LittleSnitch for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#361

Post by Serhii-Set » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#362

Post by linuxguy2 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

One person's (not my) take on why to skip this: https://the.unknown-universe.co.uk/privacy-security/little-s...

TL;DR it's closed source and there's open source alternatives.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#363

Post by VladVladikoff » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

your_challenger wrote: post #213

I use Lulu on my mac. Is it good enough (compared to LittleSnitch)?

I would say it's better.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#364

Post by stavros » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

justsid wrote: post #173

orangesilk wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [ZoneAlarm] I always found it weird that Linux never really had anything like it. There was simply no need for it. GNU provided most of the software, spyware was unknown. Only since comercial vendors package for linux and bring their spyware along, the desire to inspect network rose.

This is such a naive view on computer security. It’s not just about spyware, which is also not exclusive to commercial vendors.

It's not, though. There simply wasn't enough malware to worry about. Why would I run a firewall when I was unlikely to ever encounter a malicious program?

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#365

Post by aaronax » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

brandon272 wrote: post #32

alhazrod wrote: post #6

I remember before Little Snitch there was ZoneAlarm for Windows[0] (here is a good screenshot[1]). No clue if the current version of ZoneAlarm does anything like that (have not used it in 2 decades). I always found it weird that Linux never really had anything like it. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZoneAlarm [1]: https://d2nwkt1g6n1fev.cloudfront.net/helpmax/wp-content/upl...

Completely forgot about ZoneAlarm. I remember using it in the early 2000s!

Same. And in a similar vein--AnalogX NetStat Live.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#366

Post by Asooka » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #176

justsid wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a naive view on computer security. It’s not just about spyware, which is also not exclusive to commercial vendors.

What else is this about? Debian repositories still contain no malware and if you install software exclusively from them, you'll be safe.

Yeah I will also be safe if I never turn on the PC, but some of us use computers to do actual work.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#367

Post by sgc » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

littlesnitch wrote: post #244

sgc wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried littlesnitch and it did not resolve very many ips to domains, which is pretty basic. It also failed to identify most processes, and they were grouped under "Not Identified". It appears these are known limitations of the Linux version [1]. So for that alone I need to stick with opensnitch. [1] "Little Snitch for Linux is built for privacy, not security, and that distinction matters. The macOS version can…

Regarding unidentified processes: Little Snitch daemon must have been running when the process started in order to identify it reliably. It's best to reboot after installation so that Little Snitch starts before everything else. I should probably note this somewhere. And regarding failed reverse DNS names: Little Snitch is sniffing DNS lookups. If lookups are encrypted, there is little it can do. We usually recommend…

If I don't know who my machine is talking to, the information is not very useful. So there needs to be a fallback on some level.

Perhaps there should be a mode where littlesnitch just does its own lookup using the system-configured rDNS, for example from the ui or for specific processes, etc? It should be cached if it is a recent lookup, so minimal performance implications; and offloaded to the system rDNS resolver, so minimal instruction set.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#368

Post by Neikius » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

laweijfmvo wrote: post #25

alhazrod wrote: post #6

I remember before Little Snitch there was ZoneAlarm for Windows[0] (here is a good screenshot[1]). No clue if the current version of ZoneAlarm does anything like that (have not used it in 2 decades). I always found it weird that Linux never really had anything like it. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZoneAlarm [1]: https://d2nwkt1g6n1fev.cloudfront.net/helpmax/wp-content/upl...

isn’t this essentially built into Windows these days? although it seems to come with a lot of programs pre-approved.

Iirc the firewall was already in XP. Maybe earlier but sp2 for sure.

Default allows everything though but you could even set outbound blocking rules. Cumbersome UI and no really good visibility though.

Re: LittleSnitch for Linux

#369

Post by tomhow » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #305

lapcat wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah just yolo install whatever That's not even remotely what I said. > it’s not like applications or libraries such as axios iTerm doesn't use NPM. Little Snitch doesn't use NPM. I don't use NPM.

[flagged]

WTF? This is not an acceptable comment on HN, no matter who or what you're replying to. This style of commenting is not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.