October | 2013

Hi,

As part of integrating Webex conferencing service to my current working project, I came across on parsing XML which contains tags with colon (:). I was familiar with normal XML parsing [means XML tags without colon] and I have done a lots of such XML parsing. After searching on google for sometime, I found solution for parsing XML with tags which contains colon. I would like to share this solution with an example here. Please see below:



//A sample XML response from Webex conference service
$xmlResponse = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
            <serv:message xmlns:serv="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service"
            xmlns:com="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/common"
            xmlns:sess="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/session"
            xmlns:train="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsession"
            xmlns:qti="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsessionqti"
            xmlns:qtiasi=
            "http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsessionqtiasi">
            <serv:header>
            <serv:response>
            <serv:result>SUCCESS</serv:result>
            <serv:gsbStatus>PRIMARY</serv:gsbStatus>
            </serv:response>
            </serv:header>
            <serv:body>
            <serv:bodyContent xsi:type="train:createTrainingSessionResponse"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <train:sessionkey>807643542</train:sessionkey>
            <train:additionalInfo>
            <train:sessionkey>807643542</train:sessionkey>
            <train:guestToken>514d8fd53f1ce7d22107bbc25e586fc1
            </train:guestToken>
            </train:additionalInfo>
            </serv:bodyContent>
            </serv:body>
            </serv:message>';

//Simply convert the above XML string XML object
$xmlObj = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlResponse);        

//Getting result status
$resultStatus = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->header->children('serv', true)->response->children('serv', true)->result;

//Getting session key associated
$strSessionKey = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->body->children('serv', true)->bodyContent->children('train', true)->sessionkey;

//Getting guest token too        
$strSessionGuestToken = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->body->children('serv', true)->bodyContent->children('train', true)->additionalInfo->children('train', true)->guestToken;

echo 'Result Status : ' . $resultStatus . '<br/>');
echo 'Session Key : ' . $strSessionKey . '<br/>');
echo 'Guest Token : ' . $strSessionGuestToken . '<br/>');

//A sample XML response from Webex conference service

$xmlResponse = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<serv:message xmlns:serv="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service"

xmlns:com="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/common"

xmlns:sess="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/session"

xmlns:train="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsession"

xmlns:qti="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsessionqti"

xmlns:qtiasi=

"http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/trainingsessionqtiasi">

<serv:header>

<serv:response>

<serv:result>SUCCESS</serv:result>

<serv:gsbStatus>PRIMARY</serv:gsbStatus>

</serv:response>

</serv:header>

<serv:body>

<serv:bodyContent xsi:type="train:createTrainingSessionResponse"

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<train:sessionkey>807643542</train:sessionkey>

<train:additionalInfo>

<train:sessionkey>807643542</train:sessionkey>

<train:guestToken>514d8fd53f1ce7d22107bbc25e586fc1

</train:guestToken>

</train:additionalInfo>

</serv:bodyContent>

</serv:body>

</serv:message>';

//Simply convert the above XML string XML object

$xmlObj = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlResponse);

//Getting result status

$resultStatus = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->header->children('serv', true)->response->children('serv', true)->result;

//Getting session key associated

$strSessionKey = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->body->children('serv', true)->bodyContent->children('train', true)->sessionkey;

//Getting guest token too

$strSessionGuestToken = $xmlObj->children('serv', true)->body->children('serv', true)->bodyContent->children('train', true)->additionalInfo->children('train', true)->guestToken;

echo 'Result Status : ' . $resultStatus . '<br/>');

echo 'Session Key : ' . $strSessionKey . '<br/>');

echo 'Guest Token : ' . $strSessionGuestToken . '<br/>');

Normal PHP & Apache installations won’t hide the server details from request response headers. See below [with default configuration],

To hide PHP & Apache web server version details from response headers, you have to edit few configuration files on your hosted server.



// Open your php.ini configuration file
// Search for 'expose_php'. By default the value for this is 'On'
// Change to 'Off' as follows 

expose_php = Off

// Open your php.ini configuration file

// Search for 'expose_php'. By default the value for this is 'On'

// Change to 'Off' as follows

expose_php = Off



//Search either for /etc/apache2/httpd.conf or  /etc/apache2/conf.d/security
//Do the changes as given below
// Set ServerTokens to ProductOnly & ServerSignature to Off

ServerTokens ProductOnly

ServerSignature Off

//Search either for /etc/apache2/httpd.conf or /etc/apache2/conf.d/security

//Do the changes as given below

// Set ServerTokens to ProductOnly & ServerSignature to Off

ServerTokens ProductOnly

ServerSignature Off

After made the above changes, restart the apache web server.



/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now check the response header from your server,

See the difference between the response headers before and after changing the configurations.

Note: These changes won’t made your server more secure. It is just hiding the configuration details from hackers.

Month: October 2013

Parsing XML response which contains tags with colon

Hide PHP and Apache web server versions from response header