PHP execute linux command using exec()

Question

So, i'm on my ubuntu server and want to execute the following command:

su -c /path/to/command -s /bin/bash -l otheruser

When i type this command in the linux command line, it perfectly asks for the password for the otheruser and executes the command.

However, when i do it like this

exec("su -c /path/to/command -s /bin/bash -l otheruser");

it doesn't do anything. I haven't of course specified a password for it yet, but it doesn't really return anything that could help me solve this problem. I have set the permissions to that command to 777 for testing purposes.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Try this:

<?php
$ret = exec("su -c /path/to/command -s /bin/bash -l otheruser", $out, $err);
var_dump($ret);
var_dump($out);
var_dump($err);
?>

More Info: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php

Also, if you are expecting the exec command to ask you for the password for the other user (as it did in the linux command line) - it won't work, exec command isn't interactive. You'll need to pass the password on the command, inline.

• Beeelze: It returns the following: string(0) "" array(0) { } int(1)
• Beeelze: that did the trick actually! However, I think that it is not very secure, passing the user's password in a php script?