Match each firewall zone to its default behavior.
Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.
Default zone, untrusted network
Private network, slightly trusted
Demilitarized zone, limited access
All traffic accepted
All incoming packets dropped
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
public: Rejects incoming traffic except for explicitly allowed services.
Common firewalld zones include public (default deny), trusted (allow all), external (NAT with limited inbound), dmz (limited inbound for public servers), internal (trusted but filtered), and drop (silent discard). Common confusions involve swapping the behaviors of public and trusted, or misunderstanding dmz as fully blocking instead of selectively allowing.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
public: Rejects incoming traffic except for explicitly allowed services.
Why this is correct
The public zone is the default for untrusted networks; it denies incoming traffic unless explicitly permitted.
trusted: Accepts all incoming traffic.
Why this is correct
The trusted zone is for fully trusted networks; no filtering is applied to incoming traffic.
internal: Allows all incoming traffic from any source.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect — the internal zone allows traffic from the same network but still applies some filtering.
dmz: Drops all incoming traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect — the dmz zone allows specific services (e.g., SSH, HTTP) and rejects others.
external: Masquerades outgoing traffic and rejects incoming except for allowed.
Why this is correct
The external zone is used for internet-facing interfaces with NAT; it allows only explicitly permitted incoming connections.
drop: Drops all incoming traffic silently (no response).
Why this is correct
The drop zone discards all incoming packets without any response, acting as a black hole.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every EX294 question from scratch — 392 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This EX294 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the EX294 exam.