Nginx set_real_ip_from AWS ELB load balancer address

I have a set of Nginx servers behind an Amazon ELB load balancer. I am using set_real_ip (from the HttpRealIpModule) so that I can access the originating client IP address on these servers (for passing through to php-fpm and for use in the HttpGeoIPModule).

It seems that set_real_ip_from in the nginx configuration can only accept an IP address. However, with regard to ELB machines Amazon say:

Note: Because the set of IP addresses associated with a LoadBalancer can change over time, you should never create an "A" record with any specific IP address. If you want to use a friendly DNS name for your LoadBalancer instead of the name generated by the Elastic Load Balancing service, you should create a CNAME record for the LoadBalancer DNS name, or use Amazon Route 53 to create a hosted zone. For more information, see the Using Domain Names With Elastic Load Balancing

But if I need to input an IP address I can't use a CNAME (either amazon's or my own). Is there a solution to this problem?

Solution 1:

If you can guarantee that all requests will be coming from ELB (I'm not familiar with it), you could try:

real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
set_real_ip_from 0.0.0.0/0;

That should tell nginx to trust an X-Forwarded-For header from anyone. The downside is that if anyone directly accesses your server, they would be able to spoof an X-Forwarded-For header and nginx would use the wrong client ip address.

Solution 2:

Today's best practice is to use VPC, so, then, you will know the exact CIDR for your ELB. Then, you can add something like this to your Nginx configuration file:

real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
set_real_ip_from 10.0.0.0/8;

Solution 3:

Use the VPC CIDR for set_real_ip_from You can find it in Amazon console under VPC => Your VPC (replace <your VPC CIDR here> with it):

real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
set_real_ip_from <your VPC CIDR here>;

Solution 4:

The realip_module states that in case of X-Forwarded-For, this module uses the last ip address in the X-Forwarded-For header for replacement. This module will not work when only real_ip_header and set_real_ip_form are set. This is because this module will use a proxy IP address instead of a client IP. To solve this real_ip_recursive directive should be enabled.

Further, if you have SSL certificates that are deployed and renewed on the instance (like say letsencrypt or certbot certificates). These certificate authorities might try to validate those certificates via IPV6.

So it is important to also have IPV6. So the Nginx config file should also contain set_real_ip_from IPV6 address.

real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
real_ip_recursive on;
set_real_ip_from <your VPC IPV4 CIDR here>;
set_real_ip_from <your VPC IPV6 CIDR here>;

if additional security resitrictions apply, we may also need to include set_real_ip_from VPC CIDR (both IPV4 and IPV6) for cloudfront/elb/ec2 subnets.