Network Defense Essentials (NDE) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Resource to Exam Success!

A bastion host serves as a critical control within a network security architecture, providing limited services that enhance overall security while carefully managing access to more sensitive internal network resources. Typically placed in a demilitarized zone (DMZ), a bastion host is designed to withstand attacks and often runs a reduced set of services specifically chosen for security purposes. This isolation allows it to act as a secure gateway for external connections, facilitating controlled access to internal networks.

By minimizing the number of services exposed to the outside, a bastion host helps mitigate risks, ensuring that only essential functionalities are available. This design helps to reinforce the principle of least privilege, as users and services can access only what is necessary, further improving the security posture of the organization.

Load balancers and transparent proxies, while they can also enhance network performance and security, do not primarily serve the same purpose of providing a controlled access point and effectively managing limited services. Firewalls are vital for establishing security policies and controlling traffic, but they do not act as dedicated hosts providing specific limited services. Thus, the bastion host is rightly identified as the option that best fits the requirement for limited service provision to bolster network security.