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Maurice ONeal 4c1d13f8f8 Password and account security updates security updates: various commands that change or create account passwords now disallow the user name, display name or email from being contained in it. this will force users to not use public information inside the password, hardening password security a little. the root user name is now changeable and required to be changed on initial login. this harden security a little by giving host admins the option to not have a well known user name attached to a high privileged account. users can no longer re-use the old password and/or user name when required to change. however, this does not actually implement full password history because the user can then later change the password back to the old password after the required change. the host can longer block by ip addresses and the auto block threshold setting has been removed. something like this is best left up to firewalls, routers, switches or any other networking infrastructure. in the future i can consider adding event triggering that run certain admin defined external or internal commands when the host detects certain event thresholds. minor changes/bug fixes: all commands that change or create user names now no longer accept user names that looks like an mail address. this works out better for clients when differentiating logging in via user name or email address. the recover_acct command now also have cancel on blank text options making it more consistent with all other commands that take text input. resetting the root user's account password via command line now also unlocks it if locked. the -help and -about command line options no longer display the default password. a new -default_pw option was added for this purpose. the -status -addr or -stop command line options require super user privileges to run properly depending on how the host is installed. an error message like "permission denied" was addded on failure to make this requirement clear to the end user. fs_copy and fs_move now does implicit skip on error instead of stop on error. the IDLE frame type id now carry an integer return code that can be interpreted by clients to determine the result of the command that was sent to the host. house keeping: all documentation was updated to reflect the changes made in this commit. the module tester example is no longer relevant to this project so it was deleted.		2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
docs	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
src	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
.gitignore	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
cmd_docs.qrc	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
LICENSE.md	Minor changes to the linux build script	2019-09-19 13:07:50 -04:00
linux_build.sh	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00
MRCI.pro	Password and account security updates	2020-01-29 12:29:01 -05:00

docs/README.md

MRCI

(Modular Remote Command Interpreter) is a command interpreter primarily designed to provide any type of remote service to connected clients. As the name implies, it is expandable via 3rd party modules by adding addtional commands that remote clients can run on the host. It has a fully feasured user account management system with access control to certain commands for certain users. All persistent data is handled by a SQLite database and all remote connections are handled via TCP and encrypted in SSL/TLS.

Usage

Usage: mrci <argument>

<Arguments>

 -help                   : display usage information about this application.
 -stop                   : stop the current host instance if one is currently running.
 -about                  : display versioning/warranty information about this application.
 -addr {ip_address:port} : set the listening address and port for TCP clients.
 -status                 : display status information about the host instance if it is currently running.
 -reset_root             : reset the root account password to the default password.
 -host                   : start a new host instance. (this blocks).
 -default_pw             : show the default password.
 -public_cmds            : run the internal module to list it's public commands. for internal use only.
 -exempt_cmds            : run the internal module to list it's rank exempt commands. for internal use only.
 -user_cmds              : run the internal module to list it's user commands. for internal use only.
 -run_cmd {command_name} : run an internal module command. for internal use only.

Internal module | -public_cmds, -user_cmds, -exempt_cmds, -run_cmd |:

 -pipe {pipe_name/path} : the named pipe used to establish a data connection with the session.
 -mem_ses {key_name}    : the shared memory key for the session object.
 -mem_host {key_name}   : the shared memory key for the server object.

The host can only be managed via a connected client that supports text input/output so the host application is always listening for clients while running entirely in the background. By default the host listen for clients on address 0.0.0.0 and port 35516, effectively making it reachable on any network interface of the host platform via that specific port.

Any one user account registered with the host can be given root privileges which basically gives this user unrestricted access to anything in the host for administrative purposes. When a host instance is created for the first time, it will create a new user account called 'root' with a randomized default password. To find out what the default password is, run -default_pw. When logging in for the fist time, the host will require you to change the user name and password before continuing.

More Than Just a Command Interpreter

Typical use for a MRCI host is to run commands that clients ask it to run, very similar to what you see in terminal emulators. It however does have a few feasures typically not seen in local terminals:

Broadcast any type of data to all peers connected to the host.
Run remote commands on connected peers.
Host object positioning data for peers (online games do this).
Send data to/from a peer client directly.
Fully feasured user account management system.
Built in permissions and command access management.
Host limits management (max concurrent users, max failed password attempts, etc...).
Account recovery emailing in case of forgotten passwords. **
Acesss to various logs.
Built in host file management (copy, move, delete, etc...).
Built in file upload/download support.

Because the host is modular, the things you can customize it to do is almost limitless by simply adding more commands.

** The email system of this application depends on external email clients that run on the command line. The default is mutt. If you want emails to work out of the box, consider installing and configuring mutt. It just needs to be configured with a smtp account to send emails with. You don't have to use mutt though, the host does have options to change the email client to any other application that has a command line interface.

Documentation

Development Setup

Linux Required Packages:

qtbase5-dev
libssl-dev
gcc
make
makeself

Build From Source (Linux)

Linux_build.sh is a custom script designed to build this project from the source code using qmake, make and makeself. You can pass 2 optional arguments:

The path to the QT bin folder in case you want to compile with a QT install not defined in PATH.
Path of the output makeself file (usually has a .run extension). If not given, the outfile will be named mrci-x.x.x.run in the source code folder.

Build:

cd /path/to/source/code
sh ./linux_build.sh

Install:

chmod +x ./mrci-x.x.x.run
./mrci-x.x.x.run

The makeself installer not only installs the application but also installs it as a service if the target linux system supports systemd.

Start/Stop the service:

sudo systemctl start mrci
sudo systemctl stop mrci