Deploying Invicti Shark for PHP
You can use Invicti Shark to carry out interactive security testing (IAST) in your web application to confirm more vulnerabilities and further minimize false positives.
Before deploying Shark, note the list of supported servers and frameworks.
Supported Servers and Frameworks | |
PHP Language |
|
Application Frameworks |
|
Web Servers |
|
Database Engines |
|
Package Manager |
|
For Shark to operate, you need to download an agent and deploy it on your server. Please note that this agent is generated uniquely for each target website for security reasons.
To deploy Shark, you need to keep in mind that the mechanism you need to use is to invoke the PHP directive auto_prepend_file and point this directive to the Shark PHP file.
This topic explains how to download and copy the Shark files to your hard disk and configure your web server to use these files.
Deploying the Shark agent is a 3 step process.
Downloading the Shark agent
You can find the required instructions to download the Shark agent in Deploying Invicti Shark.
Copying the Shark agent
You need to create a dedicated folder inside the root folder of your operating system to hold the Shark agent.
- For Windows:
- Create a file in C: and name it shark
- Copy the shark.php file into "C:\shark"
- For Linux: (Execute the following commands by using terminal)
- Run the following command: mkdir /shark/
- Use cd to locate the folder that contains the Shark agent file
- Then, run the following command: cp shark.php /shark
Configuring your web server
Invoking auto_prepend_file changes for different web servers. Instructions for each web server are provided below.
Information In order to invoke auto_prepend_file, you need to identify the INI file and make changes as instructed below.
For further information, see Identifying php.ini in your web server. |
Internet Information Services (IIS)
- Identify the php.ini file that contains the PHP directives for your website
- Add auto_prepend_file="c:\shark\shark.php" to the website's INI file
Apache
- There are two options in Apache.
- Option 1
- Add php_value auto_prepend_file c:\shark\shark.php to the .htaccess file in the root folder of your website
- Option 2
- Add auto_prepend_file="c:\shark\shark.php" to the website's INI file
NGINX
- There are two options in Nginx
- Option 1
- Identify Nginx config file
- Add fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "auto_prepend_file = /shark/shark.php"; in the section for "location ~ \.php$",
- Option 2
- Add auto_prepend_file="c:\shark\shark.php" to the website's INI file
Identifying php.ini in your web server
Temporarily create a simple PHP file with phpinfo(); - the "Loaded Configuration File" is the general php.ini file you will need to change.
Information
|
Docker
The simple Docker example below is applicable for Apache + PHP + Shark.
- Prepare an example website. For this single-page example, here are the contents of /home/myuser/www/index.php
<?php echo "Hello World!"; ?> <?php phpinfo(); ?> |
- Configure loading of Shark agent for the website; here are the contents of /home/myuser/www/.htaccess
php_value auto_prepend_file /var/www/mysite/shark.php |
- Configure Apache configuration for the website: here are the contents of /home/myuser/mysite-apache.conf
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin me@mydomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite <Directory /var/www/mysite/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride All Order deny,allow Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost> |
- Copy the shark.php file in /home/myuser/www
- Configure the Docker file for building the container; here are the contents of /home/myuser/Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu: latest MAINTAINER Acunetix # Install apache, PHP RUN apt-get update RUN apt-get -y upgrade RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -y install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php # Expose apache EXPOSE 80 # Copy website and Shark agent into place COPY www /var/www/mysite # Update the default apache site with the website config COPY mysite-apache.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf # Start up apache in the foreground CMD /usr/sbin/apache2ctl -D FOREGROUND |
- Build the container, then run the following commands from the docker machine:
cd /home/myuser docker build -t mysite |
Uninstalling Shark
You may choose to uninstall the Shark agent from your server. You can take the following steps to uninstall.
- Reverse changes in the configuration file to invoke the auto_prepend_file directive
- Next, remove the Shark agent file as follows
- For Windows:
- Remove the C:\shark\shark.php file
- Then, Remove the C:\shark folder
- For Linux: (Write the following commands by using terminal)
- rm -rf /shark/
Information Although the Invicti Shark agent is secured with a unique strong built-in password, it is recommended that the Shark agent files are uninstalled and removed from the web application if they are no longer in use. |