Why do I see "Your IP Address Has Changed"?

Symptoms

Clients routinely get logged out of cPanel, WHM, or Webmail interfaces, with messages similar to the following found in the session_log and login_log log files:

CONFIG_TEXT: info [cpaneld] 192.0.0.2 PURGE cpuser:0bbLUzVJOnFpdK5S badpass [cookie ip check: IP address has changed: IP Address [192.0.0.1] != Current IP Address [192.0.0.2]]
info [cpaneld] 192.0.0.2 PURGE cpuser:0bbLUzVJOnFpdK5S badpass [cookie ip check: IP address has changed: IP Address [192.0.0.1] != Current IP Address [192.0.0.2]]

Cause

By default, cPanel ensures that the connecting IP matches what is stored in the login session's cookie. If the IP address changes after a login session is created, then the user must re-authenticate in order to proceed. A client's IP address change can occur for various reasons, such as the user being on a shared network, or using some proxies when connecting to cPanel. 

Resolution

To resolve this, the Cookie IP validation option can be made less strict, or be disabled.

1. Log into WHM as the root user.
2. Navigate to Home / Server Configuration / Tweak Settings
3. Click the Security tab.

4. Change the Cookie IP validation value to "loose" or "disabled" as required.

   

   • strict (default) - Requires the current IP address and the cookie IP address to exactly match.
   • loose - Requires the IPs are in the same /24 netblock.
   • disabled - Disables Cookie IP validation.
5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Additional Information

Tweak Settings: Security