In ASP.NET there is a System.Web.HttpRequest
class, which contains ServerVariables
property which can provide us the IP address from REMOTE_ADDR
property value.
However, I could not find a similar way to get the IP address of the remote host from ASP.NET Web API.
How can I get the IP address of the remote host that is making the request?
It's possible to do that, but not very discoverable - you need to use the property bag from the incoming request, and the property you need to access depends on whether you're using the Web API under IIS (webhosted) or self-hosted. The code below shows how this can be done.
private string GetClientIp(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey("MS_HttpContext"))
{
return ((HttpContextWrapper)request.Properties["MS_HttpContext"]).Request.UserHostAddress;
}
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(RemoteEndpointMessageProperty.Name))
{
RemoteEndpointMessageProperty prop;
prop = (RemoteEndpointMessageProperty)request.Properties[RemoteEndpointMessageProperty.Name];
return prop.Address;
}
return null;
}
This solution also covers Web API self-hosted using Owin. Partially from here.
You can create a private method in you ApiController
that will return remote IP address no matter how you host your Web API:
private const string HttpContext = "MS_HttpContext";
private const string RemoteEndpointMessage =
"System.ServiceModel.Channels.RemoteEndpointMessageProperty";
private const string OwinContext = "MS_OwinContext";
private string GetClientIp(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
// Web-hosting
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(HttpContext ))
{
HttpContextWrapper ctx =
(HttpContextWrapper)request.Properties[HttpContext];
if (ctx != null)
{
return ctx.Request.UserHostAddress;
}
}
// Self-hosting
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(RemoteEndpointMessage))
{
RemoteEndpointMessageProperty remoteEndpoint =
(RemoteEndpointMessageProperty)request.Properties[RemoteEndpointMessage];
if (remoteEndpoint != null)
{
return remoteEndpoint.Address;
}
}
// Self-hosting using Owin
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(OwinContext))
{
OwinContext owinContext = (OwinContext)request.Properties[OwinContext];
if (owinContext != null)
{
return owinContext.Request.RemoteIpAddress;
}
}
return null;
}
References required:
HttpContextWrapper - System.Web.dll
RemoteEndpointMessageProperty - System.ServiceModel.dll
OwinContext - Microsoft.Owin.dll (you will have it already if you use Owin package)
A little problem with this solution is that you have to load libraries for all 3 cases when you will actually be using only one of them during runtime. As suggested here, this can be overcome by using dynamic
variables. You can also write GetClientIpAddress
method as an extension for HttpRequestMethod
.
using System.Net.Http;
public static class HttpRequestMessageExtensions
{
private const string HttpContext = "MS_HttpContext";
private const string RemoteEndpointMessage =
"System.ServiceModel.Channels.RemoteEndpointMessageProperty";
private const string OwinContext = "MS_OwinContext";
public static string GetClientIpAddress(this HttpRequestMessage request)
{
// Web-hosting. Needs reference to System.Web.dll
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(HttpContext))
{
dynamic ctx = request.Properties[HttpContext];
if (ctx != null)
{
return ctx.Request.UserHostAddress;
}
}
// Self-hosting. Needs reference to System.ServiceModel.dll.
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(RemoteEndpointMessage))
{
dynamic remoteEndpoint = request.Properties[RemoteEndpointMessage];
if (remoteEndpoint != null)
{
return remoteEndpoint.Address;
}
}
// Self-hosting using Owin. Needs reference to Microsoft.Owin.dll.
if (request.Properties.ContainsKey(OwinContext))
{
dynamic owinContext = request.Properties[OwinContext];
if (owinContext != null)
{
return owinContext.Request.RemoteIpAddress;
}
}
return null;
}
}
Now you can use it like this:
public class TestController : ApiController
{
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("TestRemoteIp")]
public string TestRemoteIp()
{
return Request.GetClientIpAddress();
}
}
using System.Net.Http;
line because your are extending HttpRequestMessage
. Unless your are defining your extension in System.Net.Http
namespace which is very questionable. Not sure that it is essential though, because it will be automatically added by any IDE or productivity tool. What do you think?
If you really want a one-liner and don't plan to self-host Web API:
((System.Web.HttpContextWrapper)Request.Properties["MS_HttpContext"]).Request.UserHostAddress;
Above answers require a reference to System.Web to be able to cast the property to HttpContext or HttpContextWrapper. If you don't want the reference, you are able to get the ip using a dynamic:
var host = ((dynamic)request.Properties["MS_HttpContext"]).Request.UserHostAddress;
When the server is behind a proxy or a load balancer the marked solution will return the internal IP address of the proxy. In our case, our production environment is using a load balancer and our development and test environments are not so I've amended the marked solution to fit both cases in the same code.
public string GetSourceIp(HttpRequestMessage httpRequestMessage)
{
string result = string.Empty;
// Detect X-Forwarded-For header
if (httpRequestMessage.Headers.TryGetValues("X-Forwarded-For", out IEnumerable<string> headerValues))
{
result = headerValues.FirstOrDefault();
}
// Web-hosting
else if (httpRequestMessage.Properties.ContainsKey("MS_HttpContext"))
{
result = ((HttpContextWrapper)httpRequestMessage.Properties["MS_HttpContext"]).Request.UserHostAddress;
}
// Self-hosting
else if (httpRequestMessage.Properties.ContainsKey(RemoteEndpointMessageProperty.Name))
{
RemoteEndpointMessageProperty prop;
prop = (RemoteEndpointMessageProperty)httpRequestMessage.Properties[RemoteEndpointMessageProperty.Name];
result = prop.Address;
}
return result;
}
The solution provided by carlosfigueira works, but type-safe one-liners are better: Add a using System.Web
then access HttpContext.Current.Request.UserHostAddress
in your action method.
HttpContext.Current
is not persisted correctly throughout the task pipeline; since all request handling is asynchronous. HttpContext.Current
should almost always be avoided when writing Web API code.
SynchronizationContext
is flowed correctly between tasks); the biggest issue with this is if your service code is ever likely to be self-hosted (testing, for example) - HttpContext.Current
is a purely Asp.Net construct and doesn't exist when you self-host.
NullReferenceException
if used from a thread (e.g. a task awaiter, very common in modern Web API code) or in a self-hosted context. At least most of the other answers will just return null
.
Success story sharing
RemoteEndpointMessageProperty
the class inSystem.ServiceModel.Channels
namespace,System.ServiceModel.dll
assembly? Isn't that an assembly belonging to WCF?