Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

What type of firewall specifically filters and monitors HTTP traffic?

1. Stateful firewall

2. Web application firewall (WAF)

3. Stateless firewall

4. Content-filtering firewall

The correct answer is: Web application firewall (WAF)

The choice of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) as the correct answer is grounded in its tailored functionality for filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic specifically. Unlike traditional firewalls, which operate at the network or transport layer and generally focus on allowing or blocking traffic based on predetermined security rules, a WAF operates at the application layer. This enables it to scrutinize the data portion of HTTP requests and responses, looking for malicious activities such as injection attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other web-based threats. WAFs are designed to protect web applications by controlling traffic between the user and the web server, offering features such as application-level filtering and the ability to analyze incoming requests in-depth. This level of specificity makes WAFs crucial for defending against vulnerabilities in web applications, which is an essential aspect of cybersecurity today. In contrast, stateful and stateless firewalls focus on the state of network connections and manage traffic based on predefined rules but do not specifically analyze HTTP content for application-layer threats. Content-filtering firewalls may analyze data for inappropriate content or data loss prevention but do not offer the same level of detail or protection against HTTP-specific attacks as a WAF does. Therefore, a Web Application Firewall is distinctly suited for the task of