COS allows you to configure hotlink protection for your bucket. You can set a blocklist and allowlist for access sources to prevent resource hotlinking. This document describes how to configure hotlink protection for a bucket.
How Does Hotlink Protection Work
Hotlink protection works by checking the Referer address in the request header:
Referer is a part of the header. When a browser sends a request to a web server, it usually carries a Referer to tell the server which page the request comes from, so that the server can decide to deny or allow the access to resources.
If you open the file link https://examplebucket-1250000000.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/1.jpg directly in a browser, the request header will not have a Referer.
For example, in the figure below, the image 1.jpg is embedded in https://127.0.0.1/test/test.html, and a Referer pointing to the access origin will be carried when you access https://127.0.0.1/test/test.html:
Hotlink Protection Case Study
User A uploaded the image resource 1.jpg to COS, and the accessible link to the image is https://examplebucket-1250000000.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/1.jpg.
User A embedded the image in their webpage https://example.com/index.html and the image is accessible.
User B saw the image on user A's webpage and decided to embed it in their own webpage https://b.com/test/test.html, and user B's webpage can also display the image properly.
In the above case, user A's image resource 1.jpg was hotlinked by user B. User A doesn't know that their resource in COS is being used by user B's webpage and suffers from losses caused by extra traffic fees.
Solution
In the above Hotlink Protection Case Study, user A can prevent user B from hotlinking their image by setting hotlink protection in the following way:
1. Set a hotlink protection rule for the bucket "examplebucket-1250000000". There are two options for preventing user B from hotlinking:
Option 1: configure a blacklist by entering the domain name *.b.com, and save it.
Option 2: configure a whitelist, enter *.example.com for the domain name, and save.
2. After hotlink protection is enabled:
The image can be displayed properly when https://example.com/index.html is accessed.
The image cannot be displayed when https://b.com/test/test.html is accessed, as shown below:
Directions
1. Log in to the COS Console and click Bucket List on the left sidebar to enter the bucket list page.
2. Select the bucket for which to configure hotlink protection and enter it.
3. Click Security Management > Hotlink Protection on the left.
4. In the Hotlink Protection area, click Edit.
5. Enable hotlink protection and configure the list type and domain name. Here, select Option 2 as detailed below:
Type: blocklist or allowlist
Blocklist: It prohibits domain names in the list to access the default access address of the bucket. If a domain name in the list accesses the default access address of the bucket, a 403 error will be returned.
Allowlist: It prohibits domain names not in the list to access the default access address of the bucket. If a domain name not in the list accesses the default access address of the bucket, a 403 error will be returned.
Referer : Up to 10 domain names can be set and they will be matched by a prefix. Domain names, IPs, and asterisk * are supported formats (one address per line). Below are configuration rule description and examples:
Domain names and IPs with a specific port are supported, such as example.com:8080 and 10.10.10.10:8080.
If example.com is configured, addresses prefixed with example.com can be hit, such as example.com/123.
If example.com is configured, addresses prefixed with https://example.com and http://example.com can be hit.
If example.com is configured, the domain name with a specific port can also be hit, such as example.com:8080.
If example.com:8080 is configured, the domain name example.com cannot be hit.
If *.example.com is configured, its second-level and third-level domain names can be restricted, such as example.com, b.example.com, and a.b.example.com.
Note:
After hotlink protection is enabled, the corresponding domain names must be entered.
6. After completing the configuration, click Save.
FAQs
For questions about hotlink protection, see the Data Security section in COS FAQs.
