CloudFlare and logging visitor IP addresses via in PHP

Question

I'm trying to track and log users/visitors that are accessing my website using PHP's $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] to do so. A typical method for IP address tracking in PHP.

However, I am using CloudFlare for caching and such and receiving their IP addresses as CloudFlare's:

108.162.212.* - 108.162.239.*

What would be a correct method of retrieving the actual users/visitors IP address while still using CloudFlare?

Answer 1

Extra server variables that are available to cloud flare are:

$_SERVER["HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP"] real visitor ip address, this is what you want

$_SERVER["HTTP_CF_IPCOUNTRY"] country of visitor

$_SERVER["HTTP_CF_RAY"]

$_SERVER["HTTP_CF_VISITOR"] this can help you know if its http or https

you can use it like this:

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

If you do this, and the validity of the visiting IP address is important, you might need to verify that the $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] contains an actual valid cloudflare IP address, because anyone can fake the header if he was able to connect directly to the server IP.