Configure mTLS

When you specify API hosts in mTLS authentication, Cloudflare will block all requests that do not have a client certificate for mTLS authentication.

Prerequisites

Before you can protect your API or web application with mTLS rules, you need to:

• Check that the certificate installed on your origin server matches the hostname of the client certificate, for example api.example.com. Origin server wildcard certificates such as *.example.com are not supported.
• Create a client certificate.
• Configure your mobile app or IoT device to use your Cloudflare-issued client certificate.
• Enable mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) for a host in your zone.

Note

While API Shield is not required to use mTLS, many teams may use mTLS to protect their APIs.

Warning

By default, API Shield mTLS uses client certificates issued by a Cloudflare Managed CA. Cloudflare generates a unique CA for each account.

If you need to use certificates issued by another CA, you can use the API to bring your own CA for mTLS.

Create an mTLS rule

1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard ↗ and select your account and domain.
2. Go to SSL/TLS > Client Certificates.
3. Select Create a mTLS rule.
4. In Custom rules, several rule parameters have already been filled in. Enter the URI path you want to protect in Value.
5. (Optional) Add a Hostname field and enter the mTLS-enabled hostnames you wish to protect in Value.
6. In Choose action, select Block.
7. Select Deploy to make the rule active.

Once you have deployed your mTLS rule, any requests without a valid client certificate will be blocked.

Expression Builder

To review your mTLS rule in the Expression Builder, select the wrench icon associated with your rule.

In the Expression Preview, your mTLS rule includes a compound expression formed from two simple expressions joined by the and operator.

The first expression — not cf.tls_client_auth.cert_verified — returns true when a request to access your API or web application does not present a valid client certificate.

The second expression uses the http.request.uri.path field, combined with the in operator, to capture the URI paths your mTLS rule applies to.

Because the action for your rule is Block, only requests that present a valid client certificate can access the specified hosts.

Check for revoked certificates

To check for revoked client certificates, you can either add a new mTLS rule or add a new expression to the default rule. To check for revoked certificates, you must use the Expression Builder.

When a request includes a revoked certificate, the cf.tls_client_auth.cert_revoked field is set to true. If you combined this with the default mTLS rule, it would look similar to the following:

((not cf.tls_client_auth.cert_verified or cf.tls_client_auth.cert_revoked) and http.request.uri.path in {"/admin"})

Warning

This check only applies to client certificates issued by the Cloudflare managed CA. Cloudflare currently does not check certificate revocation lists (CRL) for CAs that have been uploaded.