Medianova Hotlink Protection

If you wish to restrict access to your CDN Resource exclusively through links on your website, you have the option to establish hotlink protection for that specific CDN Resource. The functionality of hotlink protection relies on the "Referer:" header present in each HTTP request.

Hotlink protection is a security feature to prevent unauthorized use of hosted media files, such as images, videos, or other static content. The term "hotlinking" refers to the practice of directly embedding or linking to these files from external websites, without the owner's permission.

Hotlink protection works by checking the "Referer" header in the HTTP request. The "Referer" header indicates the URL of the webpage making the request. When hotlink protection is enabled, the server verifies whether the request is coming from an allowed source (whitelisted domains) or a restricted source (blacklisted domains). If the request is from an unauthorized source, the server can take various actions, such as blocking access, redirecting to a specified page, or serving a placeholder image.

This feature helps website owners and content providers control how their resources are used, preventing others from using their bandwidth and server resources to display content on external sites without permission. Hotlink protection is particularly useful for conserving bandwidth, reducing server load, and maintaining control over the distribution of digital assets.

This feature can be conveniently configured by selecting your CDN Resource and navigating to the Security menu.