Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

Which type of firewall uses access control lists (ACLs) to filter and control network traffic?

1. Web application firewall (WAF)

2. Stateful firewall

3. Stateless firewall

4. Next-generation firewall (NGFW)

The correct answer is: Stateless firewall

The correct answer involves understanding the role of access control lists (ACLs) in network security. ACLs are a fundamental feature utilized in stateless firewalls to filter and manage network traffic based on predefined rules and conditions. A stateless firewall operates by examining each packet in isolation. It does not maintain the context of a session or keep track of the state of active connections; hence, it relies heavily on ACLs to determine whether to allow or deny traffic based purely on its defined rules. This method is effective for straightforward traffic filtering but does not provide the advanced features or context-awareness found in stateful firewalls or next-generation firewalls. In contrast, stateful firewalls track the state of active connections, allowing them to make more informed decisions about the traffic that is part of established sessions. They utilize a state table for this purpose, which offers more dynamic traffic management than what ACLs can provide alone. Web application firewalls (WAFs) are specifically designed to monitor and control HTTP / HTTPS traffic to and from web applications. They provide protection against specific web-based attacks but do not primarily use traditional ACLs like a stateless firewall. Next-generation firewalls (NGFW) combine traditional firewall functionalities with advanced features such as deep packet inspection