Using WebBlocker to block access to YouTube Shorts

cordistechcordistech
edited February 28 in Firebox - Subscription Services

I work in IT for a K12 institution. We recently began using WatchGuard on our network and are using WebBlocker as our content filter. I am attempting to set up a deny exception that will block access to YouTube Shorts without blocking access to the rest of YouTube. I have tried entering few different patterns with no luck. Some of the patterns I have tried include:

youtube.com/shorts/*
youtube.com/shorts* /* (spaces added so address would display correctly)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/*

Anyone on this forum know how to successfully write an exception that will deny access to YouTube Shorts, but allow access to the rest of YouTube? Thank you!

Comments

  • Bruce_BriggsBruce_Briggs

    HTTPS traffic is encrypted between the web browser and the web server, so the firewall does not know what URL is being accessed.
    Without Inspect being enabled on a HTTPS proxy, the only info that the firewall can match on is the CN (Common Name) or SNI (Server Name Indication) fields in the web server certificate for the web server being accessed.
    Neither of these will provide info on anything beyond the domain name, such as "/shorts".
    And the CN or SNI may not even have the domain name that you are accessing - for example when accessing Youtube.com, the CN in the cert is *.google.com

    To implement Inspect on a HTTPS proxy, you would need to have a certificate from the firewall installed on all devices behind the firewall which you would want to prevent access to youtube.com/shorts

    Review this:
    HTTPS-Proxy: Content Inspection
    https://www.watchguard.com/help/docs/help-center/en-US/Content/en-US/Fireware/proxies/https/https_proxy_contentinspection_c.html

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