---
title: Hot-link protection
description: Block other websites from linking to your content. This is useful for protecting images.
image: https://edgetunnel-b2h.pages.dev/dev-products-preview.png
---

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# Hot-link protection

Block other websites from linking to your content. This is useful for protecting images.

If you want to get started quickly, click on the button below.

[![Deploy to Cloudflare](https://deploy.workers.cloudflare.com/button)](https://deploy.workers.cloudflare.com/?url=https://github.com/cloudflare/docs-examples/tree/main/workers/hot-link-protection)

This creates a repository in your GitHub account and deploys the application to Cloudflare Workers.

* [  JavaScript ](#tab-panel-12547)
* [  TypeScript ](#tab-panel-12548)
* [  Python ](#tab-panel-12549)
* [  Hono ](#tab-panel-12550)

**JavaScript**

```js
export default {
  async fetch(request) {
    const HOMEPAGE_URL = "https://tutorial.cloudflareworkers.com/";
    const PROTECTED_TYPE = "image/";


    // Fetch the original request
    const response = await fetch(request);


    // If it's an image, engage hotlink protection based on the
    // Referer header.
    const referer = request.headers.get("Referer");
    const contentType = response.headers.get("Content-Type") || "";


    if (referer && contentType.startsWith(PROTECTED_TYPE)) {
      // If the hostnames don't match, it's a hotlink
      if (new URL(referer).hostname !== new URL(request.url).hostname) {
        // Redirect the user to your website
        return Response.redirect(HOMEPAGE_URL, 302);
      }
    }


    // Everything is fine, return the response normally.
    return response;
  },
};
```

**TypeScript**

```ts
export default {
  async fetch(request): Promise<Response> {
    const HOMEPAGE_URL = "https://tutorial.cloudflareworkers.com/";
    const PROTECTED_TYPE = "image/";


    // Fetch the original request
    const response = await fetch(request);


    // If it's an image, engage hotlink protection based on the
    // Referer header.
    const referer = request.headers.get("Referer");
    const contentType = response.headers.get("Content-Type") || "";


    if (referer && contentType.startsWith(PROTECTED_TYPE)) {
      // If the hostnames don't match, it's a hotlink
      if (new URL(referer).hostname !== new URL(request.url).hostname) {
        // Redirect the user to your website
        return Response.redirect(HOMEPAGE_URL, 302);
      }
    }


    // Everything is fine, return the response normally.
    return response;
  },
} satisfies ExportedHandler;
```

**Python**

```py
from workers import WorkerEntrypoint, Response, fetch
from urllib.parse import urlparse


class Default(WorkerEntrypoint):
    async def fetch(self, request):
        homepage_url = "https://tutorial.cloudflareworkers.com/"
        protected_type = "image/"


        # Fetch the original request
        response = await fetch(request)


        # If it's an image, engage hotlink protection based on the referer header
        referer = request.headers["Referer"]
        content_type = response.headers["Content-Type"] or ""


        if referer and content_type.startswith(protected_type):
            # If the hostnames don't match, it's a hotlink
            if urlparse(referer).hostname != urlparse(request.url).hostname:
                # Redirect the user to your website
                return Response.redirect(homepage_url, 302)


        # Everything is fine, return the response normally
        return response
```

**TypeScript**

```ts
import { Hono } from 'hono';


const app = new Hono();


// Middleware for hot-link protection
app.use('*', async (c, next) => {
  const HOMEPAGE_URL = "https://tutorial.cloudflareworkers.com/";
  const PROTECTED_TYPE = "image/";


  // Continue to the next handler to get the response
  await next();


  // If we have a response, check for hotlinking
  if (c.res) {
    // If it's an image, engage hotlink protection based on the Referer header
    const referer = c.req.header("Referer");
    const contentType = c.res.headers.get("Content-Type") || "";


    if (referer && contentType.startsWith(PROTECTED_TYPE)) {
      // If the hostnames don't match, it's a hotlink
      if (new URL(referer).hostname !== new URL(c.req.url).hostname) {
        // Redirect the user to your website
        c.res = c.redirect(HOMEPAGE_URL, 302);
      }
    }
  }
});


// Default route handler that passes through the request to the origin
app.all('*', async (c) => {
  // Fetch the original request
  return fetch(c.req.raw);
});


export default app;
```

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```