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Admin Tools

#13070 Is there a way to order a PHP-Scanner cron through Webcron.org service instead of using each server cron command feature?

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Monday, 30 July 2012 01:37 CDT

Sunday, 29 July 2012 13:48 CDT

user9198
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.6
PHP version: 5.3.2
MySQL version: (unknown)
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Admin Tools version: 2.2.10

Description of my issue: Just a question!
I already have read this article: https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/admin-tools/php-file-scanner-cron.html
I would like to automate the PHP-Scanner schedule using the webcron.org service instead than the server cronnjobs feature available at every server...
If YES, could you let me know how to set that and the necesary URL and needed timmings that I would need to set through webcron.org service for that?
Thanks in advance for your attention and always close support,
Rgrds,

Sunday, 29 July 2012 14:02 CDT

nicholas
Nope, currently that's not possible. In order to make this feature possible I'd have to create a front-end view similar to Akeeba Backup's front-end backup URL. There is a problem here. This URL could be used to detect if you have Admin Tools installed on a site. I consider that a very bad idea for security. Unless I find a way to work around that I'm not going to implement such a feature.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 29 July 2012 14:40 CDT

user9198
Thanks Nicholas for your feedback...
The escenario why I ask that is because I'm admin different customer sites on different servers (the chip/ shared ones are the worst because have not cronjobs enabled) and to have the option to manage all the cronjobs through a single webcron.org account plus, as you have wrote on other recent post, with email warning feature from next release(s) should be really very welcome!!
Note: AdminTools Pro is a brilliant component then... to try to hide that AdminTools Pro is installed surely will have no sense at short term, because every Joomla! developer MUST to consider seriously to have it installed on everyone of his sites... Then the exception will be don't have AdminToolsPro installed, very soon! :-)
Thanks for all, again
Rgrds,
Edited by user9198 on 2012-07-29 14:41 CDT

Sunday, 29 July 2012 15:42 CDT

nicholas
The idea is that Admin Tools has several features in the Web Application Firewall which make it difficult for wannabe hackers to detect if you're running Joomla!. Adding a feature which allows the same people to trivially discover if you're using Admin Tools (and, of course, that you're running Joomla!) kinda defeats the purpose of those features, right?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 29 July 2012 16:13 CDT

user9198
May I'm not fully understanding why the final URL (the one to be set at Webcron.org) can be an evidence of AdminToolsPro is installed if that URL have more or less the same structure than the one we are using with AkeebaBackup [URL]/[SECRETKEY]/[PROFILE]... As far as I can see, that without all the involved info URL + the most important: a SECRETKEY the URL should go nowhere... If any attempt to should fail without that info... Where is the given evidence of using AdminToolsPro or not?
Please, fell free to rectify me if I'm not understanding you correctly.

Sunday, 29 July 2012 16:45 CDT

nicholas
If you this feature is enabled and you supply a wrong secret key you get a 403 error. This is a telltale sign that Admin Tools is installed. This means that Joomla! is installed, too. This means that you can try your Joomla! hacking scripts against this site.

A large part of Admin Tools' WAF focuses on minimising the ways someone can figure out that you're using Joomla! so that they end up skipping your site from the list of possible targets. Doing that while adding another way to identify the site as a Joomla! site completely beats the purpose.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 29 July 2012 17:25 CDT

user9198
An to try this one: http://www.mydomain.com/index.php?option=com_akeeba&view=backup&task=step&key=XXXXXXXXXXXXXX&profile=999 (where my domain.com is my real domain) will give a 403 Access Denied report giving evidence that I'm using Joomla!, too... I can't see the difference, yet (I'm feeling stupid). Very sorry!

Monday, 30 July 2012 01:37 CDT

nicholas
It is the same thing. I had to leave that feature in Akeeba Backup as it was already there and removing it would be seen as an attempt to force people to subscribe in order to get native CRON support. Just because I was forced into making a bad choice it doesn't mean I have to copy the bad choice to all of my software.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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