diff --git a/phpBB/includes/functions.php b/phpBB/includes/functions.php
index 3742d89475..cb2631d7b5 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/functions.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/functions.php
@@ -3414,7 +3414,7 @@ function get_backtrace()
 /**
 * This function returns a regular expression pattern for commonly used expressions
 * Use with / as delimiter for email mode and # for url modes
-* mode can be: email|bbcode_htm|url|url_inline|www_url|www_url_inline|relative_url|relative_url_inline
+* mode can be: email|bbcode_htm|url|url_inline|www_url|www_url_inline|relative_url|relative_url_inline|ipv4|ipv6
 */
 function get_preg_expression($mode)
 {
@@ -3435,6 +3435,17 @@ function get_preg_expression($mode)
 			);
 		break;
 
+		// Whoa these look impressive!
+		// The code to generate the following two regular expressions which match valid IPv4/IPv6 addresses
+		// can be found in the develop directory
+		case 'ipv4':
+			return '#^(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])$#';
+		break;
+
+		case 'ipv6':
+			return '#^(?:(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){6}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:::(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){5}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:):(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){4}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){3}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){2}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:)(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[\dA-F]{1,4})|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:))$#i';
+		break;
+
 		case 'url':
 		case 'url_inline':
 			$inline = ($mode == 'url') ? ')' : '';
diff --git a/phpBB/includes/session.php b/phpBB/includes/session.php
index de60f7f2bf..9def5f1edf 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/session.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/session.php
@@ -148,18 +148,12 @@ class session
 		{
 			$this->forwarded_for = preg_replace('#, +#', ', ', $this->forwarded_for);
 
-			// Whoa these look impressive!
-			// The code to generate the following two regular expressions which match valid IPv4/IPv6 addresses
-			// can be found in the develop directory
-			$ipv4 = '#^(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])$#';
-			$ipv6 = '#^(?:(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){6}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:::(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){5}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:):(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){4}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){3}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){2}(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:)(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:[\dA-F]{1,4}|(?:(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:\d{1,2}|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])))|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[\dA-F]{1,4})|(?:(?:[\dA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:))$#i';
-
 			// split the list of IPs
 			$ips = explode(', ', $this->forwarded_for);
 			foreach ($ips as $ip)
 			{
 				// check IPv4 first, the IPv6 is hopefully only going to be used very seldomly
-				if (!empty($ip) && !preg_match($ipv4, $ip) && !preg_match($ipv6, $ip))
+				if (!empty($ip) && !preg_match(get_preg_expression('ipv4'), $ip) && !preg_match(get_preg_expression('ipv6'), $ip))
 				{
 					// contains invalid data, don't use the forwarded for header
 					$this->forwarded_for = '';