Detours Clone

This app is an idealogical clone of the Detours app for Mac's created by Jerod Santo - @sant0sk1

This only exists because I wanted to see if I could implement it, and play around with some Python bits I've never had the chance to use.

If you are on a Mac, I'd use the real thing. If you are on Linux, you might give this a shot.

How it works

This app involves a client and a server, since on Linux the hosts file is protected we have to run our daemon with a privileged user. The client and server communicate via TCP sockets with JSON.

Currently there are three clients. One is an HTTP server and one GTK+, and one it Qt.

Both allow you to add/remove/update any items in your hosts file that have been set by this app. You can't edit all the entries, only ones created by Detours.

Security Notice

In case you missed it, the gaping flaw here is that there is now a TCP server that is hooked up to your hosts file, with no authentication mechanism.

This means you should only run this on a single user system, and make sure it is not exposed to the external interface (it binds to 127.0.0.1 but you should verify)

Requirements

• python-daemon

Install

Download this package, then, as root, run:

# python setup.py install

That should drop an init script in for you as well as the clients.

Start detoursd like so:

# /etc/init.d/detoursd start

Then a client, like so:

$ detours-gtk

This has been tested on a Debian Sid machine, an Ubuntu machine, and nowhere else. Bug and install reports are coveted!

Always-On Daemon

If you want the daemon to run on boot, you can set up the init script, as root, like so (Ubuntu)

# update-rc.d detoursd defaults

Upgrading

Same process as install, though I recommend stopping your detoursd before the upgrade, then starting it again after.

Tests

There are some basic, non-destructive tests for the module.

From the root directory, run:

$ nosetests

Protocol

The protocol is simple, and is described in PROTOCOL.md

If you want to mess around with it directly, just use telnet (or equivalent)

jmhobbs@Cordelia:~$ telnet localhost 8551
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
{"method":"list"} 
{"pairs": [{"ip": "127.0.0.1", "host": "kohana"}, {"ip": "127.0.0.1", "host": "launder"}], "response": "list"}Connection closed by foreign host.
jmhobbs@Cordelia:~$