[Resolved] CrackLib does not work

sumandebnath

I am using PHP 4.3.10 with Win XP/IIS. I am trying to make the CrackLib functions work. So I took the default 'words' dictionary from a Linux system and tried it out. But no functions work! They don't even return any error. All I get is a blank page. phpinfo() shows crack support as enabled.

The test script is given below:
<?php
$username = "something";
$password = "whatever";
$dictionary = "words";

error_reporting(E_ALL);

$resource = crack_opendict($dictionary);
$check = crack_check($resource, $password);
$diag = crack_getlastmessage();
echo $diag;
crack_closedict($resource);
?>

Can anybody point me towards the problem?

sumandebnath

Okay the bit about errors was not correct. It turns out that in php.ini display_errors was off. Now the same script if run gives the following errors:

Warning: crack_opendict(): Unable to open a crack dictionary in F:\Projects\cracklib\crack_test.php on line 8

Warning: crack_check(): 288690440 is not a valid cracklib dictionary resource in F:\Projects\cracklib\crack_test.php on line 9

Warning: crack_getlastmessage(): No obscure checks in this session in F:\Projects\cracklib\crack_test.php on line 10

I have tried other wordlists available on the net also.

Weedpacket

Hm. I tried the duplicating this (my Linux system has complete set of dictionary files - .pwd, .pwi and .hwm; I got complaints that these files couldn't be found if I just used a wordlist file). It worked for me.

sumandebnath

After your post I copied the cracklib_dict.hwm, cracklib_dict.pwd, cracklib_dict.pwi from a Linux m/c to my Windows box. But same error for them also. Is it a PHP bug? After all since the php_crack.dll is supplied and phpinfo() says crack support is enabled, the functions should work.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by sumandebnath
Is it a PHP bug?

Unlikely; if it works for me and works for you on the same version, then the difference can't be in what we both have in common, can it? More likely you've made a mistake in how you're specifying which directory cracklib should be looking in for the dictionaries (e.g., you're specifying a directory relative to the web document root, while cracklib is looking relative to the system root.)

sumandebnath

Well I figured out what went wrong. The dictionary file has to be absolute path and without file extension. To compound this PHP has a bug which gives an error even when everything is right. (http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=28905)

I finally downgraded to 4.3.4 and now everything is working fine.