Techniques are provided for enabling application steering/blocking in a secure network which includes a network entity, and a first tunnel endpoint coupled to the network entity over an encrypted tunnel. The first tunnel endpoint associates at least a first Security Parameter Index (SPI) to a first application identifier to generate first mapping information (MI), communicates the first MI to the network entity, and transmits an encrypted message to the network entity over the encrypted tunnel. The encrypted message includes an encrypted packet and an unencrypted header including the first SPI. The network entity determines the first SPI from the unencrypted header, determines the first application identifier based on the first SPI and the first MI, and identifies a first application associated with the first application identifier. The network entity can still perform application steering/blocking even though traffic passing through the tunnel is encrypted.