Which of the following firewalls are used to track the state of active connections and determine the network packets allowed to enter through the firewall?Each correct answer represents a complete…

Question

Options

• ACircuit-level gateway
• BStateful
• CProxy server
• DDynamic packet-filtering

• A
  4% (1)
• B
  86% (24)
• C
  11% (3)

Explanation

Stateful firewalls (B) maintain a state table that tracks active connections, using context about existing sessions to decide whether incoming packets belong to a legitimate, established connection - this is precisely the behavior described in the question. Dynamic packet-filtering (D) is functionally equivalent, dynamically adjusting allow/deny rules in real time based on connection state, making both correct answers for the same core concept.

Circuit-level gateways (A) are wrong because they validate TCP handshakes at the session layer to approve or reject a session, but they don't inspect individual packets or maintain a running state table for packet-level decisions. Proxy servers (C) are wrong because they act as application-layer intermediaries that forward requests on behalf of clients - useful for content filtering and anonymity, but they don't perform connection-state tracking for network packet decisions.

Memory tip: Think "Stateful = State table" - both words start with S. Dynamic packet-filtering is the older name for the same mechanism, so pair them as synonyms on the exam. If a firewall remembers the conversation, it's stateful/dynamic; if it just validates the handshake (circuit-level) or forwards traffic (proxy), it's not tracking packet state.

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