Little Snitch-style firewall released for Windows
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
PacketHound, a free open-source firewall, asks Windows 10 and 11 users to allow or block each app's first connection.
It mimics macOS's Little Snitch, which Windows users have long lacked.
Background
PacketHound is a free outbound firewall for Windows 10 and 11, version 1.2.0, released under the GNU General Public License v3 (an open-source license). It is built on Windows Firewall: it flips the outgoing default to block, watches blocked attempts, and turns the user's allow-or-block answer into an ordinary firewall rule. It is being compared to Little Snitch, a macOS firewall that lists every connection and holds each new one until the user allows or denies it. The project drew attention after a Hacker News post titled "A Little Snitch for Windows" was submitted.
How it unfolded
- Nov 5, 2026GitHub's outbound-firewall topic page lists Windows and macOS firewall projects, including SecureWall, a default-deny firewall for Windows 10 and 11 forked from TinyWall.
- Nov 7, 2026Coverage of the Little Snitch 7 Beta describes Little Snitch as a firewall that lists every connection and holds each new one until the user allows or denies it.
- Nov 8, 2026A Hacker News post titled "A Little Snitch for Windows (packethound.app)" is submitted by user BadBoyBubby.
- Nov 9, 2026A Korean-language post on news.hada.io describes PacketHound as a free outbound firewall for Windows 10/11 that asks about an app's first connection and remembers the decision.
Key terms
- outbound firewall
- A firewall that monitors and controls outgoing network traffic from a computer based on configurable security rules.
- GNU General Public License v3
- A widely used free software copyleft license requiring derivative works to be shared under the same terms.
- Hacker News
- A social news website focused on computer science and entrepreneurship, run by Y Combinator.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Official
- PacketHound's site says most firewalls only watch incoming traffic, while it asks Allow or Block the first time an app connects and remembers the answer.
- Official
- The site says Windows' own components are allowed automatically, so users are only asked about apps they installed, though it still asks before PowerShell, curl, certutil, mshta and rundll32 connect.