A Firewall based Hands-on Approach for Enhancing the Comprehension of FTP Traffic Filtering in Information Security Education
Zouheir Trabelsi
Information Security Education Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2016.
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Abstract:
Network traffic filtering is an important topic in information security education at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and constitutes a major part of a general course on network security.  Lectures on network traffic filtering cover mostly network packet filtering, mainly IP, TCP, UDP and ICMP packets, as well as common network services filtering, such as web and email services. In contrast to most common network services, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is considered an unusual network service and requires special filtering mechanisms.  FTP is an unusual service in that it uses two communication channels, called the Command channel (also known as the Control channel), and the Data channel. However, most common network service uses one communication channel for exchanging both command and data traffic. 

With the objective of enhancing information security education, this paper discusses what fundamental concepts the students need to know about the filtering of the unusual FTP network traffic. Also, to allow students to acquire hands-on skills on FTP traffic filtering using firewall technology, a set of comprehensive hands-on lab exercises are described. The paper does so in the hope that it will encourage the teaching of FTP network traffic filtering using a hands-on approach, when offering courses on network security. Finally, the paper discusses the effect of using a hands-on approach while teaching FTP traffic filtering concepts, on the studentsâ€™ grading performance and learning outcomes.