Re:Show HN: My user-friendly outbound firewall for Mac
by klausa on Monday August 15, 2011 @08:58AM
(#2886635)
Why does it require/involves kext? I'm genuinely curious, since I thought OS X comes with powerful ipfw. Is it some stripped down version?
Re:Show HN: My user-friendly outbound firewall for Mac
by aparadja on Monday August 15, 2011 @09:05AM
(#2886656)
The main reason is to reduce the amount of dependencies to zero. I didn't want to enter the nightmare vortex of several applications managing a single firewall implementation.
Also, as I've lately been an embedded software guy, I saw no harm or fear in a little kernel code.
Re:Show HN: My user-friendly outbound firewall for Mac
by sahirh on Monday August 15, 2011 @02:49PM
(#2888166)
Is it possible to use ipfw / pf to control outbound traffic based on the process that is initiating the connection? I skimmed the man pages but didn't see anything that looked promising.
Re:Show HN: My user-friendly outbound firewall for Mac
by paxswill on Monday August 15, 2011 @09:17AM
(#2886712)
In addition to ipfw, Lion includes pf (off by default though, you need to modify a launchd plist to enable it).
Currently, it doesn't block non-app-bundle processes. The main reason for the app's existence is to block nosy apps that discreetly contact their home servers. I can't think of many (or any) terminal apps that do the same thing.