Knocknoc

Knocknoc is a Sydney, Australia-based cybersecurity software company that orchestrates network-level access controls so that ports stay closed and services remain invisible until a user authenticates through a central identity provider. Rather than routing traffic through a cloud service or exposing a VPN-like endpoint, Knocknoc dynamically provisions an authenticated user's IPv4 or IPv6 address into the customer's existing access control layer — firewalls, network security groups, WAFs, reverse proxies or host firewalls — for a defined period, then revokes it. It can also operate as an identity-aware gateway, or combine both modes.

The product consists of a Knocknoc server that provides the web portal for users and administrators and integrates with the identity platform, plus one or more cross-platform orchestration agents that receive allow/deny instructions and enforce them against configured backends. Documented backends include Linux packet filtering (ipset/iptables, UFW, Shorewall, firewalld, PF), firewall appliances from Fortinet, Palo Alto, SonicWall, Check Point, Cisco, Sophos, Juniper SRX, OPNsense, pfSense and MikroTik, reverse proxies such as HAProxy, Nginx and Apache, and cloud controls including AWS security groups and WAF IP sets, Azure NSGs, Microsoft Entra named locations, Google Cloud, Cloudflare IP lists and DigitalOcean firewalls. A scripting backend supports non-standard systems. Authentication integrations include SAML, Entra ID, Okta, Google, CyberArk, Authentik, 1Kosmos, Ping Identity, Keycloak, JumpCloud, ADFS and LDAP, with built-in local MFA as an alternative. Supported deployment targets span Linux, Windows and Docker on x64, arm64 and other architectures, and the company also offers CLI and iOS/Android clients plus an API.

Typical uses described by the company include protecting SSH bastion hosts, RDP and Windows servers, Citrix and SSL VPN endpoints (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Ivanti), Atlassian and PHP or legacy web applications, file transfer appliances, IP cameras, payroll systems, VOIP and video feeds, cloud consoles, and just-in-time access to internal subnets and OT/ICS networks.

Founding story

Knocknoc is an Australian start-up founded by Andrew Foster, David Kempe and Adam Pointon, described as industry veterans with a combined four decades of information security experience spanning complex high-security networks, managed firewalls and web applications, and responsible vulnerability disclosure.

Business model

Knocknoc licenses its server-and-agent software to organisations, with customers registering through a licensing portal that offers a free trial or paid licences scaled to deployment size. The software can be self-hosted on-premise or in the customer's cloud, or consumed as a company-managed cloud (SaaS) deployment. Support is provided by email for paid licences, while trial users have documentation access; a partner channel provides professional services, support and reselling.

Software licensing sold via a self-service licensing portal, with tiered packages by scale, a free trial tier, and options for on-premise, customer-cloud or Knocknoc-managed cloud hosting.

Traction

As of the March 2025 funding announcement, Knocknoc reported deployments in Australian and US critical infrastructure, large telecommunications networks and media companies, with customers using the product to protect VPNs and firewalls, IP cameras, payroll systems, file transfer appliances and bastion hosts. The company publishes a public changelog showing continuing server and agent releases through versions 5.0 to 8.5 and subsequent calendar-versioned releases (v25.12 through v26.07), and cites a customer case in which a major television station used Knocknoc's scripting backend to gate specialist video feeds behind existing SSO for time-limited windows.

Latest developments

In March 2025 Knocknoc announced a seed financing from Decibel Partners with participation from CoAct and SomethingReal, to be applied to go-to-market, hiring, customer onboarding and product development, alongside the appointment of Adam Pointon as CEO and Patrick Gray to the board. Product documentation lists an ongoing release cadence, including features such as agentic access and companions, session limits and disconnection, high availability and PostgreSQL support.