Alternatives

Products that do what Picosnitch – a reliable and lightweight security/privacy tool for Linux does

1. 1AR
   A reasonably reliable traffic per application monitor using BPF▲23

   picosnitch helps you protect your security and privacy by "snitching" on anything that connects to the internet, letting you know when, how much data was transferred, and to where. It uses BPF to monitor network traffic per application, and per parent to cover those that just call others. It also hashes every executable, and will complain if some mischievous program is giving it trouble.

   2022 · github.com

2. 2AP
   A proactive way of securing your Linux server▲143

   2020 · github.com

3. 3TA
   Tailsnitch – A security auditor for Tailscale▲280

   Jan 2026 · github.com

4. 4TL
   TheProtector – Linux Bash script for the paranoid admin on a budget▲167

   Hi HN, I spent the past year building this in my spare time because I got tired of enterprise security tools that cost $50K/year and don't understand Linux. TheProtector is a comprehensive security monitoring tool that actually runs on the systems we use (Linux) instead of being a Windows-first afterthought. Built it entirely on a $500 laptop because I believe good security shouldn't require unlimited budgets. Features: - Real-time process, network, and file monitoring - YARA malware detection with custom rules - eBPF kernel monitoring (when available) - Behavioral baseline…

   2025 · github.com

5. 5CL
   CheapSecurity – Lightweight, Self-Hosted CCTV for Linux SBCs▲140

   Jul 2026 · github.com

6. 6
   SpyBuster▲236

   Unmask a spy and save your data

   2022

7. 7AF
   AutoHotkey for Linux▲500

   Hello HN, this is the first functional reimplementation of AutoHotkey [1] for Unix-like systems, as far as I am aware. Half the commands are still missing, but everything important is done, as I have worked a lot on it over the past two months. Converting scripts into stand alone binaries is also supported. Hope this will find some adoption eventually. :-) - This implementation focuses on v1.0-like classic syntax from 2004 (!). This is a significant subset of the popular current v1.1 syntax from Windows (AHK_L). The reason this does not (yet?) target the full Windows spec is how complex it…

   2022 · github.com

8. 8
   Shhshot▲113

   A Mac app that auto-hides sensitive info in your screenshots

   2025

9. 9CD
   Credentials dumper for Linux using eBPF▲235

   2022 · github.com

10. 10NM
    Network Monitor – a GUI to spot anomalous connections on your Linux▲156

    A real-time network connection monitoring tool built with Rust and GTK4, displaying active connections with live I/O statistics in a modern graphical interface. https://github.com/grigio/network-monitor

    Nov 2025

11. 11
    Lightweight system monitor for Linux VPS written in Go▲63

    Lightweight system monitor for Linux VPS. Contribute to leodeim/vpsmon development by creating an account on GitHub.

    12d ago · github.com

12. 12
    Netwoke▲77

    Where Connection Meets Disclosure.

    Apr 2026

13. 13
    Todo for hackers▲101

    CLI Todo app for hackers

    2015

14. 14MS
    MCP-Shield – Detect security issues in MCP servers▲134

    I noticed the growing security concerns around MCP (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43600192) and built an open source tool that can detect several patterns of tool poisoning attacks, exfiltration channels and cross-origin manipulations. MCP-Shield scans your installed servers (Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.) and shows what each tool is trying to do at the instruction level, beyond just the API surface. It catches hidden instructions that try to read sensitive files, shadow other tools' behavior, or exfiltrate data. Example of what it detects: - Hidden instructions…

    2025 · github.com

15. 15
    TunnelBear▲174

    Secure your data and hide your IP address behind a bear.

    2014

16. 16
    Micro Snitch▲143

    Track if someone is watching you on your Mac

    2015

17. 17SI
    Snitch.io – SSL auditing and alerting▲37

    2014 · snitch.io

18. 18IB
    I built a simple, open-source tool to manage servers and SSH keys▲133

    2024 · github.com

19. 19OT
    Osint tool that finds exposed files on domains▲58

    hey guys, wanted to show one of my side projects i just made public. the idea is basically another osint tool for pentesters and bug bounty hunters. it watches certificate transparency logs and checks newly-seen domains for exposed stuff like .env files, open .git dirs, config files, db dumps and so on, and puts whatever it finds into a searchable db. you just search a domain (or part of one) and see what's exposed. it's read-only and free. one thing i've been thinking about adding is a way to register for certain keywords and get notified when something new shows up for that search. would…

    Jul 2026 · search.cerast-intelligence.com

20. 20BR
    BitBang – Reach machines behind NAT from a browser, no account▲97

    Jul 2026 · github.com

21. 21OT
    On the security of the Linux disk encryption LUKS▲31

    In the past few days, there have been uncertainties and concerns about the LUKS (“Linux Unified Key Setup”) disk encryption, which is widely used on Linux. We publish our assessment of this here.

    2023 · dys2p.com

22. 22RO
    Rot - Offline secrets management▲116

    Finally open sourced an internal tool we've been using for managing secrets. It's similar to SOPS, but more opinionated, easier to configure/use correctly, and produces nicer git diffs. It also supports one-way encryption, so you don't have to know the private key to add secrets.

    2023 · github.com

23. 23AS
    A simple, highly commented, rootkit which attacks GCC and Python▲94

    2014 · github.com

24. 24
    MCP Snitch▲102

    Maintain secure control over your MCP environment

    Sep 2025

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