Little Snitch

Little Snitch 3
Little Snitch 2

Little Snitch 3

Little Snitch 3.1 - April 29, 2013

  • Automatic Profile Switching

    This new feature allows you to assign networks (for example your Wi-Fi network at home, a public hotspot, etc.) to certain profiles. Whenever you join one of these networks, Little Snitch detects the network change and switches to the associated profile automatically.

    When you join a network for the first time, Little Snitch shows an alert window allowing you to choose the desired profile. Alternatively you can configure a default profile that will be used for all unknown networks.

    The mappings between profiles and networks can be reviewed and edited later in Little Snitch Configuration, either in the profiles section of the sidebar, or in the new “Known Networks” window (⇧⌘K).

    Automatic Profile Switching is off by default. To use it, it must be enabled in Little Snitch Configuration > Preferences > Automatic Profile Switching.

  • In the menu bar item “Silent Mode” and “Start/Stop Network Filter” entries are now hidden if “Allow Preferences Editing” is disabled.
  • Improved “Restore Factory Defaults” feature.
  • Updated help section to reflect changes mentioned above.
  • Fixed a bug which caused a kernel panic in some rare cases.
  • Minor other bugfixes and improvements.

Little Snitch 3.0.4 - March 27, 2013

  • Improved detection of invalid domain names.
  • Improved IP Address range detection.
  • Improved Ruleset Analyzer.
  • Improved search filter behavior in Little Snitch Configuration.
  • Reduced CPU load in Silent Mode.
  • Performance improvements of kernel extension.
  • Fixed: Restoring of factory rules on restart.

Little Snitch 3.0.3 - February 26, 2013

  • Added rule backup functionality (Rules > Backup…)
  • Import of unsuitable backup files is no longer possible.
  • Installer now repairs filesystem permissions if necessary.
  • Pressing cancel in the connection alert window now cancels all connection attempts for terminated processes.
  • Improved alert timeout behavior.
  • Improved handling of DashboardClient application.
  • Improved detection of Unix executables.
  • Fixed an issue which caused an “Internal communication error” message.
  • Fixed an issue where preference settings were non-persistent.
  • Fixed an issue which caused missing traffic indication in menu bar item.
  • Fixed a rare kernel panic.
  • Removed obsolete help pages.
  • Various other bug fixes and improvements.

Little Snitch 3.0.2 - December 6, 2012

  • New Preference setting to limit number of total connections in Network Monitor.
  • Redesigned visualization of Connection Alert timeout.
  • Simplified Alert: Adaptive window width.
  • Improves sorting by precedence in Little Snitch Configuration.
  • Improves detection of Java applications.
  • Improves Little Snitch 2 ruleset import.
  • Bugfixes and performance improvements regarding the ruleset analysis.
  • Fixes an issue which caused system hangs in combination with JollysFastVNC.
  • Fixes an issue which caused recurring connection alerts.
  • Fixes an issue with table background drawing on retina displays.
  • Fixes an issue which produced redundant factory rules.
  • Fixes an issue to prevent Little Snitch Agent crashes.
  • Various other bug fixes and improvements.

Little Snitch 3.0.1 - October 31, 2012

  • Rules can now be created by dragging applications on Little Snitch Configuration’s dock icon or on Little Snitch’s status menu item.
  • Installer / Uninstaller now offers a retry button if the installation / uninstallation failed.
  • Network Monitor Snapshots are now displayed without traffic meters and with server names in gray.
  • If the “via” executable of a rule does not exist, the rule is now indicated as invalid.
  • Improved generation of notes text for automatically created rules and suggestions.
  • Improved notes text for factory rules
  • Improved installer error reporting if updating boot caches fails.
  • Changed preferences options beginning with “prevent” into their “allow” counterparts.
  • Fixed several bugs in detection of redundant rules (e.g. subdomains covered by domain rule).
  • Fixed a bug where the Network Monitor window could be off screen.
  • Various other bug fixes and improvements.

Little Snitch 3.0 - September 25, 2012

Overview

  • Brand new Network Monitor
  • Firewall for incoming connections
  • Profiles
  • Silent Mode
  • Simplified Connection Alert
  • Research Assistant for connection attempts
  • Redesigned Configuration Interface
  • Ruleset Analyzer and sorting by precedence
  • Rule Suggestions
  • Domain based rules via Connection Alert
  • More powerful rules (ask-option, time limits, multiple destinations)
  • Improved menu bar item
  • Optimized for MacBook Pro with Retina display
  • New app icon designed by The Iconfactory

Network Monitor

  • Get an overview of network traffic
  • Traffic Diagram
    • Visual representation of traffic amounts over time.
    • Highlighting of system events (application launched, application terminated, computer sleep, …)
    • Display data rates on logarithmic or linear scale.
    • Zoom into time ranges of choice.
    • Supports multi-touch gestures for scrolling and zooming.
    • Selecting in the traffic view causes connection list to only show applications that where active (caused traffic) during that time.
  • Powerful sorting options (last activity, total traffic amount, process name, server name, …)
  • Save snapshots to investigate connection details at any later point of time.
  • Capture traffic of certain applications as .pcap file to open it with packet analyzer tools (such as Wireshark or Cocoa Packet Analyzer).
  • Easily create rules from context menu.
  • Show denied connection attempts.
  • List other hostnames resolving to same IP address.
  • Highlight corresponding rule in Configuration to find out which rule was responsible for allowing / denying this connection.
  • Search Field Tokens – Use keywords (process, server, host, ip, protocol, port or status) to filter your connection list.
  • Network Monitor Inspector.
    • Further details of selected connection entries.
    • Displays information about the process, server identification (hostnames, IP address), connection statistics (ports, traffic amounts, time of first / last activity, …).
    • Connection inspector now shows all information suitable for a search in the connection list as roll-over button so that a search can be started simply by clicking.

Connection Alerts

  • Simplified Connection Alert – choose your preferred level of detail.
  • More versatile temporary rules: Until Quit, Until Logout, Until Restart, For [n] Minutes, etc.
  • Creation of domain rules.
  • Select other hostnames resolving to same IP address to create a rule for.

Research Assistant

  • New Research Assistant for Connections. Little Snitch’s Connection Alert now has a help button. Clicking the button triggers a query to the Research Assistant Database (maintained by Objective Development) and displays information about the current connection attempt.
  • Users can improve the information returned by submitting feedback directly from the Connection Alert. This data is sent anonymously and will be reviewed by Objective Development.

Configuration

  • Powerful new interface.
  • Manage profiles
    • Create or delete profiles.
    • Easily add rules to profiles via Drag&Drop.
    • Enable profiles by double-clicking on a profile in the sidebar.
  • Sidebar including
    • Rule Filters (Last 24 Hours, Temporary Rules, Unapproved Rules, …)
    • Rule Suggestions.
    • Profiles.
  • Ruleset Analysis
    • Detection of redundant rules.
    • Highlighting of redundant / covered rules, to easily see which rules are obsolete.
  • Sort list of rules by process name, rule precedence or creation date.
  • Improved search
    • Narrow search scope to process, rule, enclosing folders, bundle identifier, notes.
    • Search results now include related rules as well.
  • Backups of rule archives (e.g. Time Machine) can be restored via Little Snitch Configuration.
  • Fullscreen support.

Suggestions

  • Little Snitch offers rule suggestions based on Silent Mode connections, former, already expired temporary rules, login connections and more.
  • Rule suggestions can easily be converted into permanent rules.
  • Rule suggestions can be grouped by their common properties (process, port, host, domain) – Easily create rules that cover most typical connections for certain processes.

Menu Bar Item

  • Revised Design.
  • Monochrome or colored Icon.
  • Optionally displays current data rates as numerical values.
  • Access to important settings.
  • Switch between Profiles quickly.
  • Enable or disable Silent Mode quickly.

Further Improvements

  • In order to support multiple simultaneous logins, processes are distinguished by the user account that started the process. Rules can be created so that they apply to processes running on behalf of the current user, on behalf of a system account such as root, or on behalf of any account.
  • When no user is logged in, all connections which are not covered by an existing rule are automatically denied. Rule suggestions are created for these connections and can be reviewed in Little Snitch Configuration.
  • If you can’t login without network access (e.g. network accounts), the system can be restarted in Permissive Mode where all connections are allowed before the first user logs in. Allow-rules are automatically created so that future logins succeed. Permissive mode is also used during the first restart after installation, but not after upgrades.
  • All components are code-signed.

Changes since Release Candidate (3871)

  • Help is now available for Little Snitch.
  • Fixed an issue where Ask-Rules could cause a Connection Alert to be shown even in Silent Mode.
  • Fixed a bug where the Connection Alert wrongly indicated that the process terminated.
  • Fixed an issue where rules created from the Connection Alert were for process owner “System” instead of the current user.
  • Connection Alert now honors modifier keys that were held before the alert was shown.
  • Fixed unexpected change of filter scope when creating rules from rule suggestions.
  • Fixed potential crash of Little Snitch Network Monitor when deleting connections from the list.
  • Little Snitch Network Monitor can now be activated with LaunchBar. Simply add /Library/Little Snitch/Little Snitch Network Monitor.app to LaunchBar’s index.