Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET) Practice Exam

Which type of firewall requires the least amount of RAM per connection?

1. Packet filtering

2. Stateful packet inspection

3. Application

4. Next-generation

The correct answer is: Packet filtering

Packet filtering firewalls require the least amount of RAM per connection because they operate at the network layer and make decisions based solely on the header information of packets. This type of firewall examines incoming and outgoing packets and allows or blocks them based on predefined rules without maintaining any session state. Since packet filtering is less complex and does not need to keep track of connection states or maintain extensive session information, it consumes significantly less memory. This contrasts with other firewall types, such as stateful packet inspection, which tracks the state of active connections and requires additional memory to store state information. Application firewalls analyze traffic at the application layer, and next-generation firewalls provide advanced features, including deep packet inspection and intrusion prevention, which further increase their memory requirements. Therefore, packet filtering is the most efficient in terms of RAM usage per connection among the options provided.