

When you select that option, youll see a list of allowed and blocked programs. You enable Leopards socket firewall by selecting Set Access For Specific Services And Applications in the Firewall tab of the Security preference pane. If the program isnt on the listas in the case of new or upgraded softwareOS X asks you whether to allow the program to accept incoming traffic. If the program is on the list, the firewall allows the connection. When a program asks to accept network traffic, a socket filter checks a list of programs that have been authorized to do so. Rather than using network ports and IP addresses to decide whether to allow a packet, it bases its decision on the application making the network request. To ipfw, Leopard adds a new socket-filter firewall (also known as an application firewall). Packet-filtering firewalls like ipfw classify network traffic two ways: by type, using port numbers, and by origin and destination, using IP addresses.įor instance, a packet-filtering firewall could accept file-sharing connections from IP addresses of your work network but not from other addresses on the Internet. In security parlance, ipfw is a packet-filtering firewall: it checks each packet coming or going through the Macs network interfaces against a set of rules, and allows it to pass or blocks it.
#Noobproof 1.1 and waterproof 2.0 mac#
The risksthe loss of private data and the hijacking of your Macs computing powerare great enough, and the cost of prevention low enough, that implementing a good firewall on your Mac and your local network is a no-brainer. With millions of computers in the world, it might seem that the odds of your Mac being targeted are awfully small.īut there are computers out there that do nothing all day but probe Net-connected machines for vulnerabilities its certainly possible that one will find yours.Īnd dont forget that any time youre on a networka coffee shops Wi-Fi system, for exampleyoure exposed to anyone else on that network.
