[wellylug] Automatically retrieving certificate and webpage via HTTPS

[Josh Simpson]

I use this script to get my actrix usage graphs, It may be of some help.

=======start code=======

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $user = '';
my $pass = '';

use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Cookies;
use HTTP::Request::Common;

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$ua->agent("Nutscrape/1.0 (CP/M; Z80)");
$ua->cookie_jar(HTTP::Cookies->new);

my $res = $ua->request(GET "http://www.actrix.co.nz/");

die "not an amiga\n" unless $res->is_success;

$res = $ua->request(POST "https://www.actrix.co.nz/myactrix/login.php",
                     { username => $user, password => $pass} );

die "not a zx spectrum\n" unless $res->is_success;

my $prefix = 
"https://www.actrix.co.nz/myactrix/account/myinfo/ubs_imagegen.php?type=";

for my $i (qw(daily weekly monthly)) {
     $res = $ua->request(GET $prefix.$i);
     die "$i is not a dell\n" unless $res->is_success;
     open(OUT, ">/home/jls/public_html/usage/$i.gif"); print OUT 
$res->content; close OUT;
}

======end code======

Ewen McNeill wrote:
> In message <43B21754.7010708 at gmail.com>, David Antliff writes:
> 
>>When I was on Paradise.net, I wrote and maintained a script that 
>>downloaded my current cable Internet data usage data. [...]
>>I have since moved to Ihug and things are a little different [...]
>>Usage page requires an SSL authenticated session to be established [...]
>>I don't really know much about SSL and HTTPS yet, so my question is - 
>>can this login process be automated somehow so that I can modify my 
>>script to collect usage data from Ihug? 
> 
> 
> Yes it should be possible to automate the collection from iHug, although
> you may be better off using something like Perl and LWP to do the
> collection, especially if you get a cookie once you log in which you
> have to send back at the next stage (I do this to, eg, collect the
> prepay balance off Vodafone's website).
> 
> 
>>How do I go about obtaining a certificate from their server? 
> 
> 
> The server certificate will be sent to you as part of the HTTPS
> negotiation (along with the SSL chain that authorises it back to a "well
> known" certificate authority).  Providing you don't care about
> "proving" that you're collecting the information from the correct site
> (ie, verifying the SSL certificate is as expected) you can simply ignore
> this.
> 
> SSL does support client certificates as well (which is, I assume, what
> wget offers as an option), but it's extremely unlikly that iHug assigns
> you a client certificate and requires you to send it as part of the
> login process.   (SSL client certificates are almost never used outside
> some very closed systems.)
> 
> I'll include the perl script I use to get paradise cable data (from the
> https service), which may give you some hints on what is required.  If
> you need to track cookies look at HTTP::Cookies and friends.
> 
> Ewen
> 
> -=- cut here -=-
> #! /usr/bin/perl 
> # Request current traffic information from Paradise
> # Works for Cable Traffic plans, but it appears not for Citylink Plans.
> # Written by Ewen McNeill <ewen at naos.co.nz>, 2003/04/23 based on an idea
> # by Michael Robinson <michael at diaspora.gen.nz>
> # Rewritten by Ewen McNeill <ewen at naos.co.nz>, 2004/02/15 to use newer
> # CGIs at paradise.
> # Free for you to use.  If you break it, you own both parts.
> BEGIN { delete $ENV{'https_proxy'}; }
> use LWP::UserAgent;
> use HTTP::Request::Common;
> $OUTPUT_FORMAT="%-25s %15s %15s %15s\n";
> @HEADINGS=('Billing Period','International','Domestic','Total');
> $name=$ENV{'PARADISE_USER'} || 'ewenmcneill';
> if (-t STDIN)
> { 
>   print "Enter password: ";
>   system "stty", "-echo";
>   chomp($password=<>);
>   system "stty", "echo";
>   print "\n";;
> }
> else
> {
>   chomp($password=<>);
> }
> $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
> $req = GET "https://www.paradise.net.nz/cgi-bin/members/usage/show-volume-usage";
> $req->authorization_basic($name,$password);
> $res = $ua->request($req) or die "Cannot make request";
> @ans = split(/\n/, $res->content());
> my ($daterange, at totals);
> my $index = 0;
> foreach (@ans)
> {
>   if (/(\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d to \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d)/) { $daterange=$1; $index=0;}
>   if (/<td align="RIGHT".*?>(\d+\.\d+)</)           { $totals[$index++]=$1;   }
> }
> printf $OUTPUT_FORMAT, @HEADINGS;
> printf $OUTPUT_FORMAT, $daterange, at totals[0..2];
> -=- cut here -=-
> 
> 

-- 
Joshua Simpson
Actrix Customer Support
j.simpson at actrix.co.nz
Ph.  0800 ACTRIX (228749)
Fax. +64 4 801 5335
www.actrix.co.nz