What type of firewall filtering would you implement to filter traffic based on packet content?

The type of firewall filtering that focuses on examining the actual content of the packets being transmitted is application-level filtering. This approach goes beyond simply looking at packet headers, which is what packet filtering does, and instead inspects the payload of the packets for specific content or patterns related to applications or protocols. This allows for more granular control over the traffic, as it can filter based on specific application data rather than relying solely on source or destination IP addresses or ports.

Application-level firewalls are particularly effective in blocking threats that traditional packet filtering and stateful inspection methods may overlook, as they can identify malicious payloads or behavior that would be legitimate from a networking perspective but harmful on the application level. By analyzing the data itself rather than just its routing information, application-level filtering provides enhanced security against a wide range of potential attacks, such as those exploiting vulnerabilities in applications.