[NTLUG:Discuss] Shell from a webpage

[Richard Geoffrion]

Greg Edwards wrote:

>Robert Citek wrote:
>  
>
>>Let's solidify the restrictions: Imagine you are sitting in front of  a 
>>public access terminal at a public library.  Your only access to  the 
>>'Net is via the browser.  You can use http (port 80) and https  (port 
>>443), but nothing else.  You can neither install nor run any  other 
>>software other than the browser.  The challenge is to be able  to 
>>connect to a remote machine running sshd on either port 80 or  443.  Can 
>>this be done?  If so, how?
>>
>>    
>>
>As someone already suggested install Webmin on the server that you want to 
>access.  Webmin has a shell interface that works in a webpage.  Webmin is 
>secure and require a login so leaving it open to the outside world is 
>reasonably secure.
>
>  
>
The issue there is that Webmin uses Java Applets #1, and is usually run 
on a non 80/443 port.  Maybe that can be done but I dunno..

I did some research and I *THINK* I found something.  I don't know what 
you call these web-shell programs but somehow I found a couple.

WSH looks like it would work because it doesn't seem to use any JAVA 
applets nor does it appear to need a non-standard port.  I am guessing 
that a name-based virtual server would be able to give one the shell 
access needed without any port redirection or other 
non-standard-hoop-jumping.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/wsh/
Wsh is a remote Unix and Windows NT shell that works via HTTP. The 
client script provides a shell-like prompt, encapsulating user commands 
into HTTP POST requests and sending them to the server script. The 
server script extracts and executes commands and returns STDOUT and 
STDERR output. Features include command line history support, file 

and..the other one I thought I found turns out NOT to be an ssh shell through http.  Still, it looks like it might be a cool shell to use for a beginner! I just wanna know why it can work through an http proxy server.. hey..maybe that will work!  Of course that means the customer needs a proxy server...unless...what if you ran a proxy server on a local workstation that would THEN go out port 80....hm...but what's listening on the server side.. Well, obviously I'm clueless about fish.  At any rate, here's the info on fish.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/thefishshell/
fish, the friendly interactive shell is a shell that is focused on 
interactive use, discoverability, and user friendliness. The design goal 
of fish is to give the user a rich set of powerful features in a way 
that is easy to discover, remember, and use. fish features a 
user-friendly and powerful tab-completion, including descriptions of 
every completion, tab-completion of strings with wildcards, and many 
completions for specific commands. It also features an extensive and 
discoverable help system. A special help command gives access to all the 
fish documentation in your preferred Web browser. Other features include 
syntax highlighting with extensive error checking, support for the X 
clipboard, smart terminal handling based on terminfo, an easy to search, 
no duplicates history.
SCREENSHOT [ http://download.freshmeat.net/screenshots/52525.png ]
upload/download, and it can work through an HTTP proxy server.

-- 
Richard