[Saris]

I guess my habit of running a firewall and not allowing programs to access the internet unless they actually need it is helpful for stuff like this.

Absolutely no reason a text editor needs internet access.

I only update stuff through winget, which fetches the installer from github in a lot of cases, and changing a package requires a PR to the winget repo AFAIK. Not foolproof of course though.

[Pet_Ant]

Checking for updates and pulling in plug-ins. Both are valid.

[thegrim000]

As for updates - my OS has a built-in package management system, which is responsible for installing and updating packages. Why should notepad++ bypass that and do its own independent update process?

[Bender]

A browser can download updates and plugins to be installed locally. I too do not want all my apps making internet connections. Sandboxes / namespaces can help a little.

[Saris]

I think these days updates through the OS package manager is a better option, windows has had winget for 5+ years now, and obviously linux and macos both have their own established systems.

[MisterTea]

It's because of issues like these that I do not agree with your statement of validity. It's also cheaper code wise to not have these contraptions.

[hulitu]

> Checking for updates

Why ? CADT ?

[sciencejerk]

LittleSnitch is great for MacOS; it is easily configured to alert you every time your machine makes ip/domain connections, which can then be accepted, denied, or rules made

[np1810]

> LittleSnitch is great for MacOS; it is easily configured to alert you every time your machine makes ip/domain connections, which can then be accepted, denied, or rules made

For an open-source alternative, consider checking out - Lulu [0]. It's not as feature rich nor has impressive UI like the former but gets the main work done.

[0] https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu

[TwoNineFive]

Binisoft WFC for Windows is a free outbound firewall. It was acquired by MalwareBytes awhile back, but they have not interfered with development so far.

https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

It has some areas where improvement is needed, but the fundamentals work and the user interface design is decent.

I am surprised it's not more popular for Windows users. All of the alternatives I've tried have critical issues which made me dismiss them as unserious.

[Saris]

Yeah I've been using Fort on windows, it's easy to use and not closed source and full of bloat like the commonly suggested windows firewalls from various security companies.

[drumttocs8]

Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control may annoy me sometimes, but this is exactly why I run it.

[Saris]

It shouldn't! Fort just flashes the tray icon if there's a new connection request and you can click it whenever you want, instead of a popup in your face in the middle of something.

[just_testing]

Which firewall software do you use? I should probably start using firewalls in my computers as well...

[Saris]

I've been using Fort: https://github.com/tnodir/fort

It's the best one I found after trying a few, because it's pretty easy to use, and lets me disable notification popups which is a part that always frustrates me about other options.

[batat]

It doesn't matter really because nowadays all of them are just a front-ends to Windows Firewall.

Also legitimate software (i.e. firewall/AV) cannot use "oldschool" tricks like system service descriptor table hooks to obtain godlike privileges these days, while malware sometimes can do this by exploiting vulnerabilities, so in such cases it may be an unequal fight.