[php] Get Client Machine Name in PHP

This program only returns the client machine name in localhost only

echo gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

If it is run from an online server, then computer name is not shown and some other information is being shown. So is there anyway to get the computer name in php when the program runs from online server.

PHP Manual says:

gethostname (PHP >= 5.3.0) gethostname — Gets the host name

Look:

<?php
echo gethostname(); // may output e.g,: sandie
// Or, an option that also works before PHP 5.3
echo php_uname('n'); // may output e.g,: sandie
?>

http://php.net/manual/en/function.gethostname.php

Enjoy

gethostname() using the IP from $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] while accessing the script remotely will return the IP of your internet connection, not your computer.

Not in PHP.
phpinfo(32) contains everything PHP able to know about particular client, and there is no [windows] computer name

Try

echo getenv('COMPUTERNAME');

This will return your computername.

What's this "other information"? An IP address?

In PHP, you use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] to get the IP address of the remote client, then you can use gethostbyaddr() to try and conver that IP into a hostname - but not all IPs have a reverse mapping configured.

In opposite to the most comments, I think it is possible to get the client's hostname (machine name) in plain PHP, but it's a little bit "dirty".

By requesting "NTLM" authorization via HTTP header...

if (!isset($headers['AUTHORIZATION']) || substr($headers['AUTHORIZATION'],0,4) !== 'NTLM'){
    header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
    header('WWW-Authenticate: NTLM');
    exit;
}

You can force the client to send authorization credentials via NTLM format. The NTLM hash sent by the client to server contains, besides the login credtials, the clients machine name. This works cross-browser and PHP only.

$auth = $headers['AUTHORIZATION'];

if (substr($auth,0,5) == 'NTLM ') {
    $msg = base64_decode(substr($auth, 5));
    if (substr($msg, 0, 8) != "NTLMSSPx00")
            die('error header not recognised');

    if ($msg[8] == "x01") {
            $msg2 = "NTLMSSPx00x02"."x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00".
                    "x01x02x81x01".
                    "x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00x30x00x00x00";

            header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
            header('WWW-Authenticate: NTLM '.trim(base64_encode($msg2)));
            exit;
    }
    else if ($msg[8] == "x03") {
            function get_msg_str($msg, $start, $unicode = true) {
                    $len = (ord($msg[$start+1]) * 256) + ord($msg[$start]);
                    $off = (ord($msg[$start+5]) * 256) + ord($msg[$start+4]);
                    if ($unicode)
                            return str_replace("\0", '', substr($msg, $off, $len));
                    else
                            return substr($msg, $off, $len);
            }
            $user = get_msg_str($msg, 36);
            $domain = get_msg_str($msg, 28);
            $workstation = get_msg_str($msg, 44);
            print "You are $user from $workstation.$domain";
    }
}

And yes, it's not a plain and easy "read the machine name function", because the user is prompted with an dialog, but it's an example, that it is indeed possible (against the other statements here).

Full code can be found here: https://en.code-bude.net/2017/05/07/how-to-read-client-hostname-in-php/