Product guide

• FTP inspection — Desktop firewall automatically creates dynamic rules for FTP data connections,
by actively monitoring the FTP commands on the control channel.
• Trusted networks — You can define networks that can include subnets, ranges, or a single IP
address that can be used while creating firewall rules.
McAfee recommends you to use ePolicy Orchestrator for managing firewall, so that you can avail various
features such as, location awareness, trusted networks, DNS blocking, and rules grouping. These
features are available only through McAfee ePO.
How stateful filtering works
Stateful filtering preserves in memory the list of existing network connections allowed by the firewall.
Each entry in the state table contains multiple parameters that help to identify the connection state.
When the network packet finds an allow rule, the packet is allowed and a new entry is added to the
state table. The subsequent packets are allowed without further verification of the predefined rule
sets. When the session is completed or timed out, the entry is removed from the state table.
Stateful filtering automatically tracks the reverse traffic for existing connections eliminating the need
for another firewall rule. Desktop firewall performs stateful filtering on TCP, UDP, and ICMP protocols.
How regular mode firewall protection works
Each rule contains a set of conditions that the network traffic must meet. The associated parameters
of that rule allow or block the network traffic.
In Regular mode, desktop firewall uses precedence to apply rules. The rule at the top of the rules list
is applied first. If the network packet meets the conditions, desktop firewall allows or blocks the
packet as defined. If the packet does not meet the first rule's condition, the next rule is verified and
moves through the rules list until a rule is satisfied. If no rule is met from the rules list, desktop
firewall blocks the traffic.
When the traffic matches the rule condition, desktop firewall does not try to apply any further rules
from the list.
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Configuring protection preferences on a standalone Mac
Desktop firewall
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McAfee Endpoint Protection for Mac 2.1.0 Product Guide