WiFiAdmin 0.0.4 review

Wifiadmin is a free php graphical interface to mainly hostap, and wireless tools in general, although most of this code has been debu

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Panousis Thanos

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Wifiadmin is a free php graphical interface to mainly hostap, and wireless tools in general, although most of this code has been debugged only under a hostap environment.

Please submit errors found when running with other linux wireless drivers, that support wireless extensions. We are trying so that wifiadmin is as self-configuring and distribution-independent as possible.

Installation:

1) Decompress in a directory reachable from your web server(htdocs), keeping in mind the directory structure.
2) If you disable mysql usage($use_mysql variable in the include/config.php file):

Give write access to the user that you are running PHP, to the file include/passwd .For example, from wifiadmin root directory type 'chown apache:/ include; chown apache:/ include/passwd', depending on your local configuration.

If you enable mysql usage:

Within the directory, you'll find a a file named "mysql.sql". Contained in this file are the SQL statements necessary to create the WiFiAdmin database. Log onto your database server under the root account (or other account allowed to create databases), create a database for wifiadmin, and then run the contents of mysql.sql to create the tables and initial data.

For example:

mysqladmin -u [user] -p create [database-name]
mysql -u [user] -p [database-name] < mysql.sql

Or you can use phpMyAdmin to do the same.

In either case, you have to edit the include/config.php file and edit the following variables:

$USERS_DBHOST = "localhost"; host where mysql is running
$USERS_DB = "wifiadmin"; [database-name]
$USERS_DBUSER = "wifiadmin"; [user]
$USERS_DBPASS = "wifiadmin"; the password of [user]

3) Change your sudo configuration. Wifiadmin needs superuser access to specific executables. For the moment, this is done by giving superuser access to the user apache runs with, using the sudo mechanism. You can find out the user that apache runs with, by:

ps aux | grep http or ps aux | grep apache

You should use the visudo executable, or manually edit the file 'sudoers'. Add the following lines, replace www-data with the user apache runs with.

# Cmnd alias specification
Cmnd_Alias WIFIADMIN = /sbin/iwconfig, /sbin/ifconfig, /sbin/iwlist,
/sbin/iwpriv, /sbin/route, /usr/bin/host, /usr/sbin/arp

# User privilege specification
www-data ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: WIFIADMIN

Change the paths if iwconfig, ifconfig etc executables are located
elsewhere in your system.

WARNING
This configuration, gives superuser priviledges for the specific commandsto the user your web server runs with. This might have implications on system security.

4) Add the following lines at the end of your crontab (you can use the crontab -e command, or edit your /etc/crontab directly)

*/2 * * * * root php /path/to/wifiadmin/create-update-rrds.php > /dev/null 2>&1
*/10 * * * * root php /path/to/wifiadmin/create_graphs.php > /dev/null 2>&1

The first line creates(for the first time) and updates the rrd databases. The second
creates the updated png graphs from the databases. RRD updates happen every 2 minutes, and graphs are crated every 10 minutes.

Change these values to suit your needs. Mind space characters from copy-pasting into your crontab!!

5) Wifiadmin can send emails to confirm new user accounts, or remind user passwords.
If $send_emails = true; in config.php file, wifiadmin will send emails.
If you set $confirm_new_account = false; while $send_emails = true;, wifiamdin will
send emails to remind passwords, but no email confirmation will be needed in order
to set up an account.

6) Fire up your favorite browser, and point to 'http://target-hostname/wifiadmin/'
ATTENTION: WIFIADMIN HAS A DEFAULT ADMIN PASSWORD. Change the admin
password as soon as possible, by logging in as user 'admin' with password 'wifiadmin'.

Go to user management, choose 'admin', and type a different password. You can LOOSE complete network access to your box if you are careless enough...

Requirements:
A fairly recent version of RRD-tool must be installed on the system. An http server with PHP support must also be running. You will also need the command line interface(CLI) for php. If 'which php' returns some path, CLI is present in your system.

WiFiAdmin has a community section, that holds information about conected clients usind a mysql database. You can disable mysql usage, by the $use_mysql variable in the include/config.php file, which will disable the community section.

Note that if you use mysql, usernames, passwords and user privileges will be saved in the database.

Wifiadmin can send emails, in order to sonfirm new accounts or remind user passwords
You can disable this functionality using $send_emails variable in config.php

According to the php manual:
For the Mail functions to be available, PHP must have access to the sendmail binary on your system during compile time.

If you use another mail program, such as qmail or postfix, be sure to use the appropriate sendmail wrappers that come with them.

PHP will first look for sendmail in your PATH, and then in the following: /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/etc:/etc:/usr/ucblib:/usr/lib.

It's highly recommended to have sendmail available from your PATH. Also, the user that compiled PHP must have permission to access the sendmail binary.

This usually means that if a normal user of your system is able to send emails, then wifiadmin can do that too.

What's New in This Release:
Adopted iwconfig output parsing instead of reading /proc files for interaction with the system, as this method guarantees greater compatibility with drivers other than HOSTAP.Everything apart association list is tested with madwifi drivers too.
Site survey results now appear in a nifty sortable table
Added a new setting. New users are either allowed to register themselves, or only admin can insert new users.
CSS, layout improvements, code enhancements throughout the project
Several security fixes, hardened sudo configuration
Dynamic sorting on the client side with JavaScript for various tables
802.11 "rate" and network traffic graphs per interface added