Which of the following is an advantage of stateful inspection firewalls?

The advantage of stateful inspection firewalls lies in their ability to track the state of each connection. This means that these firewalls maintain a table of active connections and continuously monitor the ongoing traffic for each of those connections. By understanding the state of a connection (whether it is established, closing, or closed), stateful firewalls can make more informed decisions about which packets are allowed to pass through.

This capability allows them to detect and block unauthorized access attempts that may masquerade as legitimate traffic by ensuring that only packets matching an established connection are permitted. Consequently, stateful inspection firewalls provide enhanced security compared to stateless firewalls, as they are better able to handle complex connection types and protocols that develop state over time.

The other options do not reflect the strengths of stateful inspection firewalls. They do require timely patching to remain secure, as all systems can be vulnerable to exploits. Inspecting packets individually without context is characteristic of stateless firewalls, which lack the connection tracking feature. Lastly, while stateful firewalls can reduce false positives by utilizing context, they do not eliminate them entirely, making statements about minimizing false positives to zero inaccurate.