CompTIA Security+ All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam SY0-301), 3rd Edition, 3rd Edition

Web Application Firewalls vs. Network Firewalls

Increasingly, the term “firewall” is being attached to any device or software package that is used to control the flow of packets or data into or out of an organization. For example, a web application firewall is the term given to any software package, appliance, or filter that applies a rule set to HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Web application firewalls shape web traffic and can be used to filter out SQL injection attacks, malware, Cross Site Scripting, and so on. By contrast, a network firewall is a hardware or software package that controls the flow of packets into and out of a network. Web application firewalls operate on traffic at a much higher level than network firewalls as web application firewalls ...