What term refers to information about sessions between hosts that is gathered by a stateful firewall?

What term refers to information about sessions between hosts that is gathered by a stateful firewall?

• A. Stateful inspection
• B. Layer 4 firewall
• C. Proxy server
• D. State table

Answer: (D)

Tracking active conversations is what a stateful firewall does. It doesn’t evaluate each packet in isolation; it remembers details about every ongoing connection in a state table. This table stores per-session information such as source and destination IPs and ports, the protocol, and the current state of the connection (for example, whether a TCP handshake has completed or if the connection is established). When a packet arrives, the firewall consults the state table to determine if it belongs to a known, allowed session or if it should be dropped. This stored session information enables dynamic, context-aware filtering and helps prevent attacks that rely on unexpected or spoofed traffic. The other terms describe how the firewall operates or the type of device, but they don’t refer to the data structure that holds session details.

Tracking active conversations is what a stateful firewall does. It doesn’t evaluate each packet in isolation; it remembers details about every ongoing connection in a state table. This table stores per-session information such as source and destination IPs and ports, the protocol, and the current state of the connection (for example, whether a TCP handshake has completed or if the connection is established). When a packet arrives, the firewall consults the state table to determine if it belongs to a known, allowed session or if it should be dropped. This stored session information enables dynamic, context-aware filtering and helps prevent attacks that rely on unexpected or spoofed traffic. The other terms describe how the firewall operates or the type of device, but they don’t refer to the data structure that holds session details.