How does Application Control blade identify and control the usage of applications?

The correct answer is A. Application Control identifies applications using application signatures and classification logic rather than relying only on ports and protocols. Modern applications frequently use common ports such as TCP 80 and 443, dynamic cloud endpoints, encrypted sessions, and evasive behavior. Port-based matching alone cannot reliably distinguish Facebook, YouTube, file-sharing services, chat applications, business SaaS platforms, or application subfunctions. Option B is wrong because port/protocol matching is the traditional firewall service model, not full application identification. Option C and D are also insufficient because protocol and encryption status do not identify application behavior by themselves. Check Point’s Application Control uses the Application Database and signatures to identify traffic from the flow and apply policy based on application or category. HTTPS Inspection can improve visibility into encrypted application traffic, but the blade’s core identification method is signature-based application recognition. Reference topics: Application Control, application signatures, Application Database, Access Control Policy.