Proxy Firewall and Gateway Firewall: Introduction

The terms proxy firewall and gateway firewall are used synonymously. These firewalls help to maintain the transparency between the requester and server. As you know, the packet filter firewall inspects the headers of the packets, so it works at network transport layer. But to do inspection of packets at deeper level for better security, we need the proxy firewalls which works at application layer. Moreover, these firewalls are aware of the application protocol, so they provide better inspection capabilities.

Every packet entering your internal network passes through your firewall. The firewall resides as a gateway between the user and the network, so it’s also referred to as Gateway firewall. The terms proxy firewall, firewall proxy, gateway firewall, firewall gateway, application gateway, application proxy refer to the same thing: Proxy Firewall.

Difference Between Packet Filter and Gateway Firewall

The major difference between the two main types of firewalls is that, the proxy(gateway) firewall understands the application. Being application specific, these can be programmed to allow or disallow the access to a particular service. You can even specify which functions of the application are accessible and which not. The squid proxy server is the example of this type of firewall. If placed at gateway position between internet and internal network, the access to various sites can be blocked based on IP address of the internal workstations. The set of rules which are consulted to allow/disallow the http traffic are called ACLs(Access Control List). Not only this, but bandwidth can also be controlled.

Benefits of Proxy Firewall

The proxy firewall offers several advantages. The list goes as below:

1. Since the gateway understands the application, so the packet inspection is better.
2. These act in both directions. From internal client to the server on internet and vice versa. Means this is also configurable, which internet hosts can send the requests to the internal clients.
3. They act as single point of contact where you can better control access to the services of your network and internet.
4. Extensive logs can be collected which help the network administrator at several levels.
5. Based on the content of data, some proxies can help to filter the traffic as per your rules.
6. The network information about internal workstations and servers is protected from internet.

Disadvantages of Proxy Firewall

The disadvantages are also there which are listed below:

1. The proxy firewalls needs to understand the applications in detail, so to act as a proxy, you need that many proxy server applications as you want the number of services.
2. The single point of contact can also act as single point of failure. So, backup servers are also necessary for this.
3. The clients also need to be modified if you want them to use the proxy severs. The examples are, to use proxy squid server, you need to configure client browsers.