Server Message Block (SMB), a common file-sharing application, is slow when passing through a Palo Alto Networks firewall. The Network Security Administrator created an application override policy…

While an application override influences how traffic is categorized, its primary effect is not on the efficiency of security policy assignment itself, but rather on the level of inspection applied to the traffic.

Zone Protection is a separate security feature applied at the zone level for flood protection, and an application override policy does not inherently disable Zone Protection for the traffic.

An application override policy tells the firewall to identify traffic based on Layer 4 information (ports/protocols) instead of performing full Layer 7 Application-ID, which disables deeper packet inspection and related security processing for that specific traffic, often reducing latency.

An application override policy still relies on Layer 4 information (ports and protocols) to identify the traffic initially, so Layer 4 processing is not disabled; rather, Layer 7 processing is bypassed.