Shell Script Help

apt · 08-23-2005, 07:48 AM

I have a simple shell script which is scheduled to download files from remote server(Simple FTP using Shell Script). In shell script i had hotcoded USERNAME and PASSWORD to string variables to access remote server.

Code:

		
                HOST='hostname'
		USER='username'
		AUTH='password'

how to prevent the USERNAME and PASSWORD not being seen by others when they just open up the shell script file?

nelz · 08-23-2005, 08:02 AM

Do you have SSH access to the remote server? If so, you could use scp with key authentication, so there are no passwords to exchange.

ilikejam · 08-23-2005, 08:03 AM

Hi.

There's not really a way around this. If you encrypt the password and username, you'll need another password to decrypt them, and that would have to be stored somewhere too (unless you can type it in each time the script runs).

You could create a new user just for this script, and limit read access to that user, so no-one else can open the script in the first place.

You might be better using SSH, and doing puplic/private key authentication (which can be done with no password), so there are no passwords to steal. The following should be useful:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers/79

Dave

apt · 08-23-2005, 08:11 AM

Hi,
Thanks for the response. But i dont have SSH access to the remote server. Thatz why I used FTP to download files. Is that i can do this using Perl or bash scripts?

dub.wav · 08-23-2005, 08:12 AM

How about:
a) Ask for password each time
b) Save the password in a chmod 600'ed file only you can read.

apt · 08-23-2005, 09:13 AM

I am trying to automate(using crontab) this script without any manual intervention, in this way is there any solution.?

jlliagre · 08-23-2005, 09:27 AM

You can use "~/.netrc" (man netrc).

nelz · 08-23-2005, 11:02 AM

Or ncftpget with the details stored in a file anywhere you like (but make sure you chmod 600 it).

Does anyone know why ncftpget and ncftpput do not use the ncftp bookmarks, as you can store the password encrypted in there?

bigearsbilly · 08-25-2005, 05:40 AM

as jilliagre said

use ~/.netrc

it won't work if the file is readable.
needs to be chmod 600

apt · 08-25-2005, 09:08 AM

Thanks for your answers. I will try with these ones.