Popular application firewall OpenSnitch is coming to Debian, one of the oldest and most popular Linux distributions (distros).

OpenSnitch is an open source port of the popular macOS app Little Snitch. Little Snitch, and its open source counterpart, inform the user whenever an app tries to access the internet. It’s a useful feature to crack down on apps that try to ‘phone home.’

Developer Petter Reinholdtsen posted a blog describing his efforts to work with the OpenSnitch developers to bring the app to Debian:

It did not took long to find the OpenSnitch package, which has been in development since 2017, and now is in version 1.5.0. It has had a request for Debian packaging since 2018, but no-one completed the job so far. Just for fun, I decided to see if I could help, and I was very happy to discover that upstream want a Debian package too.

After struggling a bit with getting the program to run, figuring out building Go programs (and a little failed detour to look at eBPF builds too – help needed), I am very happy to report that I am sponsoring upstream to maintain the package in Debian, and it has since this morning been waiting in NEW for the ftpmasters to have a look. Perhaps it can get into the archive in time for the Bookworm release?

Given the well-deserved praise Little Snitch and OpenSnitch have earned over the years, its nice to see a version coming to Debian. Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, it will likely make its way there as well.