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Guide to API Privilege Escalation - Call Your Application

To use your AdminBin application, call the appropriate method. The method to use depends on the target cPanel & WHM version, and whether you used the Cpanel::AdminBin::Script::Call module.

Application call methods

Select a method below to view the recommended method for your target cPanel & WHM versions.

The Call method (54+)
The Standard method

The Call method (54+)

WebPros International, LLC introduced this functionality in cPanel & WHM version 54 for admin modules in Perl.

To use your AdminBin application, call the Cpanel::AdminBin::Call::call function. This function passes your arguments to the AdminBin module. It is intended only for those admin modules that subclass the Cpanel::AdminBin::Script::Call class; to call other admin modules, use the Standard method.

Example

The following example demonstrates how to use this functionality within a Perl script:

#!/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl

use Data::Dumper ();

use Cpanel::AdminBin::Call ();

sub do_MyExample_stuff {
    my $thing_to_do = shift;
    my $string_to_mess_with = shift;

    #Prevent potential action-at-a-distance bugs.
    #(cf. documentation for CPAN's Try::Tiny module)
    local $@;

    my $val;

    #NOTE: call() will throw an exception if there was an error
    #while communicating with the admin module or if an exception
    #escaped from a method call within the admin module.
    my $ok = eval {
        $val = Cpanel::AdminBin::Call::call(
            'MyNamespace',
            'MyExample',
            $thing_to_do,
            $string_to_mess_with,
        );

        1;
    };

    if ($ok) {
        return ref($val) ? Data::Dumper::Dumper($val) : $val;
    }

    my $err = $@;
    return "Error: $err";
}

print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";

print "<pre>";

print "ECHO test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("ECHO","Hello, World!") . "\n\n";
print "MIRROR test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("MIRROR","Hello, World!") . "\n\n";
print "BOUNCY test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("BOUNCY","Hello, World!") . "\n\n";
print "HASHIFY test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("HASHIFY","Hello, World!") . "\n\n";
print "WRONG test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("WRONG","Hello, World!") . "\n\n";

print "DEATH test:\n" . do_MyExample_stuff("DEATH") . "\n\n";

print "test complete!\n";

In the same directory as the MyExample module file, you must create the MyExample.conf configuration file with the following contents:

mode=full

For more information about the configuration file, read our Configuration Files documentation.

The Standard method

To use your AdminBin application, call the Cpanel::Wrap::send_cpwrapd_request method. This method passes your arguments and parameters into the application via STDIN.

Your subroutines are private to the AdminBin application. User-level code that calls the Cpanel::Wrap::send_cpwrapd_request method cannot access these subroutines because AdminBin applications execute in a separate process.
The AdminBin application receives a pseudo-function name as the second argument.
- Use the pseudo-function name to determine the code path to execute in your AdminBin application.
- The simplest way to implement this is an IF block.

Example

The following LiveAPI example uses this functionality within the Perl environment.

#!/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl

BEGIN {
    unshift @INC, '/usr/local/cpanel';
}

use Cpanel::LiveAPI ();
use Data::Dumper    ();
use Cpanel::Wrap    ();

sub do_MyExample_stuff {
    my $thing_to_do = shift;
    my $string_to_mess_with = shift;

    my $result = Cpanel::Wrap::send_cpwrapd_request(
        'namespace' => 'MyNamespace',
        'module'    => 'MyExample',
        'function'  => $thing_to_do,
        'data'      => $string_to_mess_with
    );

    if ( $result->{'error'} ) {
        return "Error code $result->{'exit_code'} returned: $result->{'data'}";
    }
    elsif ( ref ( $result->{'data'} ) ) {
        return Data::Dumper::Dumper($result->{'data'});
    }
    elsif ( defined( $result->{'data'}) ) {
        return $result->{'data'};
    }
    return 'cpwrapd request failed: ' . $result->{'statusmsg'};
}

my $cpanel = Cpanel::LiveAPI->new();

print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";

print "<pre>";

print "ECHO test:\n".do_MyExample_stuff("ECHO","Hello, World!")."\n\n";
print "MIRROR test:\n".do_MyExample_stuff("MIRROR","Hello, World!")."\n\n";
print "BOUNCY test:\n".do_MyExample_stuff("BOUNCY","Hello, World!")."\n\n";
print "HASHIFY test:\n".do_MyExample_stuff("HASHIFY","Hello, World!")."\n\n";
print "WRONG test:\n".do_MyExample_stuff("WRONG","Hello, World!")."\n\n";

print "test complete!\n";
$cpanel->end();

Returns

The system sends returns from the AdminBin application via STDOUT and processes them through the AdminBin server. The system returns them via the Cpanel::Wrap::send_cpwrapd_request method.

The system may return data in the form of a data structure or a scalar value.
If the AdminBin application returns a data structure, it must serialize the output with either the Cpanel::AdminBin::Serializer::Dump module, or in the JSON format.
- You must prefix serialized output with a period and a newline ( .\n ) before you send the serialized data.
- When the AdminBin server receives a period and a newline, it automatically treats the data as serialized and processes it with the Cpanel::AdminBin::Serializer::Load module.

Example Cpanel::AdminBin::Script::Call output

A successful output:

{
         'statusmsg' => 'Ran AdminBin MyNamespace/MyExample/HASHIFY',
         'version' => '2.3',
         'status' => 1,
         'mode' => 'simple',
         'data' => {
                     'ourdata' => 'Hello, World!'
                   },
         'exit_code' => 0,
         'timeout' => 0,
         'action' => 'fetch',
         'error' => 0
};

A failure output:

{
          'statusmsg' => 'Ran adminbin MyNamespace/MyExample/WRONG',
          'version' => '2.3',
          'status' => 1,
          'mode' => 'simple',
          'data' => 'Invalid function specified to MyExample adminbin function',
          'exit_code' => 256,
          'timeout' => 0,
          'action' => 'run',
          'error' => 1
}