Connection to secure FTP Server from PHP
ftp, php, sftp
Solution
Many cheap webhoster will not give you ssh (hence no ftp via ssh aka sftp) but only ssl-secured ftp aka ftps (see here). You might have that problem. As others suggested, use filezilla or another ftp client to test your credits and chosen security method beforehand.
ftp_ssl_connect() at least under windows will be a long journey, since you have to compile your own php binaries, see here.
As this php contributor rightfully points out, no secure connection is secure, as long as you don't know, who you are talking too, aka „peer certification“ through valid certificates.
phpseclib is probably your best bet. But I haven't figure out, how to ensure, it uses peer verification (guessing, the truth is in openssl.conf ...)
So even at the time of writing, I wonder more than ever, if peer-validated ftps (ftp with ssl/tls authentification) is possible... also see my question here.
Problem
This question is in line with this question, I am trying to connect to secure FTP Server and it is not able to connect, wierd part is that I am able to do ssh and connect to the server but when I try to do it from php code using few different approaches but it is not working Approaches: - FTP Wrappers - `ftp_connect` & `ftp_login` - `ftp_ssl_connect` - `ssh2_sftp` - `ssh2-scp-send` & `ssh2-scp-receive` -- Have not tried this approach yet but recommended in comments portion and so would work on this and will post updates later. Code for Approach 1: ``` $ftp_server = "ftp://username:password@192.168.1.1:21/{$log_file_name}"; $opts = array('ftp' => array('overwrite' => TRUE)); $context = stream_context_create($opts); $put_file = file_put_contents($ftp_server, $response, LOCK_EX,$context); ``` Here also am not able to connect to secure FTP Server, any suggestions as to why it is not able to connect ? Code for Approach 2: ``` ftp_server = 'www.server.com'; $conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server) or die ("Cannot connect to host"); //Program dies out here and give error message "Cannot connect to host", //but why ftp_login does not work here, Any Suggestions ? $ftp_user_name = "login"; $ftp_user_pass = "password"; // login with username and password $login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass); // check connection and login result if ((!$conn_id) || (!$login_result)) { echo "FTP connection has encountered an error!"; echo "Attempted to connect to $ftp_server for user $ftp_user_name...."; //exit; } else { echo "Connected to $ftp_server, for user $ftp_user_name"."....."; } ``` Code for Approach 3: `Here am using same code as approach 1 but instead of ftp_connect, am using ftp_ssl_connect` Code for Approach 4: ``` $connection = ssh2_connect('www.server.com', 22); ssh2_auth_password($connection, 'login', 'password'); $sftp = ssh2_sftp($connection); //exit(); $stream = fopen("ssh2.sftp://$sftp/path/to/file", 'r'); ``` Can anyone advise why am I not able to connect to secure FTP Server using above approaches but still am able to do so using ssh ? Are there any other approaches to connect to secure FTP Server using php ? UPDATE: Q1. I tried again using ftp_connect but it just died out and why does it dies out, what are the scenarios in which ftp_connect dies out ? Q2. Do we have only this approaches to connect to the server or are there any other which we can implement ? Q3. Is this php language related that it does not support secure FTP Connection ? OR there is any other way of doing this using php, if yes than do provide different approaches as it would be very helpful. UPDATE 1: I was trying to google more on the issue and it seems that if ftp_connect does not work than firewall could be one of the reason for it. I am not totally sure if that is the case but I am researching more on it and post an update in here if I find anything useful. Possible Solution : Problem If I remove the "or die" then you get the error: When running from a webpage: Warning: ftp_login() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in /var/www/ftp_test.php on line 28 var_dump($conn_id); returns bool(false). From command line /usr/bin/php /var/www/ftp_test.php var_dump($conn_id); returns resource(4) of type (FTP Buffer). Script completes. Solution 1 This could be one `solution` : Try to turn off `selinux` and here is the `way` or Search : How to disable selinux for turning it off temporarily or permanently. Solution 2 If you don't want to turn off selinux completely, you might get what you need by just setting the httpd_can_network_connect using the setsebool command. Verify that it was previously set to "off": getsebool httpd_can_network_connect Set it to "on": ``` setsebool httpd_can_network_connect=1 ``` Turn selinux back on: setenforce 1 Check to be sure php `ftp_connect` still works when running under httpd. Set the policy (-P) to "on" so it persists over a reboot: ``` setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect=1 ``` Solution 3 There could also be issue with company firewall. Make sure it is configured properly and has access rights set properly. Solution 4 Another approach is to use cURL : libcurl as it can be used to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols Solution 5 There is open source project called PHP Secure Communication Library (phpspeclib) which can be also used to establish secure connection to FTP Server.