PHP Post data with Fsockopen

Question

I am attempting to post data using fsockopen, and then returning the result. Here is my current code:

<?php
$data="stuff=hoorah\r\n";
$data=urlencode($data);

$fp = fsockopen("www.website.com", 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
if (!$fp) {
    echo "$errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
} else {
    $out = "POST /script.php HTTP/1.0\r\n";
    $out .= "Host: www.webste.com\r\n";
    $out .= 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n';
    $out .= 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data) . '\r\n\r\n';
    $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
    fwrite($fp, $out);
    while (!feof($fp)) {
        echo fgets($fp, 128);
    }
    fclose($fp);
}
?> 

It is supposed to echo the page, and it is echoing the page, but here is the script for script.php

<?php
echo "<br><br>";    
$raw_data = $GLOBALS['HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA'];  
 parse_str( $raw_data, $_POST );

//test 1
var_dump($raw_data);
echo "<br><br>":
//test 2
print_r( $_POST );  
?>

The outcome is:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:40:46 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6 Content-Length: 31 Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 string(0) "" Array ( )

What do I have wrong? Why isn't the variable posting its data?

Solution 1

There are many small errors in your code. Here's a snippet which is tested and works.

<?php

$fp = fsockopen('example.com', 80);

$vars = array(
    'hello' => 'world'
);
$content = http_build_query($vars);

fwrite($fp, "POST /reposter.php HTTP/1.1\r\n");
fwrite($fp, "Host: example.com\r\n");
fwrite($fp, "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n");
fwrite($fp, "Content-Length: ".strlen($content)."\r\n");
fwrite($fp, "Connection: close\r\n");
fwrite($fp, "\r\n");

fwrite($fp, $content);

header('Content-type: text/plain');
while (!feof($fp)) {
    echo fgets($fp, 1024);
}

And then at example.com/reposter.php put this

<?php print_r($_POST);

When run you should get output something like

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:24:07 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.9
Vary: Host
Content-Type: text/html
Connection: close

1f
Array
(
    [hello] => world
)
0

Solution 2

Try this instead

$out .= 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data) . '\r\n';
$out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
$out .= $data;

Solution 3

Try this:

<?php
$data="stuff=hoorah\r\n";
$data=urlencode($data);

$fp = fsockopen("www.website.com", 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
if (!$fp) {
    echo "$errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
} else {
    $out = "POST /script.php HTTP/1.0\r\n";
    $out .= "Host: www.webste.com\r\n";
    $out .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
    $out .= 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data) . "\r\n\r\n";
    $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
    fwrite($fp, $out);
    fwrite($fp, $data);
    while (!feof($fp)) {
        echo fgets($fp, 128);
    }
    fclose($fp);
}
?> 

Some character escapes such as \n do not work in single quotes.

Solution 4

At no point is $data being written to the socket. You want to add something like:

$out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
fwrite($fp, $out);
fwrite($fp, $data);

View more solutions

Comments

[Joseph Robidoux]

I did that and still no cigar.

[Ben Rowe]

Try installing a packet sniffer on your server and see what headers are actually being sent to the server. Are they the same as what you're sending in php?

[carestad]

Why does it show "1f" and "0" at the end there? I get the same, but not quite sure.

[Julian]

it works but you have to change in fsockopen to fsockopen('www.example.com', 80); and in fwrite to fwrite($fp, "Host: www.example.com\r\n");