic that run on Linux? Probably, there are better open-source alternatives to this?

skrskr 12y ago

@developers: I wonder what your business model behind this product looks like. Please elaborate!

gravedave 12y ago

I'll definitely try this app out. Also, love the title! Getting hacked? Make an app! Feeling paranoid? Make an app! House getting repossessed? Make an app! Hangover? Make an app!