What is the most accurate way to retrieve a user's correct IP address in PHP?

Question

Here is a shorter, cleaner way to get the IP address:

function get_ip_address(){
    foreach (array('HTTP_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED', 'HTTP_X_CLUSTER_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_FORWARDED', 'REMOTE_ADDR') as $key){
        if (array_key_exists($key, $_SERVER) === true){
            foreach (explode(',', $_SERVER[$key]) as $ip){
                $ip = trim($ip); // just to be safe

                if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) !== false){
                    return $ip;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

---

Your code seems to be pretty complete already, I cannot see any possible bugs in it (aside from the usual IP caveats), I would change the validate_ip() function to rely on the filter extension though:

public function validate_ip($ip)
{
    if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) === false)
    {
        return false;
    }

    self::$ip = sprintf('%u', ip2long($ip)); // you seem to want this

    return true;
}

Also your HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR snippet can be simplified from this:

// check for IPs passing through proxies
if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
{
    // check if multiple ips exist in var
    if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'], ',') !== false)
    {
        $iplist = explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']);
        
        foreach ($iplist as $ip)
        {
            if ($this->validate_ip($ip))
                return $ip;
        }
    }
    
    else
    {
        if ($this->validate_ip($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
            return $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
    }
}

To this:

// check for IPs passing through proxies
if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
{
    $iplist = explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']);
        
    foreach ($iplist as $ip)
    {
        if ($this->validate_ip($ip))
            return $ip;
    }
}

You may also want to validate IPv6 addresses.

Even then however, getting a user's real IP address is going to be unreliable. All they need to do is use an anonymous proxy server (one that doesn't honor the headers for http_x_forwarded_for, http_forwarded, etc) and all you get is their proxy server's IP address.

You can then see if there is a list of proxy server IP addresses that are anonymous, but there is no way to be sure that is 100% accurate as well and the most it'd do is let you know it is a proxy server. And if someone is being clever, they can spoof headers for HTTP forwards.

Let's say I don't like the local college. I figure out what IP addresses they registered, and get their IP address banned on your site by doing bad things, because I figure out you honor the HTTP forwards. The list is endless.

Then there is, as you guessed, internal IP addresses such as the college network I metioned before. A lot use a 10.x.x.x format. So all you would know is that it was forwarded for a shared network.

Then I won't start much into it, but dynamic IP addresses are the way of broadband anymore. So. Even if you get a user IP address, expect it to change in 2 - 3 months, at the longest.

We use:

/**
 * Get the customer's IP address.
 *
 * @return string
 */
public function getIpAddress() {
    if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'])) {
        return $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
    } else if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
        $ips = explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']);
        return trim($ips[count($ips) - 1]);
    } else {
        return $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    }
}

The explode on HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR is because of weird issues we had detecting IP addresses when Squid was used.

My answer is basically just a polished, fully-validated, and fully-packaged, version of @AlixAxel's answer:

<?php

/* Get the 'best known' client IP. */

if (!function_exists('getClientIP'))
    {
        function getClientIP()
            {
                if (isset($_SERVER["HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP"])) 
                    {
                        $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] = $_SERVER["HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP"];
                    };

                foreach (array('HTTP_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED', 'HTTP_X_CLUSTER_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_FORWARDED', 'REMOTE_ADDR') as $key)
                    {
                        if (array_key_exists($key, $_SERVER)) 
                            {
                                foreach (explode(',', $_SERVER[$key]) as $ip)
                                    {
                                        $ip = trim($ip);

                                        if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) !== false)
                                            {
                                                return $ip;
                                            };
                                    };
                            };
                    };

                return false;
            };
    };

$best_known_ip = getClientIP();

if(!empty($best_known_ip))
    {
        $ip = $clients_ip = $client_ip = $client_IP = $best_known_ip;
    }
else
    {
        $ip = $clients_ip = $client_ip = $client_IP = $best_known_ip = '';
    };

?>

Changes:

• It simplifies the function name (with 'camelCase' formatting style).

• It includes a check to make sure the function isn't already declared in another part of your code.

• It takes into account 'CloudFlare' compatibility.

• It initializes multiple "IP-related" variable names to the returned value, of the 'getClientIP' function.

• It ensures that if the function doesn't return a valid IP address, all the variables are set to a empty string, instead of null.

• It's only (45) lines of code.

The biggest question is for what purpose?

Your code is nearly as comprehensive as it could be - but I see that if you spot what looks like a proxy added header, you use that INSTEAD of the CLIENT_IP, however if you want this information for audit purposes then be warned - its very easy to fake.

Certainly you should never use IP addresses for any sort of authentication - even these can be spoofed.

You could get a better measurement of the client ip address by pushing out a flash or java applet which connects back to the server via a non-http port (which would therefore reveal transparent proxies or cases where the proxy-injected headers are false - but bear in mind that, where the client can ONLY connect via a web proxy or the outgoing port is blocked, there will be no connection from the applet.

Thanks for this, very useful.

It would help though if the code were syntactically correct. As it is there's a { too many around line 20. Which I'm afraid means nobody actually tried this out.

I may be crazy, but after trying it on a few valid and invalid addresses, the only version of validate_ip() that worked was this:

    public function validate_ip($ip)
    {
        if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE) === false)
            return false;
        if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) === false)
            return false;
        if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4) === false && filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV6) === false)
            return false;

        return true;
    }