A firewall designed to protect web applications and their back-end databases from code injection and DoS attacks is a?

A firewall designed to protect web applications and their back-end databases from code injection and DoS attacks is a?

• A. web application firewall (WAF)
• B. network firewall
• C. host-based firewall
• D. application gateway

Answer: (A)

A web application firewall focuses on protecting web applications by inspecting the actual HTTP/HTTPS traffic they receive. It sits in front of the web app and uses rules to recognize and block web-specific attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, which target the application’s input handling and logic. It can also detect patterns of abuse that signal a DoS attempt and apply rate limiting or block offending requests to keep the app responsive and safe. This is different from a network firewall, which operates mainly at IP, port, and protocol levels and doesn’t typically analyze the full content of web requests. A host-based firewall protects a single machine but doesn’t provide centralized protection for the web application’s logic and payloads. An application gateway is a broader term for a gateway that controls access at the application layer, but a web application firewall is specifically designed to defend web apps against the kinds of attacks mentioned, making it the best fit.

A web application firewall focuses on protecting web applications by inspecting the actual HTTP/HTTPS traffic they receive. It sits in front of the web app and uses rules to recognize and block web-specific attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, which target the application’s input handling and logic. It can also detect patterns of abuse that signal a DoS attempt and apply rate limiting or block offending requests to keep the app responsive and safe.

This is different from a network firewall, which operates mainly at IP, port, and protocol levels and doesn’t typically analyze the full content of web requests. A host-based firewall protects a single machine but doesn’t provide centralized protection for the web application’s logic and payloads. An application gateway is a broader term for a gateway that controls access at the application layer, but a web application firewall is specifically designed to defend web apps against the kinds of attacks mentioned, making it the best fit.