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NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

netguard.me

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Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#31

Post by varenc »

microflash wrote: post #10

Is there something like this for iOS? I know Adguard but it is not open source.

The APIs to implement traffic policies on a per-app basis just don’t exist on iOS. You can create a VPN connection and have an app manage all network traffic that way, but you can’t associate traffic with specific apps since this would run afoul of their sandbox. At least without jailbreaking.

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#32

Post by notpushkin »

str3wer wrote: post #19
udev4096 wrote: post #17

Afaik, this requires an active VPN connection. With GrapheneOS, there is a network toggle which disables the INTERNET access to any individual app so it doesn't make sense to use NetGuard

> it doesn't make sense to use NetGuard unless you use any other phone that is not a google pixel running GrapheneOS

LineageOS has this too, and it’s available on a fair bit of non-Pixel phones.

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#33

Post by Onavo »

pmontra wrote: post #24
transpute wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> better than nothing Is "nothing" the only Android per-app outbound firewall alternative to NetGuard?

I've been using Blockada for many years but that's a firewall against ads and trackers. No ads inside apps. Ideally I would use NetGuard to block the apps and Blockada to block ads and trackers for the apps that I allowed to perform network traffic in NetGuard. But Android allows only one active VPN and they can't be chained, so it's a hard choice. Actually it's not so hard: I keep blocking ads and trackers.

Blockada is most likely a DNS level blocker, netguard supports that. Alternatively you can configure it to point the DNS servers at NextDNS if you just want a nice UI to configure block lists (though NextDNS might track you).

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#34

Post by udev4096 »

notpushkin wrote: post #32
str3wer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it doesn't make sense to use NetGuard unless you use any other phone that is not a google pixel running GrapheneOS

LineageOS has this too, and it’s available on a fair bit of non-Pixel phones.

LineageOS doesn't really cut off the INTERNET access properly. Graphene's approach is more robust. I still wonder why such an important feature is not in the AOSP itself

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#35

Post by notpushkin »

udev4096 wrote: post #34
notpushkin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LineageOS has this too, and it’s available on a fair bit of non-Pixel phones.

LineageOS doesn't really cut off the INTERNET access properly. Graphene's approach is more robust. I still wonder why such an important feature is not in the AOSP itself

Hmm, I haven’t looked much into it, but I assumed they both expose the same mechanism from AOSP?

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#36

Post by udev4096 »

wanderingmind wrote: post #21
udev4096 wrote: post #17

Afaik, this requires an active VPN connection. With GrapheneOS, there is a network toggle which disables the INTERNET access to any individual app so it doesn't make sense to use NetGuard

It can do other things. It can monitor network traffic and block ads within apps through multiple host files . Also having a single app to toggle is more UX friendly than toggling multiple apps network access.

Running pihole as your home DNS is far more feasible for blocking ads and other intrusive requests. The UX perspective is a valid point

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#37

Post by newscracker »

microflash wrote: post #10

Is there something like this for iOS? I know Adguard but it is not open source.

I came here to ask a similar question, looking for alternatives to Lockdown Privacy on iOS/iPadOS. [1] I've been using Lockdown for some years as a local and system firewall to block trackers across all apps, but this company got sold a few years ago and has since been annoyingly and frequently pushing for its paid subscription. It also moved some free blocking lists to the paid subscription.

Any alternatives to Lockdown on iOS/iPadOS would be nice to know about.

[1]: https://lockdownprivacy.com/

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#38

Post by qwertox »

Its' really telling that Google doesn't offer an API to access a firewall which provides a clear list of connections and the apps which create them and a way to prohibit such specific connections, possibly also according to blacklists.

They really don't want users to have control over this.

Re: NetGuard – rootless Android outbound per-app OSS firewall, like LittleSnitch

#40

Post by distances »

dsissitka wrote: post #3

From the developer of FairEmail. Every once in a while I consider making the switch to KeePassXC. I trust KeePassXC but I don't really trust the mobile apps so last time around I looked into NetGuard. It's really nice but it wasn't a good fit for my use case: > NetGuard will do its best, but it is limited by the fact it must use the Android VPN service. This is the trade-off required to make a firewall which does not…

> I trust KeePassXC but I don't really trust the mobile apps

I'm using Keepass2Android Offline. It doesn't have the network permission, which for me adds a ton of trust already.

Of course there are other ways to infiltrate data too, but you can be only so paranoid if you want to get things done.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=keepass2androi...

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