DNS filtering

Secure Web Gateway allows you to inspect DNS traffic and control which websites users can visit.

Note

For a more detailed guide to filtering DNS queries and other traffic for your organization, refer to the Secure your Internet traffic and SaaS apps implementation guide.

1. Connect to Gateway

Connect devices

To filter DNS requests from an individual device such as a laptop or phone:

1. Install the WARP client on your device.
2. In the WARP client Settings, log in to your organization's Zero Trust instance.
3. (Optional) If you want to display a custom block page, install a Cloudflare root certificate on your device.

Connect DNS locations

To filter DNS requests from a location such as an office or data center:

1. Add the location to your Zero Trust settings.
2. On your router, browser, or OS, forward DNS queries to the address shown in the location setup UI.

Note

Gateway identifies locations differently depending on the DNS query protocol:

• IPv4 queries match to the source IP address. Under Gateway > DNS locations, ensure that the Source IPv4 Address parameter is correct for the location you want to apply policies to.
• IPv6, DOT, or DOH queries match to the unique DNS forwarding address assigned to the DNS location. Ensure that your DNS resolver is configured for the location you want to apply policies to.

2. Verify device connectivity

To verify your device is connected to Zero Trust:

1. In Zero Trust ↗, go to Settings > Network.
2. Under Gateway logging, enable activity logging for all DNS logs.
3. On your device, open a browser and go to any website.
4. In Zero Trust, go to Logs > Gateway > DNS.
5. Make sure DNS queries from your device appear.

3. Create your first DNS policy

To create a new DNS policy:

Dashboard

1. In Zero Trust ↗, go to Gateway > Firewall policies.
2. In the DNS tab, select Add a policy.
3. Name the policy.
4. Under Traffic, build a logical expression that defines the traffic you want to allow or block.
5. Choose an Action to take when traffic matches the logical expression. For example, we recommend adding a policy to block all security categories:

   Selector	Operator	Value	Action
   Security Categories	in	All security risks	Block

6. Select Create policy.

API

1. Create an API token with the following permissions:

   Type	Item	Permission
   Account	Zero Trust	Edit

2. (Optional) Configure your API environment variables to include your account ID and API token.

3. Send a POST request to the Create a Zero Trust Gateway rule endpoint. For example, we recommend adding a policy to block all security categories:

   curl API DNS policy example

   curl https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/gateway/rules \
   --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
   --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
   --data '{
     "name": "Block security threats",
     "description": "Block all default Cloudflare DNS security categories",
     "precedence": 0,
     "enabled": true,
     "action": "block",
     "filters": [
       "dns"
     ],
     "traffic": "any(dns.security_category[*] in {68 178 80 83 176 175 117 131 134 151 153})",
     "identity": ""
   }'

   {
      "success": true,
      "errors": [],
      "messages": []
   }

   The API will respond with a summary of the policy and the result of your request.

For more information, refer to DNS policies.

4. Add optional policies

Refer to our list of common DNS policies for other policies you may want to create.