How To Explore Linux Shell Remotely Using PHP Shell

To Explore Linux Shell Remotely Using PHP Shell

PHP Shell is a script which is written in PHP that provides Linux Terminal in the Browser. It helps to execute most of the shell commands in browser with limitations. Steps to explore Linux Shell remotely using PHP Shell is summarized in this article.

To Download the PHP Shell

Download the PHP Shell from the following link.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpshell/?source=dlp

Steps to Install PHP Shell

Before installing the Apache and PHP, update the repositories.

root@linuxhelp:~# apt-get update
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily InRelease
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com wily-security InRelease                
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-updates InRelease               
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports InRelease              
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com wily-security/main Sources              
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/main Sources
.
.
.
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports/main Translation-en            
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports/multiverse Translation-en      
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports/restricted Translation-en      
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports/universe Translation-en        
Reading package lists... Done

To Install Apache and PHP

For Red Hat System

[root@linuxhelp ~]# yum install httpd php php-mysql 
[root@linuxhelp ~]# service httpd start

For Debian System

root@linuxhelp:~# apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-mysql
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libavahi-client-dev libavahi-common-dev libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
  libdbus-1-dev libjs-jquery libruby2.1 libyaml-0-2 ruby2.1
.
.
.
apache2_invoke: Enable module php5
Setting up php5 (5.6.11+dfsg-1ubuntu3.3) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.21-0ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (225-1ubuntu9) ...
root@linuxhelp:~# service apache2 start

For Debian based distributions: /var/www

For RedHat based distributions: /var/www/html

Important: For security reason, it can be changed to any other folder.

Downloaded PHP Shell archive file should be moved to Apache working directory.

Now download the php shell in your browser.

Now unzip the package from the downloaded location

root@linuxhelp:~# cd Downloads/
root@linuxhelp:~/Downloads# ls
phpshell-2.4.zip
root@linuxhelp:~/Downloads# unzip phpshell-2.4.zip 
Archive:  phpshell-2.4.zip
   creating: phpshell-2.4/
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/ChangeLog  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/INSTALL    
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/AUTHORS    
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/phpshell.php  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/style.css  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/pwhash.php  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/COPYING    
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/config.php  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/phpshell.ico  
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/SECURITY   
  inflating: phpshell-2.4/README     
root@linuxhelp:~/Downloads# ls
phpshell-2.4  phpshell-2.4.zip

Now copy the extracted PHPshell directory into your default document root directory.

root@linuxhelp:~/Downloads# cp -r phpshell-2.4 /var/www/html
root@linuxhelp:~/Downloads# cd /var/www/html
root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html# ls
index.html  phpshell-2.4

Now rename the directory as PHPshell.

root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html# mv phpshell-2.4 phpshell
root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html# ls
index.html  phpshell

Now rename the phpshell.php as index.php, which is located under phpshell directory.

root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html# cd phpshell/
root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html/phpshell# ls
AUTHORS    config.php  INSTALL       phpshell.php  README    style.css
ChangeLog  COPYING     phpshell.ico  pwhash.php    SECURITY
root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html/phpshell# mv phpshell.php index.php
root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html/phpshell# ls
AUTHORS    config.php  index.php  phpshell.ico  README    style.css
ChangeLog  COPYING     INSTALL    pwhash.php    SECURITY

Now navigate to “ http://127.0.0.1/phpshell“ in the web browser.

To create user

Click the pwhash.php script, to create a user name and password.

In the above php page enter the Username, password and click ' Update' .

Add the sha line into config.php in the [user] section.

Now open the config.php file.

root@linuxhelp:/var/www/html/phpshell# vim config.php

Add the line in username section.

linuxhelp = " sha1:6939c784:c8732ccba93b751775b0db3bc0c829700c8955a4"
According to the username and password, sha1 will be unique.

Save and exit the config.php file.

Visit http://127.0.0.1/phpshell. Login using your ‘ User Name‘ and ‘ Password‘ .

Now you have logged into the php shell, you can able to execute the shell commands in the browser.

Disadvantages of PHP Shell

• Additional input were not support.
• At a certain time, all the webserver is configured to timeout.
• One line command is used in the PHPshell.