Resolving a hostname from Bonjour networking - ios

I have a Java based server using JmDNS which is being discovered from an iOS app.
The discovery works fine and this is the callback that gets executed by the NetServiceDelegate to record the details:
public func netServiceDidResolveAddress(_ service: NetService) {
guard let hostName = service.hostName else {
return
}
mockServerUrl = "http://\(hostName):\(service.port)/analytics"
Logger.log("Using mock server at \(mockServerUrl)", forLevel: .info)
}
This results in a URL that looks like this:
http://az-mbp-ether-lan.local.:9090
Now I swear this was working, however now when I try and send data to this endpoint with Alamofire it consistently times out.
Replacing the hostname with the hardcoded IP address of the target machine makes it work again, so there is no fundamental issue with the code sending the data.
Should an address of the form above ending in ".local." be resolvable from an iOS device on the same network as the target server?

The problem was on the Java server side. It was registering by calling InetAddress.getLocalHost(). This was returning the loopback address.
I revised my code to find a non-loopback address based on this question:
IP Address not obtained in java

Related

"Internal" Error When Submitting Form With Firebase onCall Function on IOS Safari

I am trying to submit a form but I get an "internal" error after submit on IOS Safari. Happened on two separate devices. I'm using Firebase functions onCall function. Client code:
var contactForm =
window.firebase.functions().httpsCallable('contactForm');
let result = await contactForm({ accountUID, foldersFilter,
firstName, lastName, email, cellNumber, dobDay, dobMonth })
And server code:
exports.contactForm = functions.https.onCall(( data, context ) => {
return contactForm.contactForm( data, context )
});
This function is called via form. The form works great on chrome, safari desktop, but for some reason it gets an internal errror sometimes when testing on IOS device. At first I thought it only happened when I was using autofill, but I've tested more and I get the same error when not using autofill too.
The confusing thing is my function code is actually never being called (I don't see any firebase function logs). Here is my console in safari:
The network connection was lost.
Fetch API cannot load https://us-central1-projectId.cloudfunctions.net/contactForm due to access control checks
Failed to load resource: The network connection was lost.
internal
Why won't this form submit on ios safari?
I fixed the issue. Turns out it has something to do with Google Cloud Functions being IPv4, and Safari requiring IPv6. I suspect this will become a bigger issue moving forward. I'm having to move all onCall Firebase functions to https triggers. In order to make https triggers work, you have to use a custom domain in Firebase hosting and rewrite to your function endpoint.
{
"hosting": {
...
"rewrites": [
{
"source": "/api/contactForm",
"function": "contactForm"
}
}
and so now instead of calling https://us-central1-projectId.cloudfunctions.net/contactForm to trigger my api. I call https://customdomain.com/api/contactForm

NEPacketTunnelProvider Sniffer iOS

As I recently found this paper describing a sniffing mechanism for iOS using Apple's NEPacketTunnelProvider Extension, I got curious and it made me want to understand it from a technical point of view. As I usually don't work at a deep network layer like that, I'm not able to comprehend it in the detail I'd like to. As Charles Proxy for iOS must do something very similar without requiring supervised devices, I assume the approach which the author of the paper presented in 2016 might be still working nowadays.
The author claimed that "Everything like IP packet parsing, building
an IP packet or parsing a DNS response had to be implemented ourselves." As I want to fully understand that, I tried to build it myself. I build a NetworkExtension and a message loop for the packetFlow of the NEPacketTunnelProvider. I was able to obtain the ip datagrams and tried to parse them. I used unsigned integers of the corresponding size for the source and target ip, the transport protocol and ip version, but I'm unsure how to handle the treat the payload. My parser uses the ptr.load(fromByteOffset: <offset>, as:<DataType>.self) where ptr is a UnsafeRawPointer to access the packet flow information. Since the data might exceed the storage of UInt64, I don't know how to access and store the payload in a proper way.
Furthermore, I figured that the source IP is always 192.168.20.1 (set as my interface's NEIPv4Settings address) and my target ip is always 192.168.2.1 (my dummy NEDNSSettings server). This leads me to my first questions: Are those DNS queries? Will the datagram packet claim any further information about the actual target? Would that mean that I have to somehow execute the request to the DNS server and reroute the packet to the target which I will obtain from that DNS query?
The next step would be to implement a TCP / UDP handling, right? My current parsing approach is able to distinguish between UDP, TCP and ICMP (even though I don't have investigated in the last one yet). Therefore, I'd iterate over the datagrams and lookup whether they require a UPD or TCP session/connection and transfer the datagram. The problem I currently see their from a conceptional point of view: How do I know which source/target port to use for TCP/UPD connections/sessions? As far as I know, this information is not part of the IP Packet itself (since it's rather some information we need on transport layer level, not on network layer level).
Additionally, I found a project called Specht on github. It uses a self-written library called NEKit which somehow also uses the NEPacketTunnelProvider approach. When I understand their approach correctly, they managed to somehow build a local proxy server by writing some observer mechanisms in order to handle the requests, but since I'm relatively new to networking and swift, I'm not sure whether I understand that completely correct or whether I just haven't find all those TCP/UDP and/or DNS logic. Is this project comparable to the approach of the paper and charles proxy?
One last question: Charles proxy is in most cases able to show the hostname of the target. I'm currently just able to see destination ip addresses (which aren't real destination ip addresses, but the address of my DNS server). How am I able to see the hostname as human readable text? Does Charles do a nslookup somehow? Does Charles obtain that information out of the datagrams?
I know it's quite ambitious of me with much missing knowledge in this topic, to build something similar for test reasons, but I'm still motivated to look deeper into that topic and also have the feeling that I have understand already some key points, but unfortunately not enough to solve the puzzle... Maybe you're able to give me some more hints to get a better understanding. If there might be even an easier way to archive a similar behavior (to see outgoing connections on hostname level), I'd be interested in these as well :-)
I've published a Beta Proxyman iOS (website) - a Network Sniffer by using NEPacketTunnelProvider and Network Extension, so I might have experienced to answer some of your questions.
IP Package, IP Diagram, DNS, How to parse it?
Luckily, there is another way to set up a NEPacketTunnelProvider to provide you with an HTTP Message, not IP Package (it's too low-level, and you have to deal with the Parser, DNS, ...)
HTTP Message is easier to parse because there are plenty of reliable libraries (e.g. http-parser from nodeJS)
How to build a Network Sniffer on iOS?
It's a complicated question to answer, I would break it into small chunks:
MitM / Proxy Server
Firstly, you need a working MitM Proxy Server, which is capable of proxying and intercepting the HTTP/HTTPS Traffic. You can implement it by using SwiftNIO or CocoaAsyncSocket.
How does it work?
In general, the data flow might look like this:
The Internet -> iPhone -> Your Network Extension (VPN) -> Forward to your Local Proxy Server (in the Network Extension) -> Mitm/Proxy Server starts intercepting or monitoring the traffic -> Save to a local database (in Shared Container Group) -> Forward again to the destination server.
From the main app, you can receive the data by reading the local database.
The reason why we need a local database is that the Network Extension and the Main app are two different processes, so they could not communicate directly like a normal app.
Show me the code?
In the Network extension, let start a Proxy Server at Host:Port, then init the NetworkSetting, like the sample:
private func initTunnelSettings(proxyHost: String, proxyPort: Int) -> NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings {
let settings: NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings = NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings(tunnelRemoteAddress: "127.0.0.1")
/* proxy settings */
let proxySettings: NEProxySettings = NEProxySettings()
proxySettings.httpServer = NEProxyServer(
address: proxyHost,
port: proxyPort
)
proxySettings.httpsServer = NEProxyServer(
address: proxyHost,
port: proxyPort
)
proxySettings.autoProxyConfigurationEnabled = false
proxySettings.httpEnabled = true
proxySettings.httpsEnabled = true
proxySettings.excludeSimpleHostnames = true
proxySettings.exceptionList = [
"192.168.0.0/16",
"10.0.0.0/8",
"172.16.0.0/12",
"127.0.0.1",
"localhost",
"*.local"
]
settings.proxySettings = proxySettings
/* ipv4 settings */
let ipv4Settings: NEIPv4Settings = NEIPv4Settings(
addresses: [settings.tunnelRemoteAddress],
subnetMasks: ["255.255.255.255"]
)
ipv4Settings.includedRoutes = [NEIPv4Route.default()]
ipv4Settings.excludedRoutes = [
NEIPv4Route(destinationAddress: "192.168.0.0", subnetMask: "255.255.0.0"),
NEIPv4Route(destinationAddress: "10.0.0.0", subnetMask: "255.0.0.0"),
NEIPv4Route(destinationAddress: "172.16.0.0", subnetMask: "255.240.0.0")
]
settings.ipv4Settings = ipv4Settings
/* MTU */
settings.mtu = 1500
return settings
}
Then start a VPN,
let networkSettings = initTunnelSettings(proxyHost: ip, proxyPort: port)
// Start
setTunnelNetworkSettings(networkSettings) { // Handle success }
Then forward the package to your local proxy server:
let endpoint = NWHostEndpoint(hostname: proxyIP, port: proxyPort)
self.connection = self.createTCPConnection(to: endpoint, enableTLS: false, tlsParameters: nil, delegate: nil)
packetFlow.readPackets {[weak self] (packets, protocols) in
guard let strongSelf = self else { return }
for packet in packets {
strongSelf.connection.write(packet, completionHandler: { (error) in
})
}
// Repeat
strongSelf.readPackets()
}
From that, your local server can receive the packages then forwarding to the destination server.
Don't forget to save all traffic log to the local database, then notifying the main app to reload it.
One last question: Charles proxy is in most cases able to show the hostname of the target. I'm currently just able to see destination ip addresses (which aren't real destination ip addresses, but the address of my DNS server). How am I able to see the hostname as human readable text? Does Charles do a nslookup somehow? Does Charles obtain that information out of the datagrams?
Since we don't deal with IP Package, we don't need to implement the DNS Resolver. If you need a DNS, you can config like the following code:
let dnsSettings = NEDNSSettings(servers: ["8.8.8.8", "1.1.1.1"])
settings.dnsSettings = dnsSettings
As we receive the HTTP Message package, you can get hostname for free (From the Request's URL or Host Header)
Hope that my answer could help you.

Send parameter to socket in swift iOS app

I am making chat application in swift by using socket.io and node.js.
I need to send along the user name parameter with one socket method. I tried like below without sending parameter. This works good but i need to add user name parameter to get specific data instead of total data. sorry for silly question am new to socket concept.
socket.on("updatechat") { dataArray, ack in
print(dataArray)
}
Take a look at SocketIOClientOption, there is a parameter called connectParams.
case connectParams([String: AnyObject]) // Dictionary whose contents will be passed with the connection.
So, all you need to do is to pass the parameters into the config: when your are creating your socket.
let socket = SocketIOClient(socketURL: URL(string: "http://localhost:8080")!, config: [.connectParams(["username": "whatever"])])
If you are looking for SocketManager, you can set it with SocketIOClientConfiguration connectParams.
let manager = SocketManager(socketURL: URL(string: "socket_url")!,
config: [.log(true),
.compress,
.connectParams(["token": "- your token -"])])
You have to connect via sockets using the specific parameter. And then you will receive events only based on restrictions. Like you will connect sockets with an user id, and then will receive messages only for that user.
The implementation is different depend on the library that you are using for sockets. For swift I would recomand to use Socket.IO-Client-Swift.

Cannot connect to SAP B1 9.1 server using SAPbobsCom.dll when using IP address

I have never seen this and searched a long time and without an answer, I have a need to connect to SAP B1 9.1 using the SAPbobsCOM.dll to sync user objects between our different instances of SAP. We can use the server name to connect to the local server, but the name does not resolve for the remote server and we need to use the IP address. Locally we get an error if we try to connect via IP address : The server threw an exception. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010105 (RPC_E_SERVERFAULT)) the same error if we try the remote server.
I have the reference added to the dll and there is no error accessing the methods or properties.
Here is the code I use to connect:
var comp = new Company();
comp.DbServerType = BoDataServerTypes.dst_MSSQL2014;
comp.Server = "192.168.1.200"; // server name SAP91
comp.CompanyDB = "SBO_SAP91";
comp.LicenseServer = "192.168.1.200:30000";
comp.UserName = "Admin"; // SAP Admin user
comp.Password = "Admin";
var noth = comp.MinimalSupportedVersion;
var connected = (comp.Connect() == 0 ? "Connected" : "Not Connected");
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(comp.GetLastErrorDescription());
var CONN = comp.CompanyName;
I am really unsure as to how I can connect and read all objects locally when using the server name but not quite sure why it doesn't work by IP address, any help on this would be appreciated as we have to manually sync the user objects until this can be resolved.
Thank you
You did not registered the IP address in the SLD.
Regards.

How SignalR manages connection between Postbacks

1> Just want to understand how SignalR 1.x functions in a particular scenario
Lets say we have a 10 clients connected to Hub and one of the connected clients say client-1 performs a postback so OnDisconnected is called than OnConnected is called right ?
What happens if during this phase if client-2 try's to send message to client-1 exactly between the said scenario ie (msg is sent after client-1 is disconnected and before connected again )will client-1 miss the message or there's internal mechanism which makes sure client-1 does not miss the message sent by client-2
2> Second query I have is that I'm trying to pass a querystring using following code
var chat = $.connection.myHub;
$.connection.myHub.qs = { "token": "hello" };
but not able to retrieve it on the server side from the Context object
using
Context.QueryString.AllKeys
I even tried
var chat = $.connection.myHub;
$.connection.myHub.qs = "token=hello" ;
But it does not work ie when I check the keys, token is not present in AllKeys
Will appreciate if someone just help me out.
1: If a postback occurs a client will disconnect and then connect. However, when the client performs a connect again it will have a different Connection Id than it had prior to the postback. Therefore, any message sent to the old connection id will be missed because when the users browser connects again it will be known as a different client.
2: You're trying to set the query string on the hub proxy, not the connection. What you should be doing is:
$.connection.hub.qs = { foo: "bar" };

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