And of course, Litte Snitch is still available.Ģ020, second edit: As of macOS Big Sur, Apple apps can bypass the third party firewalls. Free application firewall for outgoing connections is LuLu. Some kind of light hybrid combination of Murus and Vallum is Scudo. New application firewall is Vallum (paid). New (since the original answer from 2013) frontend of pf is Murus firewall (has free version with basic functionality, but the more advanced versions are paid). Little Snitch or Hands Off could be easier to use compared to pf or ipfw or their GUIs.Ģ020, first edit: ipfw is not being used in the current versions of MacOS. You should be aware that there is some learning curve for these pieces of software, as their settings are not as simplified as the built-in Application Firewall. These can handle both incoming and outgoing connections. Examples are Litte Snitch and Hands Off (both paid). There is also third party software that can work as firewall, but doesn't use the built-in OS X firewalls. IceFloor (for pf) WaterRoof and NoobProof (for ipfw). However, there are third party GUIs for these firewalls, e.g. These can handle both incoming and outgoing connections and are typically controlled through command line scripts and settings. There two other built-in firewalls in OS X Lion, pf and ipfw (the latter is being replaced by pf, but still exist in Mountain Lion). The same probably goes to Micro Snitch.What you are referring to as "the built-in" firewall is actually the built-in Application Firewall. I guess, that this fact alone is enough to raise the risk for security breaches and making an operating system more vulnerable to exploits, not less. In means of security/privacy, consider that tools like LS are usually running with elevated permissions. Some might remember the free firewall frontends WaterRoof for IPFW or IceFloor for PF for Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.9 from one of the developers. Murus builds upon the built-in macOS firewall PF (Packet Filter) and Vallum serves as an application-layer firewall. While LS (almost) got the standard, yet another alternative is Murus/Vallum. IMHO, neither piracy nor privacy are the main reasons using LS, but acquiring knowledge. Little Snitch is great for learning more about websites or online services and to realise which apps are phoning to wherever. Worth running, even if it may never ever activate, but doesn't really play a big part in online privacy the way Little Snitch, a VPN, or Tor would. Micro Snitch is a different story because it's not about online privacy, it's about alerting you if the mic or webcam are being accessed. An app can't help you with that sort of personal responsibility as far as I know. But even then, you can still get fingerprinted depending on how you go online, like if you log into your iCloud from Safari and Tor. If you want privacy online, you're probably going to want to look into a good VPN or maybe even consider running Tor. Good if you want to block that connection completetly, bad if you still want to actually use the site. It's not really for privacy, it's more like a smart firewall. There's info like your IP address that websites will still know about, and the only thing Little Snitch can do is block that actual connection. They're good for what they do, but it depends what you're expecting them to do.
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