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

Symptoms

You may see that clients routinely get logged out of cPanel, WHM, or webmail interfaces, and messages similar to the following may be found in the session_log and login_log log files.

[2024-04-23 17:31:48 +0500] 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]]

[2024-04-24 08:44:53 +0500] info [whostmgrd] 192.0.0.2 - root "GET /cpsess1234567890/ HTTP/1.1" DEFERRED LOGIN whostmgrd: cookie ip check: IP address has changed: IP Address [192.0.0.1] != Current IP Address [192.0.0.2]

Description

This issue occurs when the user's IP address changes during their cPanel/WHM/webmail session and the "Cookie IP Validation" value in "Tweak Settings" is set to "strict." Setting the value to "loose" permits the user's IP address to change to another IP address in the same C-class subnet. If the user's address changes to a different C-class subnet, the "Cookie IP Validation" setting must be disabled.

Workaround

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.
5. Click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

Resources

Tweak Settings: Security