apache ProxyPass: how to preserve original IP address

Question

We are using ProxyPass to redirect all "/r" requests to jboss on port 18080 as follows:

ProxyPreserveHost on ProxyPass /r http://localhost:18080/redirectService/ ProxyPassReverse /r http://localhost:18080/redirectService/ 

But, that causes the IP address logged in jboss's access log as "127.0.0.1". Does somebody know how can we preserve the original IP from where the request came in HttpServletRequest? We want to acesss it from jboss servlet request in doGet()

Answer 1

You can get the original host from X-Forwarded-For header field.

Answer 2

The answer of JasonW is fine. But since apache httpd 2.4.6 there is a alternative: mod_remoteip

All what you must do is:

1. May be you must install the mod_remoteip package

2. Enable the module:

   LoadModule remoteip_module modules/mod_remoteip.so 

3. Add the following to your apache httpd config. Note that you must add this line not into the configuration of the proxy server. You must add this to the configuration of the proxy target httpd server (the server behind the proxy):

   RemoteIPHeader X-Forwarded-For # replace IP with the remote server you trust RemoteIPInternalProxy 10.123.123.1/24 

See at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/mod_remoteip.html for more information and more options.

Security warning! Only do this for proxies you trust. Otherwise someone can fake their IP.