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Ylli_Seitaj
Staff
Staff
March 24, 2025

Technical Tip: How to allow iCloud private relay

  • September 8, 2026 at 6:47 AM
  • 1 reply
  • 14568 views

Description

This article describes how to configure the FortiGate Firewall to allow iCloud Private Relay.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

Allowing iCloud Private Relay using dedicated Firewall Policies:

Go to: Policy & Objects -> Firewall Policy and select Create new to create a new Firewall Policy. Since there is no specific Internet Service for iCloud Private Relay, select all Apple Internet Services as destinations.


Screenshot_1.png

 

After adding the Apple Internet Service, the Firewall Policy will look as below:

 

Screenshot_2.png

 

Select OK, and the Firewall Policy will be created.

 

Note:

Make sure this policy is on top of other policies for traffic to hit this and allow traffic as required.

 

Additionally, add a different firewall policy with the list of URLs:

  • configuration.ls.apple.com

  • gateway.icloud.com

  • gsp85-ssl.ls.apple.com

  • iphone-Id.apple.com

  • mask-api.icloud.com

  • mask-t.apple-dns.net

  • mask.icloud.com

  • mask-h2.icloud.com


Use this CLI template over the CLI console to create all the relevant address objects, and an address object group "iCloud_PR_group":


config firewall address
    edit 'configuration.ls.apple.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "configuration.ls.apple.com"
    next
    edit 'gateway.icloud.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "gateway.icloud.com"
    next
    edit 'gsp85-ssl.ls.apple.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "gsp85-ssl.ls.apple.com"
    next
    edit 'iphone-Id.apple.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "iphone-Id.apple.com"
    next
    edit 'mask-t.apple-dns.net'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "mask-t.apple-dns.net"
    next
    edit 'mask.icloud.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "mask.icloud.com"
    next
    edit 'mask-h2.icloud.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "mask-h2.icloud.com"
    next
    edit 'mask-api.icloud.com'
        set type fqdn
        set fqdn "mask-api.icloud.com"
    next
end

config firewall addrgrp
    edit 'iCloud_PR_group'
        set member configuration.ls.apple.com gateway.icloud.com gsp85-ssl.ls.apple.com iphone-Id.apple.com mask-t.apple-dns.net mask.icloud.com mask-h2.icloud.com mask-api.icloud.com
    next
end


Example Firewall policy using created address group:

config firewall policy
    edit <index>
        set name "Apple-Private-Relay-Allow"
        set srcintf "TEST123"
        set dstintf "wan"
        set action accept
        set srcaddr "all"
        set dstaddr "iCloud_PR_group"
        set schedule "always"
        set service "ALL"
        set logtraffic all
        set nat enable
    next
end


It is recommended to modify the firewall policy above to match the environment. For example, 'srcaddr' can be updated from 'all' if only some subnets or endpoints are intended to have access to the bypass policy allowing access to iCloud Private relay destinations.

Allowing iCloud Private Relay using a general outbound Firewall policy:

In some cases, a dedicated firewall policy may not be sufficient to allow iCloud Private Relay. For example, the endpoint may resolve an iCloud Private Relay domain to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) address instead of an Apple address, or IP address may also differ from the one resolved by the FortiGate FQDN address object. If the traffic does not match the intended firewall policies, it may fall through to a more general outbound internet policy.

If a web filter is in use on the general outbound internet policy, one or more of the Private Relay domains defined above may be blocked. This is visible in Log & Report -> Security Events -> Web Filter.

This can be resolved using one of the following methods:

  • add iCloud Private Relay domains to the Static URL filter with the Exempt action. This action is appropriate if security inspection is not required for these domains.

  • add iCloud Private Relay domains as a Web rating override with an Allow or Monitor action. This action is appropriate if security inspection is required but the domains are still intended be allowed through the web filter.


If a certificate-probe failure for iCloud Private Relay traffic is seen in Log & Report -> Security Events -> SSL, refer to Troubleshooting Tip: How to fix 'SSL connection is blocked due to unable to retrieve servers certificate' received in the SSL Events and consider allowing cert-probe-failure in the SSL/SSH profile.

Related article:

Technical Tip: How to block iCloud Private Relay from bypassing the Security Inspection 

    1 reply

    MrJeff01
    New Member
    May 19, 2026

    I tried this and it did not work for me at first. I opened a support case then found the old “Its always DNS” applies here too. 

     

    To hopefully save some others some time….
    If you are using an internal DNS server this won’t work. For this to work, you need to either use a public DNS server or use the DNS server service on the Fortigate so that it can see the DNS query for Apple services to apply the policy to allow it. If using an internal DNS server it won’t see the query coming from the device IP address and won’t apply this policy.

     

    It is possible to set up the FortiGate as a AD slave zone and link it to AD, since I can see this being an issue for some.

    https://community.fortinet.com/fortigate-3/technical-tip-dns-database-with-fortigate-as-a-slave-to-a-windows-ad-dns-master-95224

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