Getting on with PHP
I found s number of reasons why PHPMyAdmin didn’t work.
First, I had copied the PHP.INI file that comes with PHPWASD, and running PHP_INFO revealed that the MySQL extension wasn’t loaded – no wonder, since it was missing in that file. So I included all that came with the HP distribution, and now PHPMySQL was known as an extension. Next, PHP_Info show it was available, so the next stop was running PHPMyAdmin.
First it shows that module MCRYPT couldn’t be loaded. It wasn’t mentioned in neither of tyhe PHP.INI files, but it does exist on the [extensions] directory. Stopped the PHPWASD images, and restarted PHPMyADMIN: Now the module is loaded; However, There was a complaint:
plus that changing the language (default, in IE8 on my laptop, was Dutch) or entering user-name and password, and hitting the Start button, both ended in an error page: the page could not be displayed. WASD’s WATCH utility however showed there was nothing wrong with the PHP output…Switched the browser to comptability mode (I’m using IE8 – by company standard) seemed to solve the problem of switching language but login again failed to show the right page.
Firefox had no issue whatsoever: No error message, and the default language popping up was English. Login gave the message the server did not respond, but at least I got that message.
Since PHPMyadmin runs on the laptop, and the database resides on the server, that might well be a cause of problems. I didn’t create a service op port the default port, but that should not be required.
I changed the configuration file: modified the database-server host from name to address, just to check: but still the server does not respond.
Telnet to that port should be possible, or at least, wait for input. But it keeps trying to connect, and at end times out:
$ telnet 192.168.0.2 3306
%TELNET-I-TRYING, Trying ... 192.168.0.2
%TELNET-E-CONNFAIL, Failed to connect to remote host
-SYSTEM-F-TIMEOUT, device timeout
Next is to check if that really is the problem: use a linux distribution that runs Apache and PHPMyAdmin to connect to the MySQl database on Diana – from the LAN since the external access to the MySqL database is locked – for obvious reasons.
UPDATE
I had a brainwave just before falling asleep: I suddenly realized there is a good reason why it didn’t work
These tests are run on an emulated Alpha on my laptop, and the emulator wasn’t started with network access in mind; it can be accessed from my laptop using the console (which is a PuTTY window on the default port of the emulator), and the loopback interface on Vista. That makes it possible to access the webserver on the emulator from the laptop only, and allows the emulated system no access to anywhere else than the laptop. The database however is located on Diana – on the network – and therefore, there is no access to the database from the emulated Alpha, in any way…Well, next time start the emulator sharing the NIC on the laptop, and see what happens.
Holidays are over
Students getting back to their computers, switch them on again and try hacking again. Or their systems are infected with some rootkit of botnet, spreading spam and trying to break into web- and FTP sites. I can see it in the logfiles; the number of rejected mail messages and HTTP requests has been low for a few weeks but is now getting to more normal proportions.