Tunnel permissions
Cloudflare Tunnel requires two files:
- An account certificate (the
cert.pem) - A tunnel credentials file (
<TUNNEL-UUID>.json) for each tunnel
The account certificate (cert.pem) gives power to manage Tunnels to the admin of the account for which it is issued. As an admin, make sure you are intentional about the locations and machines you store this certificate on, as this certificate allows users to create and manage any number of tunnels for that account.
Each cloudflared tunnel create command generates a tunnel credential. The tunnel credential only allows the user to run that specific tunnel, and do nothing else. Hence, as an admin, you can share tunnel credentials with the users that will run the tunnels.
Refer to the table below for a comparison between the two files and the purposes for which they are intended.
| Account certificate | Tunnel certificate | |
|---|---|---|
| File name | cert.pem | <TUNNEL-UUID>.json |
| Purpose | Authenticates your instance of cloudflared against your Cloudflare account | Authenticates the tunnel it is associated with |
| Scope | Account-wide | Tunnel-specific |
| File type | .pem | .json |
| Stored in | Default directory | Default directory |
| Issued when running | cloudflared tunnel login | cloudflared tunnel create <NAME> |
| Valid for | At least 10 years, and the service token it contains is valid until revoked | Does not expire |
| Needed to | Manage tunnels (for example, create, route, delete and list tunnels) | Run a tunnel. Create a config file. |
Tunnel ownership
Tunnel ownership is bound to the Cloudflare account for which the cert.pem file was issued upon authenticating cloudflared. If a user in a Cloudflare account creates a tunnel, any other user in the same account who has access to the cert.pem file for the account can delete, list, or otherwise manage tunnels within it.