Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for filtering data packets through an integrated network security device are provided. Various security operations are performed on the data packets belonging to a network connection while they pass through the integrated network security device in a communication network. A classification engine is applied to the first packet of the connection. The result of this filtering is stored in a per-connection control key, and determines which of the security operations must be applied to each of the data packets of the connection. These security operations may be prioritized and re-ordered, based on the rate at which they detect and drop malicious data packets.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and an apparatus for generating and dispatching a flexible control key to be appended with the data packets while being dispatched across a plurality of software modules running on the integrated network security device, are provided. The control key is divided into two sections: an operations (ingress/egress) section, and an application section. The ingress section includes the invariable-ordered set of operations to be performed to the data packet at the device's input. The egress section includes the invariable-ordered set of operations to be performed to the data packet at the receiver's address. The application section includes the sequence of applications to be performed to the data packet while being processed by the integrated network security device. The operation section is encoded using bit encoding technique. The application section is encoded by using a binary operation encoding technique, which allows variable sequences of execution.