Fwd: [PECL-DEV] N

Forwarding to the list. Gmail mobile apparently doesn't have reply-all. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Daniel Brown <parasane@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:06:02 -0400 Subject: Re: [PECL-DEV] N To: Nicholas Williams <nicholas@dnscrawler.com> I had actually written a PING, traceroute, netstat, whois, and finger extension a couple of years ago. I'll see if I still have the source, and if I do, you can have it to give you something with which to start. On 10/10/09, Nicholas Williams <nicholas@dnscrawler.com> wrote: > I've come across the need for the ability to ping and traceroute without > making use of an exec() call. I've thoroughly examined the source code > for the Linux-native ping and traceroute, and believe this is something > I could, theoretically, port to PHP. > > The problem I've come across in my research is two-fold: > > 1) In order to perform traceroutes, specifically, I need to be able to > manipulate the actual raw IP headers at the top of each outgoing packet. > Specifically, I need to be able to manipulate the time-to-live (TTL) for > outgoing packets and inspect the contents of the headers of received > packets. It doesn't appear as if using the SOCK_RAW option and the IP > (raw) protocol flag (0) in socket_create actually gives me control over > the IP headers for each packet. It is exhibiting behavior that is not > the same as what you get from similar C code. The fact that sock_connect > and/or sock_sendto absolutely require an IP address, even with SOCK_RAW > and 0 used in sock_create, leads me to believe that the native PHP > socket functions are still adding standard internet headers to the top > of the packets I'm trying to send. > > 2) Using the SOCK_RAW option requires being root. This obviously doesn't > lend itself to using this with a web interface or anything else, for > that matter, that isn't run as root. > > So it occurred to me that perhaps a PECL extension to allow the sending > and receiving of individual packets and (controlled, for security > reasons) manipulation of their headers would perhaps solve my problems > and allow me to utilize this new extension for implementing ping and > traceroute natively. I'm sure this would solve my first problem. > However, because I'm unfamiliar with the security restrictions placed on > PHP running as an Apache module and in CLI, I don't know if this solves > my problem of needing to be root to use raw packet sockets. > > Any insights and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Can this be > accomplished through some other means in PHP? Am I missing something or > doing something wrong? Would a new PECL extension that enables the > direct manipulation of packets and headers be possible and work for > this? Or is this simply something that's going to be impossible to > implement in PHP? > > Thanks in advance for any responses, > > Nick Williams > -- </Daniel P. Brown> daniel.brown@parasane.net || danbrown@php.net http://www.parasane.net/ || http://www.pilotpig.net/ Looking for hosting or dedicated servers? Ask me how we can fit your budget! -- </Daniel P. Brown> daniel.brown@parasane.net || danbrown@php.net http://www.parasane.net/ || http://www.pilotpig.net/ Looking for hosting or dedicated servers? Ask me how we can fit your budget!