lighttpd run python script as root - php

I'm trying execute a python script from php function shell_exec(), but this script require root privileges.
The python code is very simple. Using libraries wifi python does a scan of all the SSID and provides in output the information on the various wireless networks to which he had a scan in JSON format. WiFi libraries are scanning using iwlist that requires root privileges. If it is performed by a user who does not have root privileges, it returns only the information referring to the wifi where you are connected.
If I plug in my code the string
<?php
echo 'Current script owner:'. get_current_user ();
?>
I print screen "Current script owner: root", but if I try to run my code
<?php
$ Output = shell_exec ("python /home/acme/XDOMV2/conn1.py");
echo $ output;
?>
It will only return information about the network on which my debian system is connected.
How to use lighttpd webserver and I have followed several guides about getting to the only result of having to re-install lighttpd.
The question is, is there a way to run a python script as root from lighttpd?
Where am I wrong?

I would suggest to run the script as a user with proper privileages.
This will minimize the risk for exploits on the system.
Next step would be ro run the script in a cron environment as that user (or root in the worst case scenario) and deliver the result via a database or a cached environment. You could also deliver the result via sockets or file handles.
Never enable a web environment to run scripts or well anything as root, it's dangerous and not how the software(lighttpd) were meant to operate.
If you're a brave soul:
This question belongs on UnixExchange but you can check this out:
http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/Joggler/lighttpd_as_root.html
And also check the docs for your lighttpd version, running as root is possible but not sound in any way.

Related

Bottle web server - how to serve PHP file?

I am working on a webapp made by someone else which uses Bottle routing. I want to create a simple login page which requires some PHP. If I return the PHP page as a static_file, any HTML will be executed but PHP won't, for obvious reasons. How should I serve the PHP file so that it is dynamic?
Not working:
#route('/login')
def serve():
return static_file('login.php', root='.')
In order to server PHP files, you need to have PHP installed on the web server. Additionally, the webserver needs to be configured to detect PHP files and execute them.
Serving PHP files from Python is kinda useless and not recommended.
I'd recommend you to take the time to translate this script from PHP to Python.
I wanted to do the same thing yesterday, but the answers I got to my question made it clear it was either impossible or extremely difficult. I came up with writing a small python program to run the PHP built in server. NOTE: PHP needs to be able to run from the command line for this to work.
#Import the os package so that this code can run commands
import os
#Get the port that the user wants to host on
port = str(input("What port would you like to host on?"))
#Add wanted port to the command that hosts the php server
cmd = "php -S localhost:" + port
#Actually run the command to host php server
os.system(cmd)
#Now the PHP server will take over until you
#use ctrl + C to quit hosting
Just remember that the port needs to be 4 numbers. When you host this, you can return any file from the folder you ran this code in by simply typing it in the browser. Example:
localhost:8080/login.php
Returns login.php (if it is there) on the localhost port that you asked for.

No output on web page PHP while executing shell command

I am trying to execute Linux shell command from php but there is no output on web page. If I am trying to execute the php page from linux cosole its working fine.
PHP Code:
<?php
$result = shell_exec('asterisk -rx "core show channels concise"');
$ccount =shell_exec('asterisk -rx "core show channels count"');
echo $result;
echo $ccount;
?>
Above code is not giving any output on web page. But on linux console its woking. e.g.
[abc#host sysadminman]# php myfile.php
Asterisk control socket permissions can also be changed easily in /etc/asterisk.conf:
[files]
astctlpermissions = 0660
astctlowner = root
astctlgroup = apache
astctl = asterisk.ctl
First of all your question is incomplete as you not showing what is expected output. But aside from this you are doing a few common mistakes there.
First you are testing your script as root (# php ...) but your httpd is NOT serving your scripts as root. So your tests are useless. You should switch to right user (most likely www-data and then check to run your script from shell. Most likely it will fail for one of two common reasons - insufficient permissions to run asterisk program or incomplete $PATH not pointing to the place where asterisk is.
I agree to Marcin.
I would suggest you write script to execute those commands and put result to some storage (such as text or database). Use cron to run it in root. Then you read the data from storage on web page.
If you want real time response, you have to run cron all the time though it consume server resource. That is trade-off you have to consider. Its depends on what you wanna achieve from the web site.
Use sudo to run thoes commands as root or Asterisk user. You can configure sudo to allow execution without password to only specific commands.
check disable_functions in php.ini. Mb shell_exec just off for web server

How can I launch a local Application on OSX from php running MAMP?

I'm running a bunch of local Kiosks on mac mini's and have been using dropbox to keep all the files in sync. However - the dropbox updates have been sketchy as of late because of the firewall settings where these things are. A workaround I have found is by having dropbox quit and restart periodically to force it to update.
My question is - since all of these are running php applications on MAMP - is there a way to launch a local app from php? I'm able to kill dropbox by doing something like this:
$killit = killall -KILL Dropbox;
But it doesn't work the same to restart it. I've tried doing this:
$start_dbox = open /Applications/Dropbox.app;
To no avail. Is there a better way to automate this process of shutting down and reopening a local application?
I've had similar problems trying to control software remotely. The 'open' command must be executed either as the currently logged in console user, or from a terminal owned by the console (e.g. Terminal.app).
If you change your PHP to redirect STDERR, you should see the error that 'open' is returning:
$start_dbox = "open /Applications/Dropbox.app 2>&1";
The following text should then be returned from the system call:
LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file /Applications/Dropbox.app.
One workaround I've used in the past is to create a lock file somewhere in the filesystem, which your PHP script can write to and your console user can read. Then, you can create a cron that runs as the console user and periodically checks the lock file to see if it needs to restart Dropbox.
I was actually able to solve this by creating a shell script with the following:
#!/bin/sh
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=""
osascript -e 'tell application "Dropbox" to activate'
Saved it as start_db.sh and dropped it in my root apache directory (so there was no permissions problem for that user).
Then in my php file I was able to do:
$start_dbox = exec('/full/path/to/start_db.sh');
Worked like a charm. Dropbox now quits and restarts with no issues.

PHP from commandline starts gui programs but apache doesn't

First, I read some threads by people with similar problems but all answers didn't go beyond export DISPLAY=:0.0 and xauth cookies. So here is my problem and thanks in advance for your time!
I have developed a little library which renders shelves using OpenGL and GLSL.
Last few days I wrapped it in a php extension and surprisingly easy it works now.
But the problem is it works only when I execute the php script using the extension from commandline
$php r100.php(i successfuly run this from the http user). The script is in the webroot of apache and if I request it from the browser I get ** CRITICAL **: Unable to open display in apache's error_log.
So, to make things easier to test and to be sure that the problem is not in the library/extension, at the moment I just want to start xmms with following php script.
<?php
echo shell_exec("xmms");
?>
It works only from the shell too.
I've played with apache configuration so much now that I really dont know what to try.
I tried $xhost + && export DISPLAY=:0.0
In the http.conf I have these
SetEnv DISPLAY :0.0 SetEnv XAUTHORITY /home/OpenGL/.Xauthority
So my problem seems to be this:
How can I make apache execute php script with all privileges that the http user has, including the environment?
Additional information:
HTTP is in video and users groups and has a login shell(bash).
I can login as http and execute scripts with no problem and can run GUI programs which show up on display 0.
It seems that apache does not provide the appropriate environment for the script.
I read about some difference between CLI/CGI but cant run xmms with php-cgi too...
Any ideas for additional configuration?
Regards
Sounds bit hazard, but basically you can add even export DISPLAY=:0.0 to apache start-up script (like in Linux /etc/init.d/httpd or apache depending distro).
And "xhost +" need to be run on account which is connected to local X server as user, though I'm only wondering how it will work as php script should only live while apache http request is on-going.
Edit:
Is this is kind of application launcher?, you can spawn this with exec("nohub /usr/bin/php script.php &"); .. now apache should be released and php should continue working in background.
In your console, allow everyone to use the X server:
xhost +
In your PHP script, set the DISPLAY variable while executing the commands:
DISPLAY=:0 glxgears 2>&1

Unexpected behavior when calling a Ruby script via PHP's shell_exec()

I have a Ruby script that's being used to do some API calls/screen scraping, but our main app is in PHP. Our PHP app is using shell_exec() to call the Ruby script.
The ruby script works great when called from the command lineā€“but it will randomly exits early when called via PHP's shell exec.
Here's an example of the Ruby script:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'rubygems'
require 'mysql'
require 'net/http'
require 'open-uri'
require 'uri'
require 'cgi'
require 'fileutils'
# Bunch of code here ... works fine
somePath = 'http://foo.com/bar.php'
# Seems to always exit when I do a Net::HTTP or open-uri call
post = Net::HTTP.post_form(URI.parse(somePath),{'id'=>ID,'q'=>'some query'})
data = post.body
# OR
data = open(somePath).read
# More code here ...
So, all I can deduce so far is that it's always exiting when I try to grab/read an external URL via net/http or open-uri calls. The pages I'm grabbing can accept POST or GET requests, but it seems to be exiting either way.
I'm outputting the results with PHP after the shell_exec call, but there are no error messages or exits. I do have messages being output by my Ruby script with "puts ...." here and there. Could that be a problem (I'm thinking 'no' because it doesn't exit with earlier puts messages)?
Again, it works fine when called from the shell. It's almost like the shell_exec call isn't waiting for the net/http call to finish.
Any ideas?
I'm not sure on this, but given your explanation, which sounds plausible, have you looked at all at proc_open:
http://us3.php.net/proc_open
Ruby's open-uri requires tempfile, so I'm guessing there's a file ownership conflict between you running your ruby script and the web server running it. Can the web server create a temp file using tempfile?
Just an FYI, I never really uncovered why this was happening. The best I could deduce was that some type of permission issue was preventing Ruby's open-uri commands from working properly.
I opted for queuing these jobs in a db table and running my ruby script via cron periodically. Everything seems to work fine when the ruby script runs with root/sudo perms.
Run on Linux terminal:
sudo -H -u <user> bash -c <your code> where <user> is the Apache's user.
To find Apache's user you can echo("shell_exec(\"whoami\")"); inside your code and run it on browser. whoami works on Linux and Windows, but if you're under Windows, the Apache default user is your user. You can test it anyway in case it's different, but I can't tell how to run the code on Windows like if it's Apache running it.
After that you can have a clue of what's happening. In most cases the problem is the Apache's root folder is different from operating system's folder. So when you run a command with absolute path, the OS consider / and Apache consider /var/www/html on Linux, /opt/lampp/htdocs on Xampp(Linux) and C:/xampp/htdocs on Xampp(Windows). You get the idea i think.

Categories