Which of the following is a firewall that keeps track of the state of network connections traveling across it?

Question

Options

• AStateful firewall
• BStateless packet filter firewall
• CCircuit-level proxy firewall
• DApplication gateway firewall

• A
  88% (28)
• B
  3% (1)
• C
  6% (2)
• D
  3% (1)

Explanation

A stateful firewall earns its name by maintaining a connection state table that tracks the full context of active network sessions (source/destination IP, port, TCP handshake phase), allowing it to make smarter allow/deny decisions based on whether a packet belongs to a legitimate, established connection. A stateless packet filter (B) examines each packet in isolation with no memory of prior packets, making it faster but blind to connection context. A circuit-level proxy (C) operates at the session layer and validates the TCP handshake, but doesn't inspect packet contents or track ongoing application-layer state the way stateful firewalls do. An application gateway/proxy firewall (D) works at the application layer and understands specific protocols (HTTP, FTP), but its defining trait is deep content inspection - not connection-state tracking.

Memory tip: "Stateful = State table." If a firewall remembers what's happening in a connection, it's stateful. If it forgets each packet the moment it's processed, it's stateless.

No community discussion yet for this question.