Local Domain Fallback

By default, Cloudflare Zero Trust excludes common top-level domains, used for local resolution, from being sent to Gateway for processing. These top-level domains are resolved by the local DNS resolver configured for the device on its primary interface.

You can add additional domains to the Local Domain Fallback list and specify a DNS server to use in place of the Gateway resolver. The WARP client proxies these requests directly to the configured fallback servers.

Limitations

Local Domain Fallback only applies to devices running the WARP client.

Because DNS requests subject to Local Domain Fallback bypass the Gateway resolver, they are not subject to Gateway DNS policies or DNS logging. If you want to route DNS queries to custom resolvers and apply Gateway filtering, use resolver policies. If both Local Domain Fallback and resolver policies are configured for the same device, Cloudflare will apply client-side Local Domain Fallback rules first.

AWS

Avoid configuring your Local Domain Fallback or Resolver Policy to direct all *.amazonaws.com DNS resolution via AWS Route 53 Resolver.

Some AWS endpoints (such as ssm.us-east-1.amazonaws.com) are public AWS endpoints that are not resolvable via internal VPC resolution. This can break AWS Console features for users on WARP.

Only route specific Route 53 zones, or VPC Endpoints (such as vpce.amazonaws.com), through the internal VPC resolver.

Manage local domains

View domains

To view the domains subject to Local Domain Fallback:

1. In Zero Trust ↗, go to Settings > WARP Client.

2. Under Device settings, locate the device profile you would like to view or modify and select Configure.

3. Scroll down to Local Domain Fallback and select Manage.

On this page, you will see a list of domains excluded from Gateway. You can add or remove domains from the list at any time.

Warning

Local Domain Fallback configuration only impacts where DNS requests get resolved, not the flow of traffic destined to those domains. If you want to prevent traffic from being sent to a specific domain or IP address, you must add those domains or IPs to your Split Tunnel configuration.

Add a domain

To add a domain to the Local Domain Fallback list:

Dashboard

1. In Zero Trust ↗, go to Settings > WARP Client.

2. Under Device settings, locate the device profile you would like to view or modify and select Configure.

3. Scroll down to Local Domain Fallback and select Manage.

4. In Domain, enter the apex domain (example.com) that you want to resolve using your private DNS server. All prefixes under the apex domain are subject to Local Domain Fallback (in other words, example.com is interpreted as *.example.com).

5. In DNS Servers, enter the IP address of the DNS servers that should resolve that domain name.

6. Enter an optional description and select Save domain.

Terraform (v5)

A Local Domain Fallback list is scoped to a specific device profile. If a device profile does not have a corresponding Local Domain Fallback resource, those devices will use the default local domains shown in Step 2.

1. Add the following permission to your cloudflare_api_token ↗:

   • Zero Trust Write

2. (Optional) Create a list of domains that you can reuse across multiple device profiles. For example, you can declare a local value in the same module as your device profiles:

   local-domains.local.tf

   locals {
     default_local_domains = [
       # Default Local Domain Fallback entries recommended by Cloudflare
       {
     suffix = "corp"
   },
   {
     suffix = "domain"
   },
   {
     suffix = "home"
   },
   {
     suffix = "home.arpa"
   },
   {
     suffix = "host"
   },
   {
     suffix = "internal"
   },
   {
     suffix = "intranet"
   },
   {
     suffix = "invalid"
   },
   {
     suffix = "lan"
   },
   {
     suffix = "local"
   },
   {
     suffix = "localdomain"
   },
   {
     suffix = "localhost"
   },
   {
     suffix = "private"
   },
   {
     suffix = "test"
   }
     ]
   }

3. To configure Local Domain Fallback for the default device profile, use the cloudflare_zero_trust_device_default_profile_local_domain_fallback ↗ resource. To configure Local Domain Fallback for a custom device profile, usecloudflare_zero_trust_device_custom_profile_local_domain_fallback ↗. For example:

   device-profiles.tf

   resource "cloudflare_zero_trust_device_custom_profile_local_domain_fallback" "example" {
     account_id = var.cloudflare_account_id
     policy_id  = cloudflare_zero_trust_device_custom_profile.example.id
     domains = concat(
       # Global entries
       local.default_local_domains,
   
       # Profile-specific entries
       [
         {
         suffix = "example.com"
         description = "Domain for local development"
         dns_server = ["1.1.1.1", "192.168.0.1"]
         }
       ]
     )
   }

For suffix, specify the apex domain (example.com) that you want to resolve using your private DNS server. All prefixes under the apex domain are subject to Local Domain Fallback (in other words, example.com is interpreted as *.example.com). For dns_server, enter the IP address of the DNS servers that should resolve that domain name.

WARP tries all servers and always uses the fastest response, even if that response is no records found. We recommend specifying at least one DNS server for each domain. If a value is not specified, the WARP client will try to identify the DNS server (or servers) used on the device before it started, and use that server for each domain in the Local Domain Fallback list.

Route traffic to fallback server

The WARP client routes DNS traffic to your Local Domain Fallback server according to your Split Tunnel configuration. To ensure that queries can reach your private DNS server:

• If your DNS server is only reachable inside of the WARP tunnel (for example, via cloudflared or Magic WAN):

  1. Go to Networks > Routes and verify that the DNS server is connected to Cloudflare. To connect a DNS server, refer to Private networks.

  2. In your Split Tunnel configuration, verify that the DNS server IP routes through the WARP tunnel.

• If your DNS server is only reachable outside of the WARP tunnel (for example, via a third-party VPN), verify that the DNS server IP is excluded from the WARP tunnel.

For more information, refer to How the WARP client handles DNS requests.

Delete a domain

1. In Zero Trust ↗, go to Settings > WARP Client.

2. Under Device settings, locate the device profile you would like to view or modify and select Configure.

3. Scroll down to Local Domain Fallback and select Manage.

4. Find the domain in the list and select Delete.

The domain will no longer be excluded from Gateway DNS policies, effective immediately.

Related resources

• Split Tunnels - Control which traffic goes through WARP by including or excluding specific IPs or domains.
• WARP with firewall - Learn which IPs, domains, and ports to allow so users can deploy and connect WARP successfully behind a firewall.