PHP/Javascript Question



  •  Hey guys,

     

    Is there any way that a website using php or javascript can access CLIENT system information such as OS, memory, etc. ?

     

    I've tried searching through a couple of books and the internet but haven't found any way to do this.

     

    Basically I thought using a webpage would be ideal for keeping inventory records on computers with various operating systems and set-ups, but have found that might not be possible.

     

    Thanks

     



  • Apparently you didn't search hard enough.

    http://www.php.net/get_browser

     

    For javascript you would want to look at your favorite library/framwork for a neat solution, but the first hit on "javascript client info" was this:

    http://www.javascripter.net/faq/clientin.htm



  • Yes, I've tried those. Not enough info from them. IP address, browser type, stuff like that is all you get.

     I don't even think you get any stats like CPU, memory, hd size, etc., let alone the more detailed stuff.



  • @alehx said:

     I don't even think you get any stats like CPU, memory, hd size, etc., let alone the more detailed stuff.
     

    I remember one site, several years ago, that would automatically scan those things and compare them against other people who did the same, so you could

    a) measure the size of your compenisuter;

    b) see if you'd be able to run various games nicely or not.

    I don't know how it did that. Flash or Java or something. I know Javascript can't do it. Maybe with Gears.



  • @dhromed said:

    I remember one site, several years ago, that would automatically scan those
    things and compare them against other people who did the same, so you could

    a) measure the size of your compenisuter;

    b) see if you'd be able to run various games nicely or not.

    This looks like it: [url]http://www.yougamers.com/games/[/url].



  •  Yeah that looks like a java applet. We found that you had to include a lot of microsoft libraries if you try to solve this problem in java, among other issues.



  •  You dont seem to understand that, for secutity reasons, browsers are intentionally seperated from accessing the OS in any real manner. You wouldn't want any website on the tubes to have full read/write access to your system would you? Even things that look like they interact with the OS (file upload, etc…) are actually carefully coded widgets exposed by the underlying system, not the browser. In order to do the things that it sounds like you want to do. You have to use technologies that were designed to go around these protections. Such as Java, or (shudder) ActiveX.



  •  Yeah I understood this but I was hoping there were ways around it.

    That doesn't seem to be the case. 



  • @ajp said:

    You wouldn't want any website on the tubes to have full read/write access to your system would you?

    Who said anything about read/write access?  He's just wanting simple system specs that could easily and safely be provided within the browser.  Any process should be able to get info about the system hardware from the OS. 



  • @alehx said:

     I don't even think you get any stats like CPU, memory, hd size, etc., let alone the more detailed stuff.
     

    I went looking for this some time ago. Everything I found was really old and used some strange ActiveX control that didn't work under Windows XP SP2 (even under IE) so I guess it was removed.



  •  If you think about it, from a privacy point of view, if nothing else, there really is no reason for a web app to be checking my CPU, memory, hd size, etc. Especially if it hasn't asked for permission first. 



  • @DOA said:

     If you think about it, from a privacy point of view, if nothing else, there really is no reason for a web app to be checking my CPU, memory, hd size, etc. Especially if it hasn't asked for permission first. 

     

    Exactly. I doubt we'll see a future version of JavaScript which has hooks for looking at the user's configuration.

    You could build a database of IP addresses and OS's, then whenever a patch is released, you know exactly who is vulnerable!


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