An organisation configures a packet-filtering firewall at its network gateway to protect internal database servers from unauthorised external access.
Which of the following describes how a packet-filtering firewall determines whether to permit or block incoming network traffic?
It inspects the data payload of each packet for known malware signatures and blocks packets containing malicious code.
It checks the headers of individual packets to verify their source IP address, destination IP address, protocol, and port numbers against a set of pre-configured static rules.
It monitors the state of active connections to ensure incoming packets belong to an established, legitimate communication session.
It acts as an intermediary, establishing its own connection to external servers on behalf of client devices to hide the internal network structure.