ionCube installation process on Debian Linux for PHP?

Install PHP ionCube Loaders in Debian Linux System

ionCube is the encryption and decryption utility used for PHP applications to keep our data safe. It also can restrict PHP application to unauthorised execution and helps in speeding up the served pages. ionCube loaders are used for decoding encoded files when running on the webserver. See more information on the ionCube official site. This guide will help you to install the PHP ionCube Loaders module on Debian Linux system.

1. Download ionCube Loaders At first, download all the latest ionCube loaders php modules from the ioncube download page. Instead, you can also execute the following command to download ionCube loaders.

wget http://downloads3.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz

Next, extract the downloaded file under /usr/local directory.

tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz -C /usr/local

2. Enable ionCube Loader in PHP Search the PHP configuration file on your computer. Execute the following command to find the php.ini file.

php -i | grep php.ini

Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc/php/7.3/cli
Loaded Configuration File => */etc/php/7.3/cli/php.ini*

The above command will get the configuration file for php-cli. You also require to edit php.ini for Apache. You can search this with phpinfo(); php function. Or just change cli in /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.ini with apache like /etc/php/7.2/apache/php.ini.

Now add the following line in both (cli + apache) PHP configuration files.

zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so

Replace /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so file with your corresponding PHP version file.

3. Verify ionCube Loader Let’s verify the installation and configuration of ionCube PHP module. Run php -m command on shell.

php -m

PHP 7.3.6-1+0~20190531112640.39+buster~1.gbp6131b7 (cli) (built: May 31 2019 11:26:40) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.6, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with the **ionCube PHP Loader** + ionCube24 v10.3.7, Copyright (c) 2002-2019, by ionCube Ltd.
    with Zend OPcache v7.3.6-1+0~20190531112640.39+buster~1.gbp6131b7, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Or you can additionally put an info.php file on your web server document root with the following content and verify the status by access info.php in a web browser.

<?php
   phpinfo();
?>

Then access info.php in a web browser to see complete information.