How to Enable HTTPS Access in Secure Web Proxy Rules?

Why the Answer Is Correct

Secure Web Proxy evaluates rules sequentially based on priority, but HTTPS traffic will only match a rule if that rule explicitly has TLS inspection enabled. Without TLS inspection enabled, the proxy skips the rule entirely and falls through to the default deny-all policy, causing access failures. Modifying the updates-1 rule to include TLS inspection allows the proxy to decrypt, classify, and apply the security policy to the requested HTTPS endpoints. This behavior ensures that only decrypted traffic can be inspected against your organization's security policies.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Deleting the updates-limiter rule does not resolve the issue because limiter rules typically handle bandwidth throttling or rate limiting, not access control, and they do not intercept un-inspected HTTPS traffic. Adjusting the priority of the limiter rule to 1000 merely changes its position in the rule chain without addressing the missing decryption capability. Checking Cloud NAT logs or assigning a public IP is irrelevant since Secure Web Proxy handles routing and policy enforcement independently of the VM's public IP status. These actions fail to address the root cause, which is the lack of decryption configuration on the active rule.

Community Comment Notes

Candidate [1] correctly highlights the official documentation stating that HTTPS traffic requires the TLS inspection flag to be enabled for rule evaluation. Several users initially voted for Option A due to misinterpreting the rule names, but subsequent verification confirmed that TLS inspection is the actual blocker. The consensus aligns with GCP best practices for deploying Secure Web Proxy with encrypted web traffic.