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)?
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
I wish people would stop making this statement.
There’s a difference between “seeing traffic” and “being able to understand what it is and do something about it”.
Brother, there is no difference. I think you are confused. They can “understand your traffic and do something about it” it’s unencrypted, and you agree to a fairly strict terms of service that allows them to basically do whatever they like. Maybe you should read the agreement, and if you’re using the tunnels, maybe turn them off until you understand your security posture and exposure of your network
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.
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.
I admit there is a level of trust needed in cloudflare, but I also need to trust the container makers, and the hardware manufacturers as well. I use cloudflare with O365 and jumpcloud for my auth sources and I’ve been thrilled. Different policies by subdomain, works great.
We use cloudflare tunnels in production for massive workloads at FiveM/Cfx.re, I can with 100% confidence say that I trust in it.
Only caveat is that if you have rapid scaling, CF might accidentally route to a non existent tunnel, and if that doesn’t resolve itself you will have to recreate it.
But this has only been an issue if you force shutdown some of the cloudflared instances. And only very intermittently, reproducing it has been difficult.