What is another name for an application-level firewall?

An application-level firewall is also known as a proxy server because it operates at the application layer of the OSI model. This type of firewall is specifically designed to monitor and control network traffic at the application layer, handling requests and responses for specific applications. By acting as an intermediary between clients and servers, a proxy server can inspect, filter, and modify data before allowing it to pass through to the intended destination.

Proxy servers provide several important security benefits, including the ability to hide the internal network structure from external entities, enforce content filtering policies, and cache traffic to improve performance. This level of functionality distinguishes application-level firewalls from other types, which may not operate at the same granular level or may focus primarily on network or transport layer filtering.

Other types of firewalls, like stateful or packet-filtering firewalls, work at different layers of the OSI model and focus on managing connections and packet flows rather than delving into the specifics of application data. A gateway firewall can also refer to different functionalities that may not align strictly with the application-level filtering characteristic of a proxy server.