# Using telnet to manipulate a twisted server

To start things off, we're going to create a simple server that just gives you remote access to a Python interpreter. We will use a telnet client to access this server.

Run `mktap telnet -p 4040 -u admin -w admin` at your shell prompt. If you list the contents of your current directory, you'll notice a new file -- `telnet.tap`. After you do this, run `twistd -f telnet.tap`. Since the Application has a telnet server that you specified to be on port 4040, it will start listening for connections on this port. Try connecting with your favorite telnet utility to 127.0.0.1 port 4040.

    $ telnet localhost 4040
    Trying 127.0.0.1...
    Connected to localhost.
    Escape character is '^]'.

    twisted.manhole.telnet.ShellFactory
    Twisted 1.1.0
    username: admin
    password: admin
    >>>

Now, you should see a Python prompt -- `>>>`. You can type any valid Python code here. Let's try looking around.

    >>> dir()
    ['__builtins__']

Ok, not much. let's play a little more:

    >>> import __main__
    >>> dir(__main__)
    ['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'os', 'run', 'string', 'sys']

    >>> service
    <twisted.application.internet.TCPServer instance at 0x10270f48>
    >>> service._port
    <twisted.manhole.telnet.ShellFactory on 4040>
    >>> service.parent
    <twisted.application.service.MultiService instance at 0x1024d7a8>

The service object is the service used to serve the telnet shell, and that it is listening on port 4040 with something called a `ShellFactory`. Its parent is a `twisted.application.service.MultiService`, a collection of services. We can keep getting the parent attribute of services until we hit the root of all services in this tap.

As you can see, this is quite useful - we can introspect a running process, see the internal objects, and even change their attributes. We can add telnet support to existing tap like so: `mktap --append=foo.tap telnet -p 4040 -u user -w pass`. The telnet server can of coursed be used from straight Python code as well. You can see how to do this by reading the code for `twisted.tap.telnet`.

A final note - if you want access to be more secure, you can even have the telnet server use SSL. Assuming you have the appropriate certificate and private key files, you can `mktap telnet -p ssl:443:privateKey=mykey.pem:certKey=cert.pem -u admin -w admin`. See `twisted.application.strports` for more examples of options for listening on a port.

Index

Version: 2.1.0