Application Gateways

The application gateway, also known as an application-level firewall or application firewall, is frequently installed on a dedicated computer, separate from the filtering router, but is commonly used in conjunction with a filtering router. The application firewall is also known as a proxy server since it runs special software that acts as a proxy for a service request.

Since the proxy server is often placed in an unsecured area of the network or in the DMZ, it—rather than the Web server—is exposed to the higher levels of risk from the less trusted networks.

Additional filtering routers can be implemented behind the proxy server, limiting access to the more secure internal system and thereby further protecting internal systems.

Circuit Gateways

The circuit gateway firewall operates at the transport layer. Connections are authorized based on addresses. Like filtering firewalls, circuit gateway firewalls do not usually look at data traffic flowing between one network and another, but they do prevent direct connections between one network and another.

They accomplish this by creating tunnels that connect specific processes or systems on each side of the firewall and then allowing only authorized traffic, such as a specific type of TCP connection for only authorized users, in these tunnels.

MAC Layer Firewalls

While not as well known or widely referenced as the firewall approaches above, MAC layer firewalls are designed to operate at the media access control layer of the OSI network model. This gives these firewalls the ability to consider the specific host computer’s identity in its filtering decisions.

Using this approach, the MAC addresses of specific host computers are linked to ACL entries that identify the specific types of packets that can be sent to each host, and all other traffic is blocked.

Hybrid Firewalls

Hybrid firewalls combine the elements of other types of firewalls—that is, the elements of packet filtering and proxy services or of packet filtering and circuit gateways.

Alternately, a hybrid firewall system can consist of two separate firewall devices; each is a separate firewall system, but they are connected so that they work in tandem.

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