Proxy status
When you proxy an A, AAAA, or CNAME DNS record for your application (also known as orange-clouding), DNS queries for these records will resolve to Cloudflare Anycast IPs instead of their original DNS target.
This means that all requests intended for proxied hostnames will go to Cloudflare first and then be forwarded to your origin server. This behavior allows Cloudflare to optimize, cache, and protect all requests for your application.
When to proxy your DNS records
In most cases, you should proxy your A, AAAA, and CNAME records. These are the only records that can be proxied.
Beyond the performance and caching benefits , proxying your records hides your origin server’s IP address and protects your application from DDoS attacks.
Limitations
Pending domains
Every zone onboarded onto Cloudflare will initially be in pending state until we can verify ownership. This means that DNS records are not proxied until your zone has been activated and any requests to your DNS records will return your origin server’s IP address.
For enhanced security, we recommend rolling your origin IP addresses at your hosting provider after your zone has been activated. This action prevents your origin IPs from being leaked during onboarding.
Windows authentication
Because Microsoft Integrated Windows Authentication, NTLM, and Kerberos violate HTTP/1.1 specifications, they are not compatible with proxied DNS records.
To solve this issue, we recommend using Cloudflare Zero Trust .
When to use unproxied records
In some circumstances, you should not proxy your DNS records.
A, AAAA, and CNAME records
If you need to connect to your origin using a non-HTTP protocol (SSH, FTP, SMTP) or the traffic targets an unsupported port at the origin, either leave your records unproxied (DNS-only) or use Cloudflare Spectrum .
Other record types
Because Cloudflare only supports proxied A, AAAA, and CNAME records, you do not have the option to proxy other record types.