MacOSX.6.n and Little Snitch

Avast Mac Security
1

What are the best and, more importantly, safest settings for Little Snitch when running avast for Mac beta v1.0 (35889) VPS v120121-0 which seems to be the latest beta version?

I’m experimenting with it, and comparing it with iAntivirus, clamXav and Sophos to see which I would prefer to become my main defence, but having just installed avast Little Snitch is asking me an inordinate number of “access” requests, some by name and one or two by IP address only.

I’m not mistrusting avast, so am currently allowing “until quit” permissions, but there seems to be a contradiction here - a security antivirus program which requires me to open up access requirements without explaining why!

Any Little Snitch users or avast developers who can advise please?

Thanks. :slight_smile:

2

I contacted the developer about this. :frowning: All connections to 127.0.0.1 are allowed by Little Snitch, so all connections to com.avast.proxy are allowed and there is no way Little Snitch can catch these connections. you have 2 options:

  1. Manually block connections to 127.0.0.1 and port 8080 for a certain app. This will overrule the default behaviour of Little Snitch.

  2. Switch to TCPBlock. TCPBlock is donationware and does catch connections to 127.0.0.1. You can download it here: http://tcpblock.wordpress.com/ With TCPBlock, you can block connection to the com.avast.proxy so they don’t reach the internet.

I did choose the second option. Don’t forget to allow any connection for the com.avast.proxy for Little Snitch or TCPBlock. I hope this will help you with the web shield and Little Snitch.

I can’t answer for the connections avast makes, must be connections for updating the engine?

Perplexity ;D

3

Actually avast! performs this two types of connections:

  • Connections to the VPS update servers (com.avast.MacAvast.MAD)
  • Connections to HTTP/IMAP/POP3 by the web/mail shield (com.avast.proxy) if enabled