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How are so many sites OK with using cloudflare when they are basically a MITM? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by spottyPotty@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum
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Regardless of whether or not you provide your own SSL certificates, cloudflare still uses their own between their servers and client browsers. So any SSL encrypted traffic is unencrypted at their end before being re-encrypted with your certificate. How can such an entity be trusted?

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[–] Cybasura@alien.top 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Thats not what a MITM is

A MITM is a Man-in-the-Middle Attack, someone whom you dont trust or dont know has hijacked your network connection to either read, remove or modify data from your network packets and then proxy-send it to your initial intended target

Cloudflare is a proxy server, a person you TRUST and designated to passthrough first to scan and check for network security before it redirects and pass your packets through to your intended target, like a gatekeeper

What, you gonna call all your gatekeepers, your bouncers, your proxy servers a MITM?

[–] WisdomSky@alien.top 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Get some reading comprehension. He said MITM and not MITM Attack. He's referring to Cloudflare as a middle man.

What OP is trying to say is why everyone is okay with using Cloudflare when it basically is a middle man where your traffic/requests go through and could potentially be sniffed at.

[–] Cybasura@alien.top 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, I read it properly, a MITM generally refers to MITM Attack and vice versa in cybersecurity, it is down to the individual to clarify if they meant otherwise and clearly, this case he is referencing to BEING A MITM for malicious purposes

[–] spottyPotty@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

To clarify, I did not mean MITM attack. It actually wouldn't make sense to say that cloudflare is a man in the middle attack, since it is a company and not an action.

I didn't include the word "attack" anywhere.

MITM is commonly used together with attack, so your misunderstanding is understandable. However the acronym just stands for Man In The Middle, which is why it is followed by "attack" in such situations.