How to Get Client IP Address Accurately in Laravel?

Obtaining Client IP Address in Laravel 5

Getting a client's IP address in Laravel may seem straightforward using $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]. However, unlike core PHP, Laravel returns the server's IP instead of the visitor's.

To address this issue, Laravel employs Request::ip(). This method utilizes Symfony's Request Object to determine the client's IP address.

Internally, Request::ip() invokes getClientIps(), which employs a robust approach to extract the client's IP address. It first fetches the server's IP address (REMOTE_ADDR) and checks if a trusted proxy is used.

If a trusted proxy is detected, the request headers are inspected based on Laravel's trusted header configuration. Specific headers, such as X-Forwarded-For and X-Client-IP, are parsed to extract the client's IP address.

However, these headers may be unreliable, especially if the client is behind multiple proxies. Therefore, the request's IP address is added as the last element in the $clientIps array.

The client's IP address is then selected as the first element in $clientIps. This IP address may be the request's IP or one of the trusted proxies.

To ensure accuracy, each IP address in $clientIps is validated against a list of trusted proxies. If an IP address belongs to a trusted proxy, it is removed from the array.

Ultimately, Request::ip() returns an array of IP addresses. The first element of this array represents the untrusted client IP address, followed by the IPs of any trusted proxies.

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