I’ve seen a post on here before about Cloudflare tunnels being unsafe for exposing your locally hosted services to the web which I totally get.

However I’m a bit of a noob with complex VPN set ups and I tried to get Wireguard working in Docker but couldn’t. I got a tunnel configured and exchanged all the peer keys and things but I think my initial networking docker-compose stack was incorrect possibly. Also the windows client for it is a bit ugly but that’s by the by.

I’ve also used Tailscale in the past which is great but it feels like a temporary solution to me as you still have to remember ports and things (there may be a way around that if I remember correctly but I’d rather stay away from Tailscale. I prefer having control myself or through my domain name - probably illogical I know).

Instead I decided to try to protect the Cloudflare tunnel to my home network and I’ve made a policy in Cloudflare Access that won’t let you in without emailing you a code (only my email address works) and having you enter it. I’d also rather adjust that to my 2FA app but I can’t seem to get that to work here.

My question is: is that secure enough? And if not, what would you all suggest as an alternative (preferably an alternative that is pretty easy and means I can use my domain name)?

  • MyTechAccount90210B
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    1 year ago

    Cloudflare is as safe as you design it to be. Once you’re tunnel is set up, you configure and access app and set up whatever rules you want. For me personally, for ultra protected stuff like my proxmox management I require warp to be in use and then an email MFA code. Along of course with my proxmox login.

    • 80ShipsOPB
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      1 year ago

      I’ll be setting up something similar I think.

  • AnApexBreadB
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    1 year ago

    Cloudflare tunnels being unsafe for exposing your locally hosted services to the web

    That’s the pout of Cloudflare Tunnels. It’s a reverse proxy.

    Cloudflare Auth (zero trust) can lock down the tunnel so only certain people can access it.

    I want to clarify something though. Cloudflare Tunnels IS SAFE. But if you choose to use it in a not safe way that’s not the fault of the tunnel.

    It’s like putting on a bicycle helmet and then running on the freeway and wondering why your leg gets broken after getting hit by a car.

    “but I was wearing my helmet” great, but that wasn’t the point of the helmet.

    • 80ShipsOPB
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      1 year ago

      Makes sense. I was assuming that the people who were saying it wasn’t safe were including the access control methods in that too for some reason.

  • superglue_chute115B
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    1 year ago

    One thing to keep in mind when using CF tunnels is that Cloudflare can see all of your server’s traffic. If your goal is privacy I recommend staying away

    • 80ShipsOPB
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m not bothered about that, but I can see why some might be. All I care about is security.