Re:LuLu: An open-source macOS firewall that blocks unknown o...
by ComputerGuru on Friday January 19, 2018 @02:31PM
(#16189011)
I believe by default incoming connections are "on hold" until they either timeout or the dialog is confirmed one way or the other. Note that most "real" firewalls have two different options for blocking: drop or reject. So long as the packet isn't rejected, drop and "drop unless this dialog is satisfied" aren't very different.
I'm not sure how this app gets around it (if it does at all).
Re:LuLu: An open-source macOS firewall that blocks unknown o...
by hendersoon on Friday January 19, 2018 @09:12PM
(#16191648)
Yes, that's correct. MacOS handles this better. But really it only comes up when you run a _new_ program, so it's not a major problem.
Re:LuLu: An open-source macOS firewall that blocks unknown o...
by tetraodonpuffer on Friday January 19, 2018 @09:19PM
(#16191670)
it is because one of the major use cases for an outgoing firewall is when installing new software, which is where you also want to be careful what the application connects to, which does not work very well at all compared to Little Snitch
For example while the Little Snitch popup dialog is waiting for user input the affected application just sees an unusual latency spike and it will not complain immediately that internet access in not available. Afaik, this is not the case with the Windows Firewall: The connection will fail for the application while the frontend-app is still waiting for the user's decision.