Access Control List (ACL)

ACL is a network traffic filter that can control incoming or outgoing traffic. The main idea is to define who can access the application.

With an ACL you can filter packets for a single IP address, a group of IP addresses or different protocols, such as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

What are Access Control Lists

ACLs are a collection of network filters utilized by firewalls to permit and restrict data flows into and out of the application. Firewall has a ruleset that analyzes the data passing through and comparing it to the criteria described in a rule. And based on the findings and rules, the dataflow is either permitted on denied.

Benefits of ACLs

ACLs provide the basic level of security for the application. They are not complex like Web Application Firewalls but are able to provide protection against unknown network traffic which is irrelevant to the user and application traffic.

ACLs work on the network layer, so they improve the network performance and do not use the resources of the application.