Personal Firewall

A personal firewall is an application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy. Typically it works as an application layer firewall.

A personal firewall differs from a conventional firewall in terms of scale. A personal firewall will usually protect only the computer on which it is installed. Many personal firewalls are able to control network traffic by prompting the user each time a connection is attempted and adapting security policy accordingly. Personal firewalls may also provide some level of intrusion detection, allowing the software to terminate or block connectivity where it suspects an intrusion is being attempted.

Features
Common personal firewall features:

• Protects the user from unwanted incoming connection attempts
• Alert the user about outgoing connection attempts
• Allows the user to control which programs can and cannot access the local network and/or Internet
• Hide the computer from port scans by not responding to unsolicited network traffic
• Monitor applications that are listening for incoming connections
• Monitor and regulate all incoming and outgoing Internet users
• Prevent unwanted network traffic from locally installed applications
• Provide the user with information about an application that makes a connection attempt
• Provide information about the destination server with which an application is attempting to communicate

Criticisms

• If the system has been compromised by malware, spyware or similar software, these programs can also manipulate the firewall, because both are running on the same system. It may be possible to bypass or even completely shut down software firewalls in such a manner.
• The alerts generated can possibly desensitize users to alerts by warning the user of actions that may not be malicious.
• Software firewalls that interface with the operating system or with other firewalls or security software at the kernel mode level may potentially cause instability and/or introduce security flaws.