rails run shell command with user input

Question

I want to run shell command from rails app controller. My app code is:

cmd = "openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/testkey.key 1024"
system cmd

than shell will ask me password, so if you run this command from terminal you can input password, but if I run from controller I can't.

I don't want to use rails OPENSSL, for some reasons.

I tried to google but I have no result.

Also I tried something like this:

cmd = "openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/testkey.key 1024"
system cmd
system 'echo', '111111Passs'

This is not solution of my problem.

My question is: how to pass password from controller to shell? Than how I can submit this command? (simulate press on ENTER on my keyboard)

Thanks

Have a look at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24514307/passing-variable-from-ruby-as-a-password-for-shell — lacostenycoder, Nov 21 '18 at 22:13
Please can you write example ? it will be something like this ?: `cmd = "openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/test.key 1024 -S 111111Password"` — Boris Kuzevanov, Nov 21 '18 at 22:44

Raj · Answer 1 · 2018-11-21T22:19:45.187

2

require 'pty'
require 'expect'

PTY.spawn("openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/testkey.key 1024") do |reader, writer|
  reader.expect(/Enter pass phrase/)
  writer.puts("<password>")
end

edited Nov 21 '18 at 22:19

answered Nov 21 '18 at 22:14

Raj

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please, explain me this line ` reader.expect(/Enter pass phrase for vendor/testkey.key/)` thanks – Boris Kuzevanov Nov 21 '18 at 22:18
when the output from the shell matches that string, the password will get inputted into the shell – Raj Nov 21 '18 at 22:19
so I need to copy exactly terminal answer and paste in this line? – Boris Kuzevanov Nov 21 '18 at 22:21
I think even regex works. so just try something shorter like `Enter pass phrase` – Raj Nov 21 '18 at 22:22

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 22 '18 at 06:13

1

You can try passing the passphase through an argument (not recommended):

openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/testkey.key -passout pass:SECRET_PASS 1024

A more secure option is to write the passphrase to a temporary file and use this:

openssl genrsa -des3 -out testfolder/testkey.key -passout file:passphrase.txt 1024

Answer shamelessly lifted from this SO thread which has much more detail and better explanations.

answered Nov 22 '18 at 06:13

richflow

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please can you explain me what does it mean -passout ? – Boris Kuzevanov Nov 22 '18 at 15:48
"-passout arg output file pass phrase source" source for the pass phrase – richflow Nov 24 '18 at 01:51

rails run shell command with user input

2 Answers2