Logging Actual Client IP Address on the Apache Server

To extract and log the actual client IP address from the X-Forwarded-For header of a request using an Apache server, make the following changes to the server:

1. Log into the Apache server.

2. Go to /etc/httpd/conf or /usr/local/apache2/conf path and open the file httpd.conf.

3. Search for the string: “LogFormat “%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined”

4. Change the %h to %{X-Forwarded-For}i. The string now appears as “LogFormat "%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined”

5. Save the file and restart apache or httpd.