Which two options are advantages of an application layer firewall? (Choose two.)

Application layer firewalls perform deep packet inspection, which is computationally intensive and generally leads to *lower* performance compared to stateless or stateful packet filtering firewalls.

Application layer firewalls inspect traffic at layer 7 (the application layer), understanding the context of applications and their protocols. This deeper inspection allows them to detect and block malicious requests, making denial-of-service (DoS) attacks more difficult to execute effectively.

While application layer firewalls support specific applications, their deep inspection capabilities often limit the *number* of unique applications they can efficiently monitor and protect without significant configuration or performance impact.

Authenticating devices is typically handled at lower layers or by endpoint security solutions, rather than being a primary advantage of an application layer firewall.

Because application layer firewalls operate at a higher level, they can integrate with authentication systems to authenticate individual users based on application-specific credentials or directory services, providing granular access control beyond just IP addresses or ports.