Which statement best describes SPI firewalls' impact on non-application-layer attacks?

• A. They usually block non-application-layer attacks
• B. They usually allow non-application-layer attacks
• C. They have no impact on non-application-layer attacks
• D. They only block application-layer attacks

Answer: (A)

Stateful inspection firewalls track the state of active connections and validate each packet against that state. Because many non-application-layer attacks rely on sending packets that don’t fit a valid, established connection or violate expected protocol behavior, the firewall can drop those packets before they reach the target. In short, by policing at the network/transport level and ensuring packets belong to legitimate, ongoing connections, SPI firewalls typically block many non-application-layer attacks. They don’t deeply inspect payloads, so application-layer threats require different protections, but the firewall’s stateful nature directly helps with non-application-layer traffic.