Download and insert salt string inside wordpress wp-config.php with Bash

Question

How can I insert the content of the variable $SALT in a specific point (line or string) of a file like wp-contet.php from wordpress using Bash script?

Answer 1

I think I got this one! its a bash script using only commands normally available at the command prompt and it does -everything- (assuming httpd is your web user) except create the databases. here you go.

#!/bin/bash

# wordpress latest auto-install script, by alienation 24 jan 2013. run as root.
# usage: ~/wp-install alien /hsphere/local/home/alien/nettrip.org alien_wpdbname alien_wpdbusername p@sSw0rd
# ( wp-install shell-user folder db-name db-user-name db-user-pw )

# download wordpress to temporary area
cd /tmp
rm -rf tmpwp
mkdir tmpwp
cd tmpwp
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xvzpf latest.tar.gz

# copy wordpress to where it will live, and go there, removing index placeholder if there is one
mv wordpress/* $2
cd $2
rm index.html

# create config from sample, replacing salt example lines with a real salt from online generator
grep -A 1 -B 50 'since 2.6.0' wp-config-sample.php > wp-config.php
wget -O - https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ >> wp-config.php
grep -A 50 -B 3 'Table prefix' wp-config-sample.php >> wp-config.php

# put the appropriate db info in place of placeholders in our new config file
replace 'database_name_here' $3 -- wp-config.php
replace 'username_here' $4 -- wp-config.php
replace 'password_here' $5 -- wp-config.php

# change file ownership and permissions according to ideal at http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress#File_Permissions
touch .htaccess
chown $1:httpd .htaccess
chown -R $1:httpd *
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
chmod -R 770 wp-content
chmod -R g-w wp-admin wp-includes wp-content/plugins
chmod g+w .htaccess

# thats it!
echo ALL DONE

Answer 2

If you have csplit available, you can split the original wp-config.php file either side of the salt definitions, download new salts, then cat back together. This keeps the PHP define() statements at the same location in wp-config.php instead of than moving them to a different location within the file:

# Download new salts
curl "https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/" -o salts

# Split wp-config.php into 3 on the first and last definition statements
csplit wp-config.php '/AUTH_KEY/' '/NONCE_SALT/+1'

# Recombine the first part, the new salts and the last part
cat xx00 salts xx02 > wp-config.php

# Tidy up
rm salts xx00 xx01 xx02

Answer 3

I was challenged with the same issue. Here is the script I wrote to replace the salts and keys from ones downloaded from WordPress. You can use it at any time to replace them if/when needed. I run it as sudo, and the script tests for that. If you use an account that can download to the directory and make updates to the wp-config.php file, then you can delete that part of the script.

#!/bin/sh
# update-WordPress-Salts: Updates WordPress Salts
# written by Wayne Woodward 2017

if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: update-WordPress-Salts directory"
    exit
fi

if [ "$(whoami)" != "root" ]; then
  echo "Please run as root (sudo)"
  exit
fi

WPPATH=$1

# Update the salts in the config file

# Download salts from WordPress and save them locally
curl http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ > /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-keys.txt

# Iterate through each "Saltname" and append 1 to it
# For a couple names that may match twice like "AUTH_KEY" adds extra 1s to the end
# But that is OK as when this deletes the lines, it uses the same matching pattern
# (Smarter people may fix this)
for SALTNAME in AUTH_KEY SECURE_AUTH_KEY LOGGED_IN_KEY NONCE_KEY AUTH_SALT SECURE_AUTH_SALT LOGGED_IN_SALT NONCE_SALT
do
   sed -i -e "s/$SALTNAME/${SALTNAME}1/g" /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-config.php
done

# Find the line that has the updated AUTH_KEY1 name
# This is so we can insert the file in the same area
line=$(sed -n '/AUTH_KEY1/{=;q}' /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-config.php)

# Insert the file from the WordPress API that we saved into the configuration
sed -i -e "${line}r /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-keys.txt" /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-config.php

# Itererate through the old keys and remove them from the file
for SALTNAME in AUTH_KEY SECURE_AUTH_KEY LOGGED_IN_KEY NONCE_KEY AUTH_SALT SECURE_AUTH_SALT LOGGED_IN_SALT NONCE_SALT
do
   sed -i -e "/${SALTNAME}1/d" /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-config.php
done

# Delete the file downloaded from Wordpress
rm /var/www/$WPPATH/wp-keys.txt

Answer 4

I built a simple CLI for just that. Try it out. It's called [WP-Salts-Update-CLI][1].

WP-Salts-Update-CLI

WPSUCLI downloads new salts from the WP API and replaces them with the ones in your wp-config.php file for every site on your server.

⚡️ Installation

Open command line terminal (I prefer iTerm2) and run the following command.

bash sudo wget -qO wpsucli https://git.io/vykgu && sudo chmod +x ./wpsucli && sudo install ./wpsucli /usr/local/bin/wpsucli

This command will perform the following actions:

• Use sudo permissions
• Use wget to download WPSUCLI and rename it to wpsucli
• Make the wpsucli executable
• Install wpsucli inside /usr/local/bin/ folder.

Answer 5

Many of the answers rely on the phrase 'put your unique phrase here' being present in the file, so they do not work when you want to change salts after the first time. There are also some that remove the old definitions and append the new ones at the end. While that does work, it's nice to keep the definitions where you would expect them, right after the comment documenting them. My solution addresses those issues.

I made a few attempts with sed, perl and regex, but there are special characters in the salts and the rest of the config file that tend to mess things up. I ended up using grep to search the document for the unique comment structure that opens and closes the salt definition block, which has the following format:

/**#@+
 <comment documentation>
 */
<salt definitions>

/**#@-*/

Note that if that comment structure is removed or altered, this will no longer work. Here's the script:

#!/bin/bash -e

# Set Default Settings:
file='wp-config.php'

# set up temporary files with automatic removal:
trap "rm -f $file_start $file_end $salt" 0 1 2 3 15
file_start=$(mktemp) || exit 1
file_end=$(mktemp) || exit 1
salt=$(mktemp) || exit 1

function find_line {
# returns the first line number in the file which contains the text
# program exits if text is not found
# $1 : text to search for
# $2 : file in which to search
# $3 (optional) : line at which to start the search
line=$(tail -n +${3:-1} $2 | grep -nm 1 $1 | cut -f1 -d:)
[ -z "$line" ] && exit 1
echo $(($line + ${3:-1} - 1))
}

line=$(find_line "/**#@+" "$file")
line=$(find_line "\*/" "$file" "$line")
head -n $line $file > $file_start
line=$(find_line "/**#@-\*/" "$file" "$line")
tail -n +$line $file > $file_end
curl -Ls https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ > $salt
(cat $file_start $salt; echo; cat $file_end) > $file

exit 0

Strings containing single asterisks, such as "*/" and "/**#@-*/" want to expand to directory lists, so that is why those asterisks are escaped.

Answer 6

This version defines new keys if none exist, and also replaces existing keys:

#!/bin/bash
find . -name wp-config.php -print | while read line
do 
    curl http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ > wp_keys.txt
    sed -i.bak -e '/put your unique phrase here/d' -e \
    '/AUTH_KEY/d' -e '/SECURE_AUTH_KEY/d' -e '/LOGGED_IN_KEY/d' -e '/NONCE_KEY/d' -e \
    '/AUTH_SALT/d' -e '/SECURE_AUTH_SALT/d' -e '/LOGGED_IN_SALT/d' -e '/NONCE_SALT/d' $line
    cat wp_keys.txt >> $line
    rm wp_keys.txt
done