php-rnet

HTTP client for PHP with browser TLS/H2 fingerprinting. Built in Rust on top of wreq (BoringSSL).

Lets you make HTTP requests that look like they came from a real browser at the TLS/JA3/H2 level — useful when dealing with sites that fingerprint clients.

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Details of the Extension

• Fully statically linked — only glibc and libgcc_s.so.1 required at runtime
• BoringSSL baked in — no OpenSSL dependency
• 100+ browser emulation profiles: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera, OkHttp
• Every .so is bound to a specific PHP API version at compile time (PHP 8.4 build will not load in PHP 8.3)

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Usage

Installation

Download the pre-built .so for your PHP version from the Releases page, then load it:

# Check your PHP version
php --version

# Verify it loaded
php -d extension=/path/to/librnet.so -r "var_dump(extension_loaded('php-rnet'));"
# bool(true)

Add to php.ini permanently:

extension=/absolute/path/to/librnet.so

Or load per-script:

php -d extension=/absolute/path/to/librnet.so your_script.php

---

Quick one-liners

The simplest way to use php-rnet — no client setup needed:

// GET request
$resp = RNet\get('https://httpbin.org/get');
echo $resp->status();   // 200
echo $resp->text();     // response body as string

// POST with JSON body
$resp = RNet\post('https://httpbin.org/post', [
    'json' => ['name' => 'Alice', 'role' => 'admin'],
]);
$data = $resp->json();  // decoded as PHP array
echo $data['json']['name'];  // Alice

// POST with form data
$resp = RNet\post('https://httpbin.org/post', [
    'form' => ['username' => 'alice', 'password' => 'secret'],
]);

// Other methods
$resp = RNet\put('https://httpbin.org/put');
$resp = RNet\patch('https://httpbin.org/patch');
$resp = RNet\delete('https://httpbin.org/delete');
$resp = RNet\head('https://httpbin.org/get');

// Custom HTTP method
$resp = RNet\request('OPTIONS', 'https://httpbin.org/get');

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Reusable client

Create a client once and reuse it across requests. Shares a connection pool for better performance.

Builder methods return void and cannot be chained. Call them separately then call build().

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->timeout(30.0);
$client = $b->build();

$resp = $client->get('https://httpbin.org/get');
echo $resp->status();   // 200

---

Request options

All request methods accept an optional array as the second argument:

$resp = $client->post('https://httpbin.org/post', [
    // Custom headers
    'headers' => [
        'X-Api-Key'      => 'secret',
        'Accept-Language' => 'en-US',
    ],

    // Query string  →  ?page=2&sort=asc
    'query' => [
        'page' => '2',
        'sort' => 'asc',
    ],

    // JSON body (sets Content-Type: application/json automatically)
    'json' => ['name' => 'Alice', 'active' => true],

    // Form body (sets Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded)
    'form' => ['field' => 'value'],

    // Raw string body
    'body' => 'raw payload here',

    // Per-request timeout override (seconds)
    'timeout' => 10.0,
]);

Only one of json, form, or body should be set per request. The first one found wins.

---

Working with responses

$resp = RNet\get('https://httpbin.org/get');

// Status
$resp->status();         // int — e.g. 200, 404
$resp->ok();             // bool — true if 2xx
$resp->version();        // string — e.g. "HTTP/2.0"
$resp->url();            // string — final URL after redirects

// Body (can be called multiple times — cached after first read)
$resp->text();           // string — body decoded as UTF-8
$resp->json();           // mixed  — body decoded as PHP array/scalar
$resp->bytes();          // array  — raw bytes

// Headers
$resp->headers();                     // array  — all headers as key→value
$resp->header('content-type');        // ?string — single header, case-insensitive
$resp->header('Content-Type');        // same result

// Cookies
$cookies = $resp->cookies();          // RNet\Cookie[]
foreach ($cookies as $c) {
    echo $c->getName();               // string
    echo $c->getValue();              // string
    echo $c->getDomain() ?? '';       // ?string
    echo $c->getPath() ?? '';         // ?string
    var_dump($c->isHttpOnly());       // bool
    var_dump($c->isSecure());         // bool
    echo $c;                          // "name=value"
}

// Server address
$resp->remoteAddr();     // ?string — e.g. "93.184.216.34:443"

// Throw on 4xx / 5xx
$resp->raiseForStatus(); // throws RNet\StatusException if status >= 400

---

Browser emulation

Make your request look like it came from a real browser at the TLS/JA3/HTTP2 fingerprint level:

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->impersonate(RNet\Emulation::CHROME_136);
$client = $b->build();

$resp = $client->get('https://tls.browserleaks.com/json');
echo $resp->text();

Available profiles:

Family	Constants
Chrome	CHROME_100 through CHROME_138
Edge	EDGE_101, EDGE_122, EDGE_127, EDGE_131, EDGE_134–EDGE_137
Firefox	FIREFOX_109, FIREFOX_117, FIREFOX_128, FIREFOX_133, FIREFOX_135, FIREFOX_136, FIREFOX_139, FIREFOX_PRIVATE_135, FIREFOX_ANDROID_135
Safari	SAFARI_15_3 through SAFARI_26, SAFARI_IPAD_18, SAFARI_IOS_16_5 through SAFARI_IOS_26
Opera	OPERA_116–OPERA_119
OkHttp	OK_HTTP_3_9, OK_HTTP_3_11, OK_HTTP_3_13, OK_HTTP_3_14, OK_HTTP_4_9, OK_HTTP_4_10, OK_HTTP_4_12, OK_HTTP_5

---

TLS / certificate verification

Skip certificate verification (useful for internal services or development):

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->verify(false);       // disables both cert validation and hostname check
$client = $b->build();

---

Proxy

Route traffic through HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS5 proxies:

// Route all traffic (HTTP + HTTPS) through a SOCKS5 proxy
$proxy = RNet\Proxy::all('socks5://127.0.0.1:1080');

// HTTP traffic only
$proxy = RNet\Proxy::http('http://127.0.0.1:8080');

// HTTPS traffic only
$proxy = RNet\Proxy::https('https://127.0.0.1:8080');

// Proxy with authentication
$proxy = RNet\Proxy::all('socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080');

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->proxy($proxy);
$client = $b->build();

$resp = $client->get('https://httpbin.org/ip');
echo $resp->json()['origin'];   // your proxy's IP

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Cookies

Enable a per-client cookie jar so cookies persist across requests (like a real browser session):

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->cookieStore(true);
$client = $b->build();

// Login — server sets a session cookie
$client->post('https://example.com/login', [
    'form' => ['username' => 'alice', 'password' => 'secret'],
]);

// Subsequent requests automatically send the session cookie
$resp = $client->get('https://example.com/dashboard');

---

Timeouts and redirects

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->timeout(30.0);           // total request timeout in seconds (0 = no limit)
$b->connectTimeout(5.0);     // max time to establish the connection
$b->maxRedirects(5);         // follow up to 5 redirects (0 = disable redirects)
$client = $b->build();

---

Headers and User-Agent

Set default headers sent on every request from this client:

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->defaultHeader('Accept-Language', 'en-US,en;q=0.9');
$b->defaultHeader('X-Api-Key', 'my-secret');
$b->userAgent('MyBot/1.0');
$client = $b->build();

Per-request headers override client defaults:

$resp = $client->get('https://httpbin.org/headers', [
    'headers' => ['X-Api-Key' => 'override-for-this-request'],
]);

---

HTTP/1 only

Disable HTTP/2 and force HTTP/1.1:

$b = new RNet\ClientBuilder();
$b->http1Only(true);
$client = $b->build();

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Error handling

All exceptions extend \Exception and can be caught individually or together:

try {
    $resp = RNet\get('https://example.com');
    $resp->raiseForStatus();
    $data = $resp->json();
} catch (RNet\TimeoutException $e) {
    // Request exceeded the timeout
    error_log('Timed out: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\ConnectionException $e) {
    // Could not connect (DNS failure, refused, etc.)
    error_log('Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\TlsException $e) {
    // TLS handshake failed
    error_log('TLS error: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\StatusException $e) {
    // Server returned 4xx or 5xx
    error_log('HTTP error: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\RedirectException $e) {
    // Too many redirects or redirect loop
    error_log('Redirect error: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\BodyException $e) {
    // Error reading the response body
    error_log('Body error: ' . $e->getMessage());
} catch (RNet\RequestException $e) {
    // Any other request error
    error_log('Request error: ' . $e->getMessage());
}

Exception class hierarchy:

\Exception
 ├── RNet\RequestException      — generic request failure
 ├── RNet\ConnectionException   — could not connect
 ├── RNet\TlsException          — TLS handshake failure
 ├── RNet\TimeoutException      — request timed out
 ├── RNet\StatusException       — 4xx / 5xx response
 ├── RNet\BodyException         — error reading body
 ├── RNet\DecodingException     — response decoding failure
 ├── RNet\RedirectException     — too many / bad redirects
 └── RNet\WebSocketException    — WebSocket error

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Building from source

System requirements

• Linux x86_64
• PHP 8.1 or newer (with development headers)
• Rust 1.85 or newer
• cmake 3.14 or newer (to compile BoringSSL)
• libclang 18 (used at build time only by bindgen — not needed at runtime)
• A C compiler: gcc or clang

Note: libclang is only needed during cargo build. The compiled .so file has no dependency on it.

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Step 1 — Install Rust

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env

Verify:

rustc --version   # should be 1.85 or newer
cargo --version

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Step 2 — Install system dependencies

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libclang-18-dev

If libclang-18-dev is not available in your repo (e.g. Ubuntu 22.04), add the LLVM apt repository first:

wget -qO- https://apt.llvm.org/llvm-snapshot.gpg.key | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/apt.llvm.org.asc
echo "deb http://apt.llvm.org/jammy/ llvm-toolchain-jammy-18 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/llvm-18.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libclang-18-dev

Replace jammy with your Ubuntu codename (focal, noble, etc.) if needed.

Fedora / RHEL:

sudo dnf install gcc cmake clang-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake clang

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Step 3 — Install PHP development headers

Debian / Ubuntu:

# PHP 8.4
sudo apt install php8.4-dev

# or if you only have a generic package available
sudo apt install php-dev

Fedora / RHEL:

sudo dnf install php-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S php

Verify that php-config works and points to your intended PHP version:

php-config --version

If you have multiple PHP versions installed and php-config points to the wrong one, set it explicitly:

export PHP_CONFIG=/usr/bin/php-config8.4

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Step 4 — Set environment variables

ext-php-rs uses bindgen to parse PHP headers at build time. You need to tell it where libclang is:

# Adjust the path to match your system
export LIBCLANG_PATH=/usr/lib/llvm-18/lib

# Only needed if libclang is not in a standard location
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBCLANG_PATH:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

Check where libclang was installed:

find /usr -name "libclang.so*" 2>/dev/null

If cmake is not in your PATH (e.g. installed to a custom location), add it:

export PATH="/path/to/cmake/bin:$PATH"

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Step 5 — Build

git clone https://github.com/takielias/php-rnet.git
cd php-rnet
cargo build --release

The first build will take a few minutes because it compiles BoringSSL from source. Subsequent builds are much faster.

Output:

target/release/librnet.so

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Step 6 — Load the extension

Permanently (add to php.ini):

php --ini   # find your php.ini

extension=/absolute/path/to/librnet.so

Per script:

php -d extension=/absolute/path/to/librnet.so your_script.php

Verify:

php -d extension=/absolute/path/to/librnet.so -r "var_dump(extension_loaded('php-rnet'));"
# bool(true)

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Troubleshooting

error: could not find tool "cc"

sudo apt install gcc
export PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH"

could not find libclang

find / -name "libclang.so*" 2>/dev/null
export LIBCLANG_PATH=/usr/lib/llvm-18/lib

Error: Could not find PHP executable

which php
# if missing:
sudo apt install php-cli

php-config: not found

sudo apt install php-dev
# or set it manually:
export PHP_CONFIG=/usr/bin/php-config8.4

cmake version too old

BoringSSL requires cmake 3.14+:

cmake --version
# install newer via cmake.org or mise:
mise install cmake@latest
export PATH="$HOME/.local/share/mise/installs/cmake/latest/bin:$PATH"

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License

MIT