There’s been some discussion on AskWoody from ObjectiveSee, and some AskWoody members have been interested in my review on these tools. Here’s a rundown of the tools from their website I have and haven’t used, and my review on the ones I have used.
LuLu: Haven’t used it. I use Little Snitch instead.
Do Not Disturb: Haven’t used it since I only have desktop Macs at the moment (except for my old PowerBook G4). It seems useful for Mac notebook owners.
KnockKnock: I tested it, although I didn’t keep it installed. It is a useful way to see what startup items are enabled on one’s Mac. Now that I’ve run the scan, I’ll use BlockBlock instead for all startup item alerts moving forward.
TaskExplorer: Haven’t used it. It seems to be a souped-up version of Activity Monitor which is already built into macOS.
ReiKey: I have tested it and am keeping it installed for the time being. It is a way to monitor for keyloggers, and I found it useful to keep installed for extra protection.
Netiquette: Haven’t used it. It’s a network monitor app, in which I use Little Snitch instead.
BlockBlock: I tested it and will keep using it. It monitors changes to any startup items. Very useful for ensuring only legitimate items are added and that malware doesn’t get installed there. It has done a good job flagging changes, although thankfully all changes have been legitimate apps so far.
RansomWhere?: I tested it and will keep using it. Of all of their apps, this seems to be the most useful and most important app to install. It monitors any apps that encrypt files and allows one to block or allow the encryption, super useful for fighting ransomware. I tested it with legitimate apps encrypting files, and it flagged alerts right away.
OverSight: I tested it and am keeping it installed for now. It alerts users when an app or process is using the webcam or microphone, and it allows users to allow/deny access to the webcam or microphone. It’s also smart enough to know when a rogue process piggybacks off of a legitimate process. It is useful enough for ensuring I know what is using my webcam or microphone and when.
Lockdown: Haven’t used it. Mainly mentions El Capitan, but it’s likely it works with other later macOS versions.
KextViewr: I tested it and will keep it on my old iMac (not keeping it on my iMac Pro since macOS is pivoting away from KEXTs/kernel extensions in a future macOS upgrade). It’s a way to quickly see what KEXTs are installed on one’s Mac. Super useful at the moment, although once macOS pivots away from KEXTs, it will be less useful).
Ostiarius: Haven’t used it. It blocks unsigned binaries from loading, which in my case would break a couple of critical apps from loading.
Dylib Hijack Scanner: I tested it but didn’t keep it installed. Dylib hijack scanner or DHS, will scan your computer for applications that are either susceptible to dylib hijacking or have been hijacked. I found it interesting, but not extremely useful.
What’s Your Sign: Haven’t used it. It adds an option to the right-click/control-click menu to look up code signing info, which I don’t need to do.
Command Line Utilities: Haven’t used any yet since I haven’t needed to.
That’s a rundown of the ObjectiveSee utilities I am using and my brief reviews on them. Let me know which ones you’re using!
Nathan Parker
