PHP passing input to encrypted php file (ioncube)

Question

I have an encrypted (ioncube) PHP file which I cannot modify, because I don't have the original source. I have to run that file in order to do stuff. The input is in XML type post request.

I can use

ob_start();
include("encoded.php");
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

to catch the output, but I don't know how to manipulate the input XML.

I'm currently using CURL to do a localhost post

private static function post($xml)
{
    $ch = curl_init();

    curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
        CURLOPT_URL             => self::$site,
        CURLOPT_PORT            => 443,
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER      => array(
                                    "Content-type: text/xml",
                                    "Content-length: ".strlen($xml),
                                    "Connection: close"),
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS      => $xml,
        CURLOPT_POST            => true,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER  => true,
        CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH        => CURLAUTH_BASIC,
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT         => 10,
        CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER  => 0,
        CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST  => 0,
        CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE    => 0,
        CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT   => 1
    ));

    $data = curl_exec($ch);

    if (curl_errno($ch))
        $data = "ERROR:".curl_errno($ch);

    curl_close($ch);

    return $data;
}

This code works fine for a few connections, but when a large amount of user (between 100 and 500) tries to call this code the encrypted php starts returning wierd data (empty or non-XML return).

So the question is: How can I fake a php://input stream while using ob_start? Or any other solution for calling ioncube php file without decrypting it?

Answer 1

Since you call the ioncube file via include file like this:

ob_start();
include("encoded.php");
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

You can simply force any $_POST data which you need like this:

ob_start();
$_POST['some_key1'] = 'some_value1';
$_POST['some_key2'] = 'some_value2';
include("encoded.php");
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();