{"slug": "tailsnitch", "name": "Tailsnitch", "category": "security", "category_name": "Security and passwords", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.483, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-01-05", "latest": "2026-01-05", "why": "I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Tailsnitch"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 744036449, "item_id": 46502278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46502278", "by": "Fiveplus", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is what I've been looking for.", "excerpt": "This is what I've been looking for. I love Tailscale, but as our tailnet has grown from \"just me and a few servers\" to \"entire engineering team + prod/staging/dev environments,\" the ACL file has become terrifyingly long. I always have this low-level anxiety that I accidentally left a tag too open or messed up a source/destination rule in the HuJSON. Anyone else? The fact that this can run in CI/CD is a huge win.", "context": "manages a tailnet for an engineering team with prod/staging/dev", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale ACLs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}, {"id": 744033776, "item_id": 46502111, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46502111", "by": "dpoloncsak", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it", "excerpt": "Maybe a dumb question, but is there any reason or incentive for Tailscale to not run something like this for every user, or atleast offer a \"scan now\" button or something? I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it, just would like to see something like this native to the platform itself. Seems on brand for them, and it's not like they offer paid security audits or anything", "context": "", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale security", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}, {"id": 744030928, "item_id": 46501933, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46501933", "by": "Operyl", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All joking aside, this looks great.", "excerpt": "Hahaha, I love it. But also, a security tool you're going to be using against your core infrastructure should probably not be a random binary that you also tell users to strip quarantine off of to use: `sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine`. Sigh at the state of running stuff on macOS sometimes. All joking aside, this looks great. Is there a plan to allow for \"custom checks\" with custom rules users create? Think of \"n", "context": "", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "Fiveplus", "context": "manages a tailnet for an engineering team with prod/staging/dev", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46502278", "date": "2026-01-05"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["auditing tailscale acls", "auditing tailscale security", "auditing tailscale"], "compared": [{"slug": "tailscale", "name": "Tailscale", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46501137", "title": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale", "mentions": 3}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 744036449, "item_id": 46502278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46502278", "by": "Fiveplus", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is what I've been looking for.", "excerpt": "This is what I've been looking for. I love Tailscale, but as our tailnet has grown from \"just me and a few servers\" to \"entire engineering team + prod/staging/dev environments,\" the ACL file has become terrifyingly long. I always have this low-level anxiety that I accidentally left a tag too open or messed up a source/destination rule in the HuJSON. Anyone else? The fact that this can run in CI/CD is a huge win.", "context": "manages a tailnet for an engineering team with prod/staging/dev", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale ACLs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}, {"id": 744033776, "item_id": 46502111, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46502111", "by": "dpoloncsak", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it", "excerpt": "Maybe a dumb question, but is there any reason or incentive for Tailscale to not run something like this for every user, or atleast offer a \"scan now\" button or something? I love the idea of this tool and will for sure be using it, just would like to see something like this native to the platform itself. Seems on brand for them, and it's not like they offer paid security audits or anything", "context": "", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale security", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}, {"id": 744030928, "item_id": 46501933, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46501933", "by": "Operyl", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All joking aside, this looks great.", "excerpt": "Hahaha, I love it. But also, a security tool you're going to be using against your core infrastructure should probably not be a random binary that you also tell users to strip quarantine off of to use: `sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine`. Sigh at the state of running stuff on macOS sometimes. All joking aside, this looks great. Is there a plan to allow for \"custom checks\" with custom rules users create? Think of \"n", "context": "", "use_case": "auditing Tailscale", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tailsnitch \u2013 A Security Auditor for Tailscale"}]}