Marlinspike's Droid Firewall Kills Tracking 164
mask.of.sanity writes "The first dynamic Android firewall, dubbed WhisperMonitor, has been released by respected security researcher Moxie Marlinspike. The firewall will allow users to stop location-tracking apps and restrict connection attempts by applications. Marlinspike, whose company created the application, designed WhisperMonitor in response to the incidence of location tracking and malware on Android platforms. It monitors all outbound connection attempts by applications and the operating system, and asks users to permit or block any URLs and port numbers that are accessed."
Re:This firewall monitor non internet activities? (Score:5, Interesting)
What do you mean "the phone itself"? What else is sending out information but applications? Little elves hiding in the keypad? Sorry, I don't understand what you mean...an android phone is a device running the android OS - I would expect everything to be an application, even the part that connects to your mobile provider. Maybe I am looking at it the wrong way.
Re:Please port this to Linux A.S.A.P. (Score:5, Interesting)
Considering there's nothing as feature-complete as IPtables on Linux, I think your best bet is to learn that rather than rely upon some limited GUI interface.
I think you just underscored his point of linux not being usable for a desktop. Modern desktop should NOT, EVER rely on command line interface for anything aimed at end-user if it is to be usable.
There is a reason why we don't use rotary diallers in smartphones. There's a reason why we don't use command line interface on average home desktop machines (and no, your home machine is NOT average by any margin any more then a rotary dialler phone is if it's using linux).
Re:ZoneAlarm and NetBarrier (Score:4, Interesting)
No pointy-clicky though, so most Mac users won't use it.
I was building BSD firewalls based on Gauntlet more than 2 decades ago :-). You have two extra problems with ipfw - you need to know upfront what you're going to shut down or allow and it requires a lot of expertise that is not available to your average user.
In my case, you can add that I can no longer be bothered with hacking around in a box, I want the damn thing to work so I can get stuff done. Both LS and HO pop up when they have a question, but leave me otherwise to work. FIne by me..