Firewalls - Distinguishing Between Application and Session Layer Solutions

How do IT security professionals distinguish between application and session layer firewalls? Well, managing a network using only access control lists and some basic filtering was more than enough protection for deterring unauthorised users. This was the case because routers were at the heart of every network and more specifically these devices were used to route traffic to and from WAN connections like branch offices and the Internet. 

Session layer firewalls are also known as Circuit level firewalls or circuit gateways. These session layer firewalls have the following features; they operate at the TCP layer of the OSI model. Typically these firewalls use NAT (Network Address Translation) to protect the internal network and these gateways have little or no connection to the application layer, thus cannot filter more complicated connections. These firewalls are only able to protect traffic on a basic rule base like application source destination port. Send your comments to the Cloud and Cyber Security Center.