PHP - How to control a Solaris server from php to run root commands to execute scripts?

Question

Am a newbie in PHP.

I wanted to have a dropdown list for specific solaris servers, in which when a server is selected from the drop down list, the server will execute a script on itself. How do I even do that?

 <?php

session_start();

echo ("Select a Solaris System to audit");

?>

<form action="report.php" method="POST">

 <div>
 <select name="options">
      <option value="1">Solaris 001</option>
      <option value="2">Solaris 002</option>
      <option value="3">Solaris 003</option>
 </select>
 <br>
 <br>

 <input type="submit" value="Audit"/>

 </div>
</form>

Any help is deeply appreciated.

Answer 1

First of all, important disclaimer :)

Note, shell_exec used in a backend is rather dangerous function, as it might pose security threats. Isolate shell_exec from user input as much as possible and apply strict security policies

You have to implement two "artifacts":

1. On each server you need a backend file that execute desired script. This file should be accessible over the network. Lets say it's accessible via url http://*solarisservername*/justdoit It might be something like

    //Check for authentication, if authenticated set $authenticated = true if ($authenticated){ $script_response = shell_exec("<script to execute>"); } //if you need, you may return result to the calling script //I'm using json format, but you may want to use plain text, XML or whatever. $result = array("script_response"=>$script_responce,"success"=>true); echo json_encode($result); 

2. On your page you need to implement quering the URL we set up in a previous step. You have two options: using cURL and using AJAX . I'll describe AJAX method with jQuery as it is much simpler and fancy :). Note, it's Javascript

    <script type='text/javascript'> $(document).ready(function(){ $("#submit").click(function(){ var url = $("select[name='options']").val(); url = url + "justdoit"; //url now contains http://*solarisservername*/justdoit $.ajax({ type:post, dataType: 'json' url: url, success: function(data,textStatus){ //process your response here //access script response as data.script_response. } }); }); }); </script> <!--you dont't need method and action here, as we don't even post the form--> <form> <div> <select name="options"> <option value="http://solarisserver1">Solaris 001</option> <option value="http://solarisserver2">Solaris 002</option> <option value="http://solarisserver3">Solaris 003</option> </select> <br> <br> <!--onclick='return false' prevents form from submitting--> <input type="submit" id='submit' onclick='return false' value="Audit"/> </div> </form> 

Answer 2

add this to your report.php

<?php

if (isset($_POST['options'])){
   // you can get value now
   $server = $_POST['options'];

   echo $server; // will print the current selected value
}