Little Snitch Comes To Linux To Expose What Your Software Is Really Doing (nerds.xyz)
- Reference: 0181457162
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/04/09/0617212/little-snitch-comes-to-linux-to-expose-what-your-software-is-really-doing
- Source link: https://nerds.xyz/2026/04/little-snitch-linux/
> [2]Little Snitch , the well known macOS tool that shows which applications are connecting to the internet, is [3]now being developed for Linux . The developer [4]says the project started after experimenting with Linux and realizing how strange it felt not knowing what connections the system was making. Existing tools like OpenSnitch and various command line utilities exist, but none provided the same simple experience of seeing which process is connecting where and blocking it with a click. The [5]Linux version uses eBPF for kernel level traffic interception, with core components written in Rust and a web based interface that can even monitor remote Linux servers.
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> During testing on Ubuntu, the developer noticed the system was relatively quiet on the network. Over the course of a week, only nine system processes made internet connections. By comparison, macOS reportedly showed more than one hundred processes communicating externally. Applications behave similarly across platforms though. Launching Firefox immediately triggered telemetry and advertising related connections, while LibreOffice made no network connections at all during testing. The early release is meant primarily as a transparency tool to show what software is doing on the network rather than a hardened security firewall.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~BrianFagioli
[2] https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
[3] https://nerds.xyz/2026/04/little-snitch-linux/
[4] https://obdev.at/blog/little-snitch-for-linux/
[5] https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch-linux/index.html
Is there a windows version (Score:2)
Or would that just be a firehose?
Who watches the watchers?
Re: (Score:2)
You can't trust the Windows kernel, so you need a component external to the system as well.
Re: (Score:2)
I've used "Windows Firewall Control" for years; have an actual license that worked on Win8 and 10 without needing an upgrade. It's not as good as Little Snitch as it will block the connection, not hold it. You then have to select the enable/disable and it adds the rule to the built-in Windows firewall and run the application again. (Little Snitch won't drop the connection, just block the calling process. After you select what to do, the network connection continues as normal).
Re: (Score:2)
I used to use this [1]https://learn.microsoft.com/en... [microsoft.com]
[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/tcpview
Wireshark - ? (Score:4, Informative)
Isn't this what Wireshark is for? Or at least one of its many purposes?
Re: (Score:2)
Can you use Wireshark to block the specific traffic?
Re: (Score:3)
LittleSnitch (and I guess open snitch?) show you whenever a process attempts to make an outbound connection and lets you define a rule about if you want to allow it. It's not just a monitor, it actively forces you to approve or deny every program's connection to the Internet the first time you run it.
Eww (Score:2)
Just seems like an ad pretending to be a story. There's already ways of finding this out.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but that's basically every news story.
There is an entire ice berg worth of decision making and financial incentives behind every story.
Re: (Score:2)
> Just seems like an ad pretending to be a story. There's already ways of finding this out.
This guy submits all of his own stories just spamming his own website and they keep getting posted. So it may not directly be an ad for this Little Snitch, but it's definitely "nerds.xyz" spam.
lsof -i ? (Score:3)
I guess this will be logging that type of data, so another data logger.
Re: (Score:2)
> I guess this will be logging that type of data, so another data logger.
Combined with entries for whichever of the various firewall tools you may be using for the "one click to block" part. People like their visual tools. I'd prefer the command line myself, but I won't complain too much about somebody coming to Linux and creating their own utility right off the bat. Seems very in the right frame of mind at least.