Execute a shell command through ssh using PHP

Question

I'm trying to execute a simple shell command and print the result on a web page but the results are empty. Below is one bit of code I found but nothing has worked thus far.

 <?php
            $server = "myserver";
            $username = "myadmin";
            $command = "ps";
            $str = "ssh " .$username. "@" .$server. " " .$command;

            exec($str, $output);

            echo '<pre>';
            print_r($output);
            echo '</pre>';
    ?>

Is the ssh command working by itself, meaning did you try it command line first? — bjackfly, Aug 22 '13 at 06:58
`exec($str, $output, $return);`. Check the error code too, `var_dump(array($output, $return));` — Jigar, Aug 22 '13 at 07:02
also `echo $str;` get the string and try to run manually in shell. — Jigar, Aug 22 '13 at 07:03
@bjackfly Yes, the command is working by itself but not when used in the script — tomtomssi, Aug 22 '13 at 07:22
@Jigar There's no error code, its just that nothing is getting returned. — tomtomssi, Aug 22 '13 at 07:23

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '13 at 07:00

6

Try phpseclib, that'll work.

<?php
    include('Net/SSH2.php');

    $server = "myserver";
    $username = "myadmin";
    $password = "mypass";
    $command = "ps";

    $ssh = new Net_SSH2($server);
    if (!$ssh->login($username, $password)) {
        exit('Login Failed');
    }

    echo $ssh->exec($command);
?>

answered Aug 22 '13 at 07:00

ciruvan

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I can't install any packages on these machines. Is there any other way around this? – tomtomssi Aug 22 '13 at 07:12
1

Well, if you can create PHP source files on your machines, you can install phpseclib, because that's just a bunch of PHP files as well. – ciruvan Aug 22 '13 at 07:15
Is it possible to the login with SSH keys instead of using a hardcoded password? – tomtomssi Aug 23 '13 at 10:02
1

Easily. Check out their [examples](http://phpseclib.sourceforge.net/new/ssh/examples.html). – ciruvan Aug 23 '13 at 10:04
Worked perfectly with the SSH key, too. – tomtomssi Aug 23 '13 at 11:59
@ciruvan, can we user server ip instead of name ? – SagarPPanchal Feb 26 '19 at 09:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 22 '13 at 07:19

0

You're missing the -p option before the port number:

$str = "ssh -p $port $username@$server $command";

answered Aug 22 '13 at 07:19

Barmar

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Using a more object oriented solution, you can install phpseclib version 2 with:

composer require phpseclib/phpseclib

And then just create your ssh object:

$ssh = new SSH2('yourhost');
if (!$ssh->login('username', 'password')) {
    exit('Login Failed');
}

In this exemple i have used a connection through username and password but you can also connect via ssh-keys. If the connection is successful you can execute the method exec to execute you command on the server.

Execute a shell command through ssh using PHP

3 Answers3

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