This article shows the method of securing Plex with Cloudflare tunnel. Bobcares, as a part of our Server Management Services, offers solutions to every query that comes our way.

Securing Plex With Cloudflare Tunnel

Installing a client and configuring it to create a secure connection with the upstream proxy are the prerequisites for a tunnel to operate on the server. Anyone with the address can still access our Plex login page even though tunnels are great for getting the origin on the public internet without breaching the firewall or forwarding ports on the router.

The following steps configure Cloudflare access to restrict access to our Plex to only us. For everyone else, a Cloudflare “access denied” page will be displayed.

• Free Cloudflare Zero Trust Account Creation
• Tunnel Setup
• Route Creation For Tunnel
• Cloudflare Access Application Creation

Free Cloudflare Zero Trust Account Creation

Firstly, create a free account by going to Cloudflare Zero Trust.

Tunnel Setup

The cloudflared Installation

# Install cloudflared
brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared
cloudflared tunnel login # this will open a browser for you to log in.

The cloudflared Configuration

# Ensure the config directory exists
mkdir -p ~/.cloudflared

# Create a new tunnel. Be sure to save the output of this
# command as it contains the Tunnel UUID needed in the next steps.
cloudflared tunnel create plex

TUNNEL_UUID=<tunnelUUID>
cat << EOF >~/.cloudflared/config.yaml
tunnel: ${TUNNEL_UUID}
credentials-file: /Users/${USER}/.cloudflared/${TUNNEL_UUID}.json

ingress:
- hostname: plex.example.com
service: http://localhost:32400
- service: http_status:404
EOF

# Install the service to run at login
cloudflared service install

Route Creation For Tunnel

We can use the below code to attach the tunnel to the provided hostname:

cloudflared tunnel route plex plex.example.com

Cloudflare Access Application Creation

Finally, create an app from the Zero Trust Dash to guarantee that nobody else can access our Plex origin server.

1. Choose Access >> Applications on the left-hand navigation and select “Add an Application”.

2. Then pick “Self-hosted” as the option.

3. Click “Next” after entering the needed details in the space provided.

4. Keep “Allow” as the rule action and type in a policy name before scrolling down to the “Create additional rules” section.

5. Pick “Email” from the dropdown menu, then type the email address into the box on the right.

6. Click “Add application” after selecting “Next” once again. The app should then appear in the dashboard after that.

Finally, go to the route we set up for the tunnel and enter the email we used to create the app policy. A code will then appear in the email. We will be taken directly to the Plex server after entering that code.

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Conclusion

The article provides a simple method to secure the Plex server using the Cloudflare tunnel. Keeping the entire stack secure, not just Plex is made possible by combining Cloudflare Tunnels and Cloudflare Access.