In terms of computer security, a firewall is a piece of software. This software monitors the network traffic between the inside and outside. The firewall is placed between the network that is to be protected (trusted) and the outside network (less trusted) aka WAN or Internet. A firewall has a set of rules which are applied to each packet. The rules decide if a packet can pass, or whether it is discarded. When a large network needs to be protected, the firewall software often runs on a computer that does nothing else.
A firewall protects one part of the network against unauthorized access.
Different kinds of Firewalls
Packet filtering / Network Layer
Data travels on the internet in small pieces; these are called packets. Each packet has certain metadata attached, like where it is coming from, and where it should be sent to. The easiest thing to do is to look at the metadata. Based on rules, certain packets are then dropped or rejected. It is done at the network layer.
Stateful packet inspection
In addition to the simple packet filtering (above), this kind of firewall also keeps track of connections. A packet can be the start of a new connection, or it can be part of an existing connection. If it is neither of the two, it is probably useless and can be dropped.
Application-layer firewalls
Application-layer firewalls do not just look at the metadata; they also look at the actual data transported. They know how certain protocols work, for example FTP or HTTP. They can then look if the data that is in the packet is valid (for that protocol). If it is not, it can be dropped.
Other things firewalls are used for
Tunneling
Firewalls can provide a secure connection between two networks. This is called tunnellng. The data may be encrypted. It is decrypted at the other end. Since the firewalls are doing this, the rest of the network is unaware of it. An alternative is to provide a secure access (to the corporate network).
Network Address Translation (NAT)
Very often, firewalls can translate IP addresses. That way, many computers can share a few public IP addresses. The firewall translates between the public and the private IP addresses.
Types of firewalls
In general, there are two types of firewalls:
- Software-based firewalls: these are often run as additional programs on computers that are used for other things. They are often known as personal firewalls which can be updates on personal computers.
Prominent Brands include OPNsense, pfsense, comodo etc.
- Hardware-based firewalls: Hardware based firewalls run on a dedicated computer (or appliance). Often, these offer a better performance than software firewalls, but they are also more money.
Prominent Brands include PaloAlto, WiJungle, Checkpoint, Cisco etc.
What firewalls cannot protect against
Firewalls can protect against some problems (viruses and attacks) that come from the internet. They cannot protect against viruses, that come from infected media (like an infected office document on an USB flash drive).
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