Zero Trust Introduction — Network Access Overview

Cloudflare Zero Trust is a security framework that replaces traditional VPNs with identity-aware access controls, verifying every request before granting access to private network resources regardless of user location.

What You Will Learn

You will learn the core principles of Zero Trust security, how Cloudflare implements them through Access, Gateway, and Tunnel products, and how to deploy a basic Zero Trust architecture for your organisation.

Why It Matters

Traditional VPNs grant broad network access once a user authenticates, creating a security risk if credentials are compromised. Zero Trust verifies every request individually, reducing the Blast Radius of any single breach.

Real-World Use Case

A remote-first company replaced their OpenVPN infrastructure with Cloudflare Zero Trust. Employees connect through WARP, gaining access to only the internal applications their role requires. The company eliminated VPN server maintenance and reduced their attack surface by 95%.

How Zero Trust Works

Zero Trust operates on the principle of never trust, always verify. Every connection request is authenticated, authorised, and encrypted before reaching its destination.

flowchart LR
  A[User] -->|Request| B[Cloudflare Edge]
  B --> C{Identity Check}
  C -->|Valid| D{Device Posture}
  D -->|Compliant| E{Policy Evaluation}
  E -->|Allowed| F[Private Resource]
  C -->|Invalid| G[Blocked]
  D -->|Non-Compliant| G
  E -->|Denied| G

Core Components

Cloudflare Zero Trust consists of three integrated products:

These components work together to create a complete Zero Trust architecture with no exposed IP addresses and no VPN appliances.

Step-by-Step Zero Trust Setup

1. Create a Zero Trust Organisation

Sign in to the Cloudflare dashboard and navigate to Zero Trust. Create your organisation and choose a team name. This team name becomes your authentication domain.

# Verify your Zero Trust organisation is accessible
curl -s https://<team-name>.cloudflareaccess.com/cdn-cgi/access | grep -o 'auth-domain'

Expected output:

auth-domain

2. Configure an Identity Provider

Connect your identity provider to Cloudflare Zero Trust. Supported providers include Azure AD, Okta, Google Workspace, and generic OIDC/SAML.

# Test the IdP connection using the Cloudflare API
curl -s -X GET "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/access/identity-providers" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" | jq '.result[] | {name: .name, type: .type}'

Expected output:

{
  "name": "Azure AD",
  "type": "azureAD"
}

3. Create an Access Policy

Define who can access specific applications based on identity, device posture, and location.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/access/policies" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Engineering Access",
    "decision": "allow",
    "include": [{"email_domain": {"domain": "company.com"}}],
    "require": [{"auth_method": {"auth_method": "mfa"}}]
  }' | jq '.success'

Expected output:

true

Common Mistakes

Practice Questions

1. What is the fundamental difference between a VPN and Cloudflare Zero Trust in terms of access control?
2. Which three Cloudflare products form the core of the Zero Trust architecture?
3. Why must device posture checks be part of a Zero Trust policy rather than just identity verification?

Challenge

Deploy a Cloudflare Tunnel to a local web server, configure an Access policy that requires both Google Workspace authentication and WARP device posture, and verify that a non-compliant device is blocked while a compliant device gains access. Document the end-to-end flow.

Real-World Task

Your company currently runs an OpenVPN server for 200 remote employees. Migrate to Cloudflare Zero Trust. Deploy Cloudflare Tunnel for three internal applications, configure Access policies that restrict access by team membership, enable Gateway DNS filtering to block malware domains, and enforce WARP client installation on all company laptops.

FAQ

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