secure uploading

[macaronikazoo]

hi
i'm after a way to securely upload a file to a web server and I'm
wondering how to go about it. basically i want to upload a small text
file to my hosted webspace once every hour or so. because it will be
happening once an hour, i want to make sure the transaction is
encrypted, but i don't really know how to do this. can someone point
me in the right direction?

i'm a reasonably noob scripter so go easy on me. thanks!
-h.

 

[Paul Rubin]

i'm after a way to securely upload a file to a web server and I'm
wondering how to go about it. basically i want to upload a small text
file to my hosted webspace once every hour or so. because it will be
happening once an hour, i want to make sure the transaction is
encrypted, but i don't really know how to do this. can someone point
me in the right direction?

Use SSL/TLS. It's not a scripting thing, just set up your server to
enable encryption. If you use apache, http://modssl.org might get you
started.

 

[macaronikazoo]

well I want a script to upload something automatically, so i need a
python script to do that for me. my hoster has ssl enabled on their
server and I have generated a key. but now I need to know how to
upload something using ssl to the server. how to I ftp something to
the server using ssl?
thanks.

 

[Paul Rubin]

well I want a script to upload something automatically, so i need a
python script to do that for me. my hoster has ssl enabled on their
server and I have generated a key. but now I need to know how to
upload something using ssl to the server. how to I ftp something to
the server using ssl?

Ftp is not usually done over ssl. Usually you'd use http over ssl.

 

[macaronikazoo]

ok, so what can I do to get something uploaded? how can I upload
something via http?

 

[Paul Rubin]

ok, so what can I do to get something uploaded? how can I upload
something via http?

Depends on your web host. At worst, use a server side script to
accept the upload. You're asking basic webmaster-type questions.
This really isn't the best place for those.

 

[macaronikazoo]

oh ok cool. I'll ask them for some advice. thanks!

 

[Jorgen Grahn]

well I want a script to upload something automatically, so i need a
python script to do that for me.

Well, you need /something/. If you are on a Unix machine, you'd be better
off with a cron job.

my hoster has ssl enabled on their
server and I have generated a key. but now I need to know how to
upload something using ssl to the server. how to I ftp something to
the server using ssl?

Are you sure your hoster doesn't provide ssh access to his machines? If he
does, there is a wealth of protocols and tools for secure file transfer:
scp, sftp, tar-over-ssh, cpio-over-ssh, rsync-over-ssh, ...

With some loss of security, you may even be able to avoid handling
passwords.

/Jorgen

 

[Sybren Stuvel]

praba kar enlightened us with:

When we upload a file to the remote server we can get file type
through file extentions.

No you can't, you can only make a better guess. If I name my PNG file
somefile.jpg, you won't be able to get the file type through file
extentions.

How we can find out file type if a file doesn't have any
extentions?

One method is to look at the Content-type header the client sent along
with the file. Another way is through the 'file' command.

Sybren