Which type of firewall acts on behalf of endpoints in a network?

A proxy firewall operates by acting on behalf of endpoints in a network. It intermediates the communication between clients and servers, effectively hiding the true IP addresses of the clients from the servers. This means that when a client makes a request to access a resource on the internet, the request is sent to the proxy firewall first. The proxy then forwards that request to the internet and returns the response from the internet to the client.

This type of firewall provides several benefits, including improved security through anonymity, content caching to enhance performance, and the ability to inspect and filter traffic based on various criteria, such as application-level data. The proxy firewall is also capable of enforcing policies related to user data and applications, offering granular control over access to resources.

In contrast, packet-filtering firewalls operate at a lower level by examining packets and deciding whether to allow or block them based solely on predefined rules without any context from higher layers. Stateful firewalls keep track of the state of active connections and make decisions based on the context of the traffic flow but still do not act on behalf of the endpoints. Next Generation Firewalls combine traditional firewall features with additional capabilities such as application awareness and intrusion prevention, but they also do not act as intermediaries like proxy firewalls do.