Which best describes a hardware-based WAF?

A hardware-based Web Application Firewall (WAF) is best described as a multi-homed, in-line security appliance due to its deployment architecture and operational functionalities. These appliances are physical devices that sit between the web application and the internet, monitoring and filtering traffic to protect web applications from various threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other vulnerabilities.

Being multi-homed means that the WAF can have multiple network interfaces, allowing it to handle traffic from different sources or segments securely. Placing the WAF in-line means that it actively inspects and processes incoming and outgoing traffic, enabling it to block malicious requests effectively before they reach the web servers. This proactive filtering capability offers immediate protection and helps in enforcing security policies.

In contrast, a software WAF typically runs on the same server as the web application, focusing on application-specific security but lacking the network-wide traffic management and inspection capabilities that hardware-based solutions provide. Hardware-based solutions are also often designed to function independently, while some configurations of software solutions may require integration with additional security tools to optimize performance and security.