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This page describes best practices for using Identity-Aware Proxy
(IAP).
Caching
Don't use a third-party CDN in front of your application. CDNs may cache
content and serve cached pages to unauthenticated users.
If you have large, non-sensitive resources that you want to serve from a
CDN, use a separate domain such as images.yourapp.com for these
resources. Use the CDN with that domain and add the Cache-control:
private HTTP response header to all objects that should only be served
to authenticated users.
For additional protection, check the source IP of requests in your app to make sure
they're from the same IP range that the firewall rule allows.
In the Google Cloud console, IAP displays an error or warning if your firewall
rules appear to be set up incorrectly. The IAP Google Cloud console doesn't
detect which VM is used for each service, so the firewall analysis doesn't include advanced
features like non-default networks and firewall rule tags. To bypass this analysis, enable
IAP through the
gcloud compute backend-services update
command.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eIdentity-Aware Proxy (IAP) best practices are outlined on this page, including caching, securing applications, and firewall configuration.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAvoid using third-party CDNs directly in front of applications protected by IAP to prevent serving cached content to unauthenticated users.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTo properly secure applications, use signed headers for App Engine standard environment, Compute Engine, and GKE.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEnsure all requests to Compute Engine or GKE are routed through the load balancer and verify traffic is from a Google Front End (GFE) IP.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIAP will display errors or warnings if firewall rules appear to be set incorrectly, however, not all advanced features are detectable.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Best practices\n\nThis page describes best practices for using Identity-Aware Proxy\n(IAP).\n\nCaching\n-------\n\n- Don't use a third-party CDN in front of your application. CDNs may cache content and serve cached pages to unauthenticated users.\n - If you have large, non-sensitive resources that you want to serve from a CDN, use a separate domain such as `images.yourapp.com` for these resources. Use the CDN with that domain and add the `Cache-control:\n private` HTTP response header to all objects that should only be served to authenticated users.\n\nSecuring your app\n-----------------\n\nTo properly secure your app, you must use [signed headers](/iap/docs/signed-headers-howto)\nfor [App Engine standard environment](/appengine/docs/about-the-standard-environment),\nCompute Engine, and GKE applications.\n\nConfiguring your firewall\n-------------------------\n\n- Make sure all requests to Compute Engine or GKE are routed through the load balancer:\n - [Configure a firewall rule to allow health checking](/load-balancing/docs/health-checks) and make sure that all traffic to your Virtual Machine (VM) is from a Google Front End (GFE) IP.\n - For additional protection, check the source IP of requests in your app to make sure they're from the same IP range that the firewall rule allows.\n- In the Google Cloud console, IAP displays an error or warning if your firewall rules appear to be set up incorrectly. The IAP Google Cloud console doesn't detect which VM is used for each service, so the firewall analysis doesn't include advanced features like non-default networks and firewall rule tags. To bypass this analysis, enable IAP through the `gcloud compute backend-services update` command."]]
