Hi,

wondered if someone could perhaps assist

I am trying to find a standalone binary that i can execute from within php to query my servers mac address,

Reason is, i have a standalone app that was written to decrypt a file based on the servers mac addy, and then use the unencrypted data, i dont have access to the source so i can't change the way this works.

The only option i have is to obtain the mac addy on my server and then encrypt the file with the mac so my app can use it correctly, however i cannot seem to get perl scripts to run ifconfig, my host is a free host so i am very limited on some things.

Thanks in advance

Welcome to LQ!

Since the MAC address is not going to change (hopefully) cant you just make up one? Or create a text file similar to ifconfig output and parse it instead of real infconfig output?

Hi and thanks for your reply Emerson

The compiled app i want to use actually checks the real mac address itself, during one of its routines, so making one up won't be good enough as it will fail to decrypt, i believe it uses the server mac addy as an aes decrypt/encrypt key

This is also the reason i know it must be possible to query the real mac address, since this app does so

OK, as I said MAC address hopefully won't change. Meaning you do not need to read it out every time using ifconfig. Don't make it up then, use the actual one. Just get it from a text file for instance.

Thanks once more for your reply.

Yeah i see what you mean, only problem i have is obtaining the mac address, which is what i needed the standalone app for to begin with

<?php
echo exec('ifconfig');
?>

Might be necessary to specify full path to ifconfig. Also might be that server won't let you do that; that is a server administration issue.

Thanks for your response.

Tried this and no output at all from the echo command, also tried /sbin/ifconfig, /usr/bin/ifconfig and /bin/ifconfig.

Is it possible to download ifconfig from somewhere, upload it via ftp and then exec it this way?

No response probably means the server has locked out external binaries or perhaps has whitelisted them. Typically, for instance, imagemagick will be available and usually if you do this:

<?php
echo exec('whoami');
">

you'll get a response (usually "apache").

Thing is that ifconfig could be dangerous to the server (security issue) so it and anything that might function like it commonly won't be allowed.

I see, thanks for your input once more, i have just run whoami which returns my login username to the server.

I have an external ELF binary running on the server and i believe it is querying the mac address ok, its a shame i do not have the source to this custom written app, so i can remove this "security" feature it has, unfortunately i have lost contact with the code writer. Thus it is theoretically locked to my old host.

I also tried to find ifconfig via google so i could download, but no joy there either.

Actually, there is one thing I neglected.

the form:

<?php
exec('ifconfig',$output,$rtncode);
echo var_dump($output);
?>

might give you something. If $output is specified, it is an array returned with all the contents (every line) of output from the command that is executed. I don't think this will work since the simpler form didn't, but you might want to look at it.

Hi jiml8,

Reply much appreciated once again

$output returns array(0) { }
$rtncode returns int(127)

im guessing thats not a good sign.

also tried this

$command="ifconfig";
$output=shell_exec($command." 2>&1");
print "<pre>$output</pre>\n";

This prints

sh: line 1: ifconfig: command not found

well, you are working on the right track - if the server will let you do it at all. It doesn't appear that it will, but you might try shell_exec with the full path.

Have you tried running 'which ifconfig' to see where it is installed, then putting full path?

as a followup, I am having a similar problem myself. Maybe if my question is answered, the answer will help you too.

See here.

Thanks for the info jiml8, hope we both get a solution on this.