Skip to main content
Geoblocking is available in Pangolin community! Make sure to follow this guide for how to enable: Enabling Geo Blocking

​
Benefits of Geo Blocking

Geo blocking provides several important security and compliance advantages:

​
Security Benefits

  • Reduce Attack Surface: Block access from regions with high levels of malicious activity or where you don’t expect legitimate users
  • Prevent Unauthorized Access: Limit exposure to threat actors operating from specific geographic locations
  • Compliance Requirements: Meet regulatory requirements that restrict data access based on geographic location
  • Resource Protection: Prevent unnecessary load on your services from regions where you don’t operate

​
Implementing Geo Blocking with Bypass Rules

Geo blocking in Pangolin is implemented using bypass rules with country-based matching. You can create rules that either allow or deny access based on the visitor’s country.
Pangolin Dashboard

Screenshot of resources rules from the Pangolin Dashboard.

​
Setting Up Geo Blocking Rules

  1. Navigate to your target resource and select the Rules tab
  2. Create a new rule and select Country as the match type
  3. Choose your rule action:
    • Allow: Bypass authentication for users from specific countries
    • Deny: Block all access from specific countries
    • Pass to Auth: Let users from specific countries proceed to authentication

​
Common Geo Blocking Patterns

​
Allow Only Specific Countries

Create a “Deny” rule that blocks all countries except those you want to allow:
  1. Create a Deny rule
  2. Select Country match type
  3. Choose “ALL” to match all countries
  4. Add priority: 100 (lower priority)
Then create specific allow rules for your approved countries:
  1. Create Allow rules for each approved country
  2. Set higher priority (e.g., 10, 20, 30) so they process first

​
Block Specific High-Risk Countries

Create targeted deny rules for specific countries while allowing all others:
  1. Create Deny rules for each country you want to block
  2. Select the specific countries from the dropdown
  3. Set appropriate priorities

​
Regional Access Control

Combine geo blocking with other rule types for sophisticated access control:
  1. Path + Country: Block admin paths (/admin/*) from all countries except your headquarters
  2. IP + Country: Allow specific IPs from restricted countries (for VPN users or partners)
  3. CIDR + Country: Combine network-based and geography-based restrictions

​
Best Practices

IP geolocation is not always 100% accurate. Users with VPNs, proxies, or mobile networks may appear to be from different countries than expected.

​
Rule Priority Example

Priority 1: Allow - Country: United States
Priority 2: Allow - Country: Canada  
Priority 3: Allow - Country: United Kingdom
Priority 4: Deny - Country: ALL
This configuration allows access only from the US, Canada, and UK while blocking all other countries.
⌘I