submitting an html form with curl from bash

[Colin Brace]

Hi all,

I am not sure if this is the best newsgroup for my question, so feel
free to redirect me.

I am trying to manipulate my ADSL modem via its web interface in a
shell script. Basically, I need to disable and reactive a certain
setting, something called ZIPB mode. I am assigned a dynamic IP by my
ISP, and when this changes, I need to reactivate ZIPB on the modem
manually (an unfortunate limitation on the manufacturer's part).

The HTML form looks like this:

# <i>disabled.</i>
# <FORM method="post" ACTION="/configuration/zipb.html/enable">
# <INPUT type="hidden" name="EmWeb_ns:vim:
4.ImZipbAgent:enabled" value="true">
# <INPUT type="hidden" name="EmWeb_ns:vim:3" value="/
configuration/zipb.html">
# <INPUT type="submit" value="Enable">
# </FORM>

So, I try something like this in my shell script:

#!/usr/local/bin/bash

brackets () {
sed -e '
s/</&lt;/g
s/>/&gt;/g
s,/,%2f,g
s/?/%3f/g
s/:/%3a/g
s/@/%40/g
s/&/%26/g
s/=/%3d/g
s/+/%2b/g
s/\$/%24/g
s/,/%2c/g
s/ /%20/g
'
}

input1=$(echo "EmWeb_ns:vim:4.ImZipbAgent:enabled"|brackets)"="$(echo
"true"|brackets)
input2=$(echo "EmWeb_ns:vim:3"|brackets)"="$(echo "/configuration/
zipb.html"|brackets)
input3="Enable"

curl -d '"'$input1"&"$input2"&"$input3'"'
http://$user:$pass@copperjet/configuration/zipb.html/enable >2&1> /dev/
null

but all I get is a rather unhelpful reply:

curl: (52) Empty reply from server

Can anyone suggest ways of debugging this and/or easier ways to go
about this?

On a related note, I see that there is a book called from No Starch
called "Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers: A Guide to Developing
Internet Agents with PHP/CURL" which looks like it covers these
techniques, but

a) I am not to keen on buying a book on a topic which I don't plan to
pursue further than this simple task, and

b) I am likewise not so keen on having to learn PHP just to enable me
to do this.

Thanks for any ideas,
-- Colin

[mop2]

Hi,
I'm using bash for that.
My script is below.
I don't remember about it because it don't give me troubles.

The program "ngrep" is very useful to see communication. As root:
/usr/bin/ngrep -W byline -d eth0 -l -p -P ^

Can be redirected to a file if needed.
The password is in base64.
Just adapt the script or see how it works.
Important: it is for http, not https.

A good start point is you make what you do manually with ngrep writing
to a file.
After see the streams between devices you can adapt the script.

-----
exec 3<>/dev/tcp/10.0.0.15/2345||return

case $1 in
IP)
echo -e "\
GET /summary.htm HTTP/1.1\r
Authorization: Basic OIUojLjloiujljloiUohuiuhihgi=\r
Cache-Control: no-cache\r
Connection: Close\r
\r
" >&3

/usr/bin/tr \< \\n <&3|/bin/grep 'FONT color=#008800>'|\
/bin/grep \\.|/bin/cut -d \> -f 2

;;
RST)
echo -en "\nModem Reset: `/bin/date`" >&2
echo -en "\
POST /reboot.cgi HTTP/1.1\r
Connection: Close\r
Authorization: Basic OIUojLjloiujljloiUohuiuhihgi=\r
Content-Length: 14\r
\r
submit1=Reboot">&3

#while read -t 3;do echo "$REPLY" >&2;done <&3

esac
exec 3<&-

[Colin Brace]

On May 3, 3:35 pm, mop2 <mop2bky4mz5tyjwa8ersp7hrg5u...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm using bash for that.
> My script is below.

Hi,

By coincidence, I found another of doing this on this web page:

https://secure.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=81983&sid=2c1e347783c354a110c0d0cf6709bd72

It uses the telnet interface of the ADSL modem I have, a Copperjet
from Allied Data. I adapted it in my script like this:

in /etc/hosts:
172.19.3.1 copperjet

#!/usr/local/bin/bash
[...]
# copperjet username and password
cjtuser="colin"
cjtpass="xxxxxxxxxx"

# my PC
mypc="venus"

# procedure to reset ZIPB mode on the Copperjet
resetZIPB () {
(
sleep 1
printf "$cjtuser\r"
sleep 1
printf "$cjtpass\r"
sleep 1
printf "zipb set public device $mypc\r"
sleep 1
printf "user logout\r") | telnet copperjet
}
[...]

It works really well. I guess I will have to save studying HTML POST
for another project. ;) Thanks anyway for your ideas.

-Colin