How to hide your origin IP behind a CDN

A CDN only hides origin if DNS points at the edge and the origin IP is firewalled to Cloud CDN pull.

Putting a CDN in front and leaving the origin A record in old emails is not hiding. Attackers and scrapers will use the IP they already have. Cut over, then restrict.

The public name is the distribution

Apex and www should flatten or CNAME to Cloud CDN. History records, staging names and forgotten subdomains are how origin stays public.

Firewall the pull

Allow Cloud CDN to fetch. Deny the world. If you use more than one CDN, allow every pull path. Validate origin TLS.

Look for leaks

Mail headers, old NS records, certificate transparency for unused hosts, and application code that prints server IPs. Clean those.

Emergency is easier when this is already done

If you are under attack and origin is still public, hiding it is part of the incident. Doing it on a quiet Tuesday is cheaper.

Frequently Asked Questions

Only if clients cannot reach the origin another way. Restriction is a separate step from CNAME.

Restrict AAAA as well as A. Dual-stack origins leak twice.

Yes, on a management path that is not the public website address. Do not punch 80/443 to the world.

Put this on Cloud CDN.

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