PHP domain availability script exec() function alternative - php

Question

I want to install a php whois domain availability check script on my website which I found somewhere.
It has a whois_class.php file where it allows my to switch between "win" & "linux" mode.
When I switch on "win" mode it works fine in my localhost as I am using Windows OS.
But when I upload it to the server it stops working as my server is Linux Server.
So I have to switch it to "linux" mode and re-upload whois_class.php. This was expected to work fine but for linux mode the developer of the script has used exec() function which my host has disabled for security purposes.
So, the only option I guess is if I change my server platform from Linux to Windows. But, that will be a mess.
I was looking for a way how I can use this script to run smoothly on my linux server just as it runs on my localhost in Windows OS. Any change or modification to the script to make it run will be appreciated.
whois_class.php :
<?php
class Whois_domain {
var $possible_tlds;
var $whois_server;
var $free_string;
var $whois_param;
var $domain;
var $tld;
var $compl_domain;
var $full_info;
var $msg;
var $info;
var $os_system = "win"; // switch between "linux" and "win"
function Whois_domain() {
$this->info = "";
$this->msg = "";
}
function process() {
if ($this->create_domain()) {
if ($this->full_info == "yes") {
$this->get_domain_info();
} else {
if ($this->check_only() == 1) {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>The domain name: <font color='#000'>".$this->compl_domain."</font> is <font color='#2ec62e'>available</font>.</p>";
return true;
} elseif ($this->check_only() == 0) {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>The domain name: <font color='#000'>".$this->compl_domain."</font> is <font color='red'>registered</font>.</p>";
return false;
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>There was something wrong, try it again.</p>";
}
}
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Only letters, numbers and hyphens (-) are valid!</p>";
}
}
function check_entry() {
if (preg_match("/^([a-z0-9]+(\-?[a-z0-9]*)){2,63}$/i", $this->domain)) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function create_tld_select() {
$menu = "<select id=\"tld\" name=\"tld\" style=\"margin-left:0; width: 100px; margin-top: 20px; border-radius: 5px\">\n";
foreach ($this->possible_tlds as $val) {
$menu .= " <option value=\"".$val."\"";
$menu .= (isset($_POST['tld']) && $_POST['tld'] == $val) ? " selected=\"selected\">" : ">";
$menu .= $val."</option>\n";
}
$menu .= "</select>\n";
return $menu;
}
function create_domain() {
if ($this->check_entry()) {
$this->domain = strtolower($this->domain);
$this->compl_domain = $this->domain.".".$this->tld;
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function check_only() {
$data = $this->get_whois_data();
if (is_array($data)) {
$found = 0;
foreach ($data as $val) {
if (preg_match('/'.$this->free_string.'/', $val)) {
$found = 1;
}
}
return $found;
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Error, please try it again.</p>";
}
}
function get_domain_info() {
if ($this->create_domain()) {
$data = ($this->tld == "nl") ? $this->get_whois_data(true) : $this->get_whois_data();
//print_r($data);
if (is_array($data)) {
foreach ($data as $val) {
if (eregi($this->free_string, $val)) {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>The domain name: <font color='#000'>".$this->compl_domain."</font> is <font color='#2ec62e'>available</font>.</p>";
$this->info = "";
break;
}
$this->info .= $val;
}
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Error, please try it again.</p>";
}
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Only letters, numbers and hyphens (-) are valid!</p>";
}
}
function get_whois_data($empty_param = false) {
// the parameter is new since version 1.20 and is used for .nl (dutch) domains only
if ($empty_param) {
$this->whois_param = "";
}
if ($this->tld == "de") $this->os_system = "win"; // this tld must be queried with fsock otherwise it will not work
if ($this->os_system == "win") {
$connection = #fsockopen($this->whois_server, 43);
if (!$connection) {
unset($connection);
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Can't connect to the server!</p>";
return;
} else {
sleep(2);
fputs($connection, $this->whois_param.$this->compl_domain."\r\n");
while (!feof($connection)) {
$buffer[] = fgets($connection, 4096);
}
fclose($connection);
}
} else {
$string = "whois -h ".$this->whois_server." \"".$this->whois_param.$this->compl_domain."\"";
$string = str_replace (";", "", $string).";";
exec($string, $buffer);
}
if (isset($buffer)) {
//print_r($buffer);
return $buffer;
} else {
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Can't retrieve data from the server!</p>";
}
}
}
?>
The problem is here
if ($this->os_system == "win") {
$connection = #fsockopen($this->whois_server, 43);
if (!$connection) {
unset($connection);
$this->msg = "<p style='font-size: 16px'>Can't connect to the server!</p>";
return;
} else {
sleep(2);
fputs($connection, $this->whois_param.$this->compl_domain."\r\n");
while (!feof($connection)) {
$buffer[] = fgets($connection, 4096);
}
fclose($connection);
}
} else {
$string = "whois -h ".$this->whois_server." \"".$this->whois_param.$this->compl_domain."\"";
$string = str_replace (";", "", $string).";";
exec($string, $buffer);
}
Disabled functions by my host
system,exec,shell_exec,passthru,popen,proc_open,pcntl_exec,highlight_file,show_source,symlink,link,posix_getpwuid,posix_getpwnam,posix_getgrgid,posix_getgrnam,posix_kill,posix_mkfifo,posix_getrlimit

Answer 1

There are plenty of functions related to program execution. However you should check which other functions are disabled on your setup:
var_dump(ini_get("disable_functions"));