10.5.5 Firewall - blocking an app has no effect

[mustgroove]

I'm observing some interesting behaviour from the Leopard firewall... here's what my Firewall prefpane looks like:

As you can see, I have explicitly blocked Firefox... yet I'm typing this post on Firefox 3.0.2 as we speak, and it is having no difficulty accessing the internet...

Am I missing something? What could be going on? I'm running 10.5.5

 

[doug in albq]

for whatever reason, and maybe I am wrong, but I have never had a lot of confidence in the 10.5 firewall. I think the 10.4 firewall worked better and was more effective.

I would recommend downloading the free "Wateroof" firewall. It works very well, but is a bit tricky to set up.

 

[mustgroove]

I don't really have the wherewithal to get into something as hardcore as waterroof, I'd just like the OS X firewall to work as it should...

Does anyone know what's going on with it?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I don't really have the wherewithal to get into something as hardcore as waterroof, I'd just like the OS X firewall to work as it should...

Does anyone know what's going on with it?

I believe that "Block incoming connections" means that if a specific server on the www tried to access safari on your computer, the firewall will block it. It doesn't stop any program from accessing the outside though, which is why you don't see any effect.

Try blocking apache and see if you can access it.

 

[mustgroove]

How do I block Apache? Interestingly, if I set the firewall to "Allow only essential services", Firefox still has no trouble browsing the web

 

[doug in albq]

I don't really have the wherewithal to get into something as hardcore as waterroof, I'd just like the OS X firewall to work as it should...

Does anyone know what's going on with it?

ok, try noobproof, its the wateroof for noobs!

 

[mustgroove]

Once again, I'd rather get the firewall working without third party addons...

 

[doug in albq]

Once again, I'd rather get the firewall working without third party addons...

OK, good luck, I was trying to refrain from being less-than-nice about an aspect of os X, but the os X Leopard firewall SUCKS!, really it does.

If you are really into protecting yourself, learn a little bit about those two programs. It is not that difficult.

 

[netnothing]

You can read up about the Leopard firewall at these sites:

http://www.macworld.com/article/131116/2007/12/firewall.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1810

Basically, out of the box, the configuration you see in Leopard is for blocking incoming services only. This means blocking requests from other machines TO your machine. You using Firefox is an outgoing connection.

-Kevin