Use a linux command in a Perl programm, and use Perl through php exec()

Question

I'm creating a system that allow me to create users automatically after an inscription. In this way, i've made a Perl script that generate a random password, crypt it with "mkpasswd" and then create an user with "useradd", after that user-infos are sended to a database.

I've search documentation, and i've try to use the php exec function to call the Perl program.

$command = "/server/backoffice/scripts/usercreation.pl $username";
exec($command, $result);
print_r($result);

The usercreation.pl script work fine in a terminal, but for a unknown reason, it just not work from php, nothing happen, i know that the problem come from the useradd syntax or if not it come from the useradd command. The error value returned is 255 <=> 0xff <=> -1 .

I think the problem come from the --password option of useradd, in fact, this option use mkpasswd and maybe it could disturb the shell or something else like that :p

The complete useradd command used by the Perl program:

system("/usr/sbin/useradd $username -m -d $home --expiredate $expire --shell $shell --gid $gid --password $c_password");

EDIT: The usercreation.pl file on pastebin (has been truncated to the part we are investigate): http://pastebin.com/DgFdndXf

The php one : http://pastebin.com/pQhADNzg

The web server used is nginx/0.7.65.

The version of php used is PHP 5.3.3-1.

uname -a

Linux openco 2.6.35-32-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 5 19:35:26 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux

Thanks for all!

See this question for a way to debug your perl script execution from within PHP. — TLP
– TLP, Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 14:55
The error does not come from Perl, but from the PHP interpretation of ... — torr
– torr, Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 14:36
@torr Do you run the perl script in the shell with the same user as runs the PHP script? — TLP
– TLP, Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 18:17

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-02 14:51:30Z

2

The useradd must be run as root, so you will need sudo to specify that nginx can run your script as root.

Be extremely careful with this stuff; make sure you sanitize user names and escape your command properly as well using escapeshellarg().

answered Jun 2, 2012 at 14:51

Ja͢ck

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10 Comments

torr Over a year ago

So, it would work if i add www-data ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/useradd in /etc/sudoers and if i change $command to "sudo ".$command ?

torr Over a year ago

Now, the error returned is 127 <=> 0x7f, i've also changed the $command in the Perl program to sudo useradd [...]

Ja͢ck Over a year ago

@DaveNull Actually ... the sudoers file should give permission to run the Perl script as root, not useradd itself.

torr Over a year ago

I've made the changes, exec("sudo ".$command, $result), useradd is called wthout sudo. www-data is no allowed to execute the Perl script as root. But, it do not change the error returned.

Ja͢ck Over a year ago

Well, then I'm out of ideas I'm afraid :-/

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