zii/MRCI

Maurice O'Neal c8f53d1e5c Slimmed down and simplified host administering

- I decided to remove the entire concept of a root user.
  Instead, the host initializes as a blank slate and it
  will be up to the host admin to create a rank 1 user via
  the new command line option "-add_admin" to do initial
  setup with.

- There is no longer such a concept as a protected user.
  Meaning even the last rank 1 user in the host database
  is allowed to delete or modify the rank of their own
  account. To prevent permanent "admin lock out" in this
  scenario the "-elevate" command line option was created.

- Host settings are no longer stored in the database.
  Instead, host settings are now stored in a conf.json file
  in /etc/mrci/conf.json if running on a linux based OS or
  in %Programdata%\mrci\conf.json if running on Windows.

- Email templates are no longer stored in the database.
  Instead, the templates can be any file formatted in UTF-8
  text stored in the host file system. The files they point
  to can be modified in the conf.json file.

- The conf file also replaced all use env variables so
  MRCI_DB_PATH, MRCI_WORK_DIR, MRCI_PRIV_KEY and
  MRCI_PUB_KEY are no longer in use. SSL/TLS cert paths can
  be modified in the conf file.

- Removed email template cmds set_email_template and
  preview_email.

- Also removed cmds close_host, host_config and
  restart_host. The actions these commands could do is best
  left to the host system command line.

- The database class will now explicitly check for write
  permissions to the database and throw an appropriate
  error message if the check fails. "DROP TABLE" SQL
  abilities were added to make this happen.

- Removed async cmds exit(3), maxses(5) and restart(11).

2020-11-10 14:47:00 -05:00

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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.

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.
 -status      : display status information about the host instance if it is currently running.
 -host        : start a new host instance. (this blocks)
 -host_trig   : start a new host instance. (this does not block)
 -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     : run an internal module command. for internal use only.
 -ls_sql_drvs : list all available SQL drivers that the host currently supports.
 -load_ssl    : re-load the host SSL certificate without stopping the host instance.
 -elevate     : elevate any user account to rank 1.
 -add_admin   : create a rank 1 account with a randomized password.

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

 -pipe     : the named pipe used to establish a data connection with the session.
 -mem_ses  : the shared memory key for the session.
 -mem_host : the shared memory key for the host main process.

Details:

add_admin - this argument takes a single string representing a user name to create a rank 1 account with.
            the host will set a randomized password for it and display it on the CLI. this user will be
            required to change the password upon logging in.
            example: -add_admin somebody

elevate   - this argument takes a single string representing a user name to an account to promote to rank 1.
            example: -elevate somebody

run_cmd  - this argument is used by the host itself, along side the internal module arguments below to run
           the internal command names passed by it. this is not ment to be run directly by human input.
           the executable will auto close if it fails to connect to the pipe and/or shared memory segments

The host can 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.

More Than Just a Command Interpreter

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

Build Setup

For Linux you need the following packages to successfully build/install:

qtbase5-dev
libssl-dev
gcc
make
python3

For Windows support you need to have the following applications installed:

OpenSSL
Qt5.12 or newer
Python3

Build

To build this project from source you just need to run the build.py and then the install.py python scripts. While running the build the script, it will try to find the Qt API installed in your machine according to the PATH env variable. If not found, it will ask you to input where it can find the Qt bin folder where the qmake executable exists or you can bypass all of this by passing the -qt_dir option on it's command line.

while running the install script, it will ask you to input 1 of 3 options:

local machine - This option will install the built application onto the local machine without creating an installer.

create installer - This option creates an installer that can be distributed to other machines for installation. The resulting installer is just a regular .py script file that the target machine can run if it has Python3 insalled. Only Python3 needs to be installed and an internet connection is not required.

exit - Cancel the installation.

-local or -installer can be passed as command line options for install.py to explicitly select one of the above options without pausing for user input.

Services

If a target linux system supports systemd, the application will be installed as a background daemon that can start/stop with the following commands:

sudo systemctl start mrci
sudo systemctl stop mrci

In a Windows system, a scheduled task will be created to auto start the application in the background when the system starts.

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