Hector 0.4.9

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.
• 0.4.3: Hector can live in the menu bar: closing the window keeps it running (camera and microphone log included), and Settings → General has "Open Hector at login" and "Keep running in the menu bar". Fixes: the blocking status now counts hosts lists; dates and numbers use English words whatever the system language; tools installed in versioned folders get their real name; Persistence dims empty leftover jobs, judges open jobs by the app they open, and recognizes Hector's own helper.
• 0.4.4: an allowlist in Blocklists (it wins over the lists and your own domain rules, and says so on each rule it cancels), the HaGeZi Light list, and a tidier interface: search and the details panel only where they apply, the panel opens when you pick something, Processes hides Apple's own processes by default, Keyboard taps groups identical taps and hides switched-off ones, Camera & mic shows what is on first, Connections shows one row per address with its ports, keyboard shortcuts for the map, and optional automatic VirusTotal lookups. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing: the allowlist needs it.
• 0.4.5: fixes 0.4.4 hanging at launch (100% CPU, no window) when macOS hides the menu bar icon because the menu bar is full. Releases are now launched on CI before they are published.
• 0.4.6: fixes hosts lists failing to download with the 0.4.5 helper ("error 1"): download children now make their own temporary folder after giving up root, and errors say what went wrong. Update the helper from Blocklists, then Update Now.
• 0.4.7: Processes has a right-click menu on every row (Reveal in Finder, Copy path, Copy PID, Open Activity Monitor) and can quit your own processes after asking; apps are asked to quit normally, so they can offer to save. Other users' and the system's processes cannot be quit from Hector.
• 0.4.8: Connections: the app filter sits next to the country filter and now narrows the map as well as the list; zoomed in, the map switches to finer land dots so countries keep their shape; if the helper does not answer in time, the status bar says so instead of quietly showing only your own processes (it now waits 10 seconds, for Macs where an endpoint security agent slows it down). hector helper status splits /etc/hosts into personal and list domains. Install with Homebrew: brew install --cask 0xrd/tap/hector.
• 0.4.9: buttons in the details panels (Quit, Reveal in Finder, Copy path, VirusTotal) now respond in the released builds. Processes: click a value in the details panel to copy it, block or unblock each connection's address, and the Network column shows how many connections go to blocked addresses. Checkup has a new "macOS up to date" check (from what Software Update already found, without contacting Apple), and no longer raises false alarms for a leftover guest setting or the App Store's automatic updates on macOS 26 and later. Without a VirusTotal key, Check opens the file's page on virustotal.com (only its SHA-256 is in the address). An optional check for new Hector versions: off unless you accept it at the first launch, at most once a week, and nothing is downloaded or installed by itself. Finder and the Dock show Hector's icon before it runs. Thanks to @HermessNRJ.

Install

With Homebrew: brew install --cask 0xrd/tap/hector (or brew upgrade if you installed it that way), then step 3 below; after an upgrade, open Blocklists and click Update helper…. Otherwise:

1. Download Hector-0.4.9-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: 3687fd70bb89de4b8574149a3a2940ad673b24f8f9691959ed51ad63574139bd

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.9-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Hector 0.4.8

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.
• 0.4.3: Hector can live in the menu bar: closing the window keeps it running (camera and microphone log included), and Settings → General has "Open Hector at login" and "Keep running in the menu bar". Fixes: the blocking status now counts hosts lists; dates and numbers use English words whatever the system language; tools installed in versioned folders get their real name; Persistence dims empty leftover jobs, judges open jobs by the app they open, and recognizes Hector's own helper.
• 0.4.4: an allowlist in Blocklists (it wins over the lists and your own domain rules, and says so on each rule it cancels), the HaGeZi Light list, and a tidier interface: search and the details panel only where they apply, the panel opens when you pick something, Processes hides Apple's own processes by default, Keyboard taps groups identical taps and hides switched-off ones, Camera & mic shows what is on first, Connections shows one row per address with its ports, keyboard shortcuts for the map, and optional automatic VirusTotal lookups. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing: the allowlist needs it.
• 0.4.5: fixes 0.4.4 hanging at launch (100% CPU, no window) when macOS hides the menu bar icon because the menu bar is full. Releases are now launched on CI before they are published.
• 0.4.6: fixes hosts lists failing to download with the 0.4.5 helper ("error 1"): download children now make their own temporary folder after giving up root, and errors say what went wrong. Update the helper from Blocklists, then Update Now.
• 0.4.7: Processes has a right-click menu on every row (Reveal in Finder, Copy path, Copy PID, Open Activity Monitor) and can quit your own processes after asking; apps are asked to quit normally, so they can offer to save. Other users' and the system's processes cannot be quit from Hector.
• 0.4.8: Connections: the app filter sits next to the country filter and now narrows the map as well as the list; zoomed in, the map switches to finer land dots so countries keep their shape; if the helper does not answer in time, the status bar says so instead of quietly showing only your own processes (it now waits 10 seconds, for Macs where an endpoint security agent slows it down). hector helper status splits /etc/hosts into personal and list domains. Install with Homebrew: brew install --cask 0xrd/tap/hector.

Install

With Homebrew: brew install --cask 0xrd/tap/hector (or brew upgrade if you installed it that way), then step 3 below; after an upgrade, open Blocklists and click Update helper…. Otherwise:

1. Download Hector-0.4.8-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: a24fb4569e3f7e11e32a73aa422b9c3c1ecd6fc87aab3b48cda09100129513b6

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.8-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Hector 0.4.7

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.
• 0.4.3: Hector can live in the menu bar: closing the window keeps it running (camera and microphone log included), and Settings → General has "Open Hector at login" and "Keep running in the menu bar". Fixes: the blocking status now counts hosts lists; dates and numbers use English words whatever the system language; tools installed in versioned folders get their real name; Persistence dims empty leftover jobs, judges open jobs by the app they open, and recognizes Hector's own helper.
• 0.4.4: an allowlist in Blocklists (it wins over the lists and your own domain rules, and says so on each rule it cancels), the HaGeZi Light list, and a tidier interface: search and the details panel only where they apply, the panel opens when you pick something, Processes hides Apple's own processes by default, Keyboard taps groups identical taps and hides switched-off ones, Camera & mic shows what is on first, Connections shows one row per address with its ports, keyboard shortcuts for the map, and optional automatic VirusTotal lookups. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing: the allowlist needs it.
• 0.4.5: fixes 0.4.4 hanging at launch (100% CPU, no window) when macOS hides the menu bar icon because the menu bar is full. Releases are now launched on CI before they are published.
• 0.4.6: fixes hosts lists failing to download with the 0.4.5 helper ("error 1"): download children now make their own temporary folder after giving up root, and errors say what went wrong. Update the helper from Blocklists, then Update Now.
• 0.4.7: Processes has a right-click menu on every row (Reveal in Finder, Copy path, Copy PID, Open Activity Monitor) and can quit your own processes after asking; apps are asked to quit normally, so they can offer to save. Other users' and the system's processes cannot be quit from Hector.

Install

1. Download Hector-0.4.7-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: 528521881794148f3dad118a4e0397b6f137d02e98e8b68aa43cf708df49c1d1

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.7-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Hector 0.4.6

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.
• 0.4.3: Hector can live in the menu bar: closing the window keeps it running (camera and microphone log included), and Settings → General has "Open Hector at login" and "Keep running in the menu bar". Fixes: the blocking status now counts hosts lists; dates and numbers use English words whatever the system language; tools installed in versioned folders get their real name; Persistence dims empty leftover jobs, judges open jobs by the app they open, and recognizes Hector's own helper.
• 0.4.4: an allowlist in Blocklists (it wins over the lists and your own domain rules, and says so on each rule it cancels), the HaGeZi Light list, and a tidier interface: search and the details panel only where they apply, the panel opens when you pick something, Processes hides Apple's own processes by default, Keyboard taps groups identical taps and hides switched-off ones, Camera & mic shows what is on first, Connections shows one row per address with its ports, keyboard shortcuts for the map, and optional automatic VirusTotal lookups. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing: the allowlist needs it.
• 0.4.5: fixes 0.4.4 hanging at launch (100% CPU, no window) when macOS hides the menu bar icon because the menu bar is full. Releases are now launched on CI before they are published.
• 0.4.6: fixes hosts lists failing to download with the 0.4.5 helper ("error 1"): download children now make their own temporary folder after giving up root, and errors say what went wrong. Update the helper from Blocklists, then Update Now.

Install

1. Download Hector-0.4.6-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: 868ff7324487c25389dabdbf67d06bdb028d1b9f98524f48888cdcf38f8dca0d

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.6-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Hector 0.4.5

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.
• 0.4.3: Hector can live in the menu bar: closing the window keeps it running (camera and microphone log included), and Settings → General has "Open Hector at login" and "Keep running in the menu bar". Fixes: the blocking status now counts hosts lists; dates and numbers use English words whatever the system language; tools installed in versioned folders get their real name; Persistence dims empty leftover jobs, judges open jobs by the app they open, and recognizes Hector's own helper.
• 0.4.4: an allowlist in Blocklists (it wins over the lists and your own domain rules, and says so on each rule it cancels), the HaGeZi Light list, and a tidier interface: search and the details panel only where they apply, the panel opens when you pick something, Processes hides Apple's own processes by default, Keyboard taps groups identical taps and hides switched-off ones, Camera & mic shows what is on first, Connections shows one row per address with its ports, keyboard shortcuts for the map, and optional automatic VirusTotal lookups. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing: the allowlist needs it.
• 0.4.5: fixes 0.4.4 hanging at launch (100% CPU, no window) when macOS hides the menu bar icon because the menu bar is full. Releases are now launched on CI before they are published.

Install

1. Download Hector-0.4.5-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: 40d363f7856c17370fc5145584918f6a8231e9caa495efb37bbcb4a5f2fdb766

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.5-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Hector 0.4.2

What's new in 0.4

Netbite becomes Hector, a small all-in-one security app for macOS. Netbite stays the name of its network module, and 0.3 installs move over on their own: helper, blocklist, country database and VirusTotal key.

• Connections: an interactive map, with one line and a count bubble per country, a country filter, and zoom and pan. Network names (AS numbers and organizations) come from a second free DB-IP database.
• Blocklists: StevenBlack Unified and EasyPrivacy hosts lists, downloaded and checked by the helper every week.
• Persistence: launch agents and daemons, login items, background tasks, extensions, cron, profiles and browser extensions, each with its code signature.
• Processes: the process tree with signatures, arguments, connections and flags for code running from odd places.
• Checkup: SIP, Gatekeeper, XProtect, FileVault, firewall, updates, sharing services and more, each with how to fix it.
• Keyboard taps: apps that receive your keystrokes.
• Camera & mic: a log of when they turn on and off, naming the app (from the microphone's clients, and the camera's green indicator).
• VirusTotal: look up files by hash with your own free key (Settings → VirusTotal). Files are never uploaded.
• The hector command-line tool does all of this from a terminal.
• Lighter and harder to abuse (0.4.1 and 0.4.2): nothing is refreshed while the window is hidden, the IP databases take about 4 MB each instead of 110 MB, the camera and microphone monitor sleeps while no microphone runs, and the root helper downloads as nobody and runs in a sandbox that only lets it write its own files and start its own tools. Update the helper from Blocklists after installing.

Install

1. Download Hector-0.4.2-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Hector.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Hector is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Hector message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hector.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Hector runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Hector.app/Contents/Helpers/hector /usr/local/bin/hector

Uninstall

Choose Hector → Uninstall Hector… in the menu bar, or Settings → General → Uninstall Hector…. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: ee71c7828caa428c55d0e34485f611444b3970512f7257782fa8f029068a3104

shasum -a 256 Hector-0.4.2-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Netbite 0.3.0

Install

1. Download Netbite-0.3.0-macOS.zip below and open it.
2. Move Netbite.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. Netbite is not notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS refuses the first launch:
   • open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Netbite message;
   • or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Netbite.app
4. To block destinations, open Blocklists and click Install helper…. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Netbite runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

The command-line tool ships inside the app. To use it from a terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -sf /Applications/Netbite.app/Contents/Helpers/netbite /usr/local/bin/netbite

Uninstall

Choose Netbite → Uninstall Netbite… in the menu bar. It removes every rule, the helper and its logs, your blocklist, the country database, preferences, caches and the VirusTotal key, then moves the app to the Trash. macOS asks for an administrator password once.

Verify the download

SHA-256 of the zip: 47c184f563cee150984537ded47606898abb0848e97c901cbc27561685e4edee

shasum -a 256 Netbite-0.3.0-macOS.zip

The app is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, with the workflow in .github/workflows/release.yml.