Install ionCube Loader

The ionCube Loader is a PHP extension that enables PHP to execute files encoded using the ionCube Encoder.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to install the ionCube Loader on your servers.

This tutorial assumes you have already connected your server to ServerPilot.

If you have already installed the ionCube Loader for a different version of PHP, please remove the old tarball from the server so the names in this tutorial match what is present on the server.

Remove Previous Versions

The following commands will delete previous versions of ioncube_loader tarballs located in /usr/local:

cd /usr/local
sudo rm ioncube_loaders*.tar.gz

Download, Extract, and Configure

To install the ionCube Loader, SSH in to your server as the root user and run the following commands for the PHP version you're adding the ionCube loader to.

PHP 8.4

As of October 2024, IonCube loader does not yet support PHP 8.4.

PHP 8.3

cd /usr/local
    sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
    sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
    sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_8.3.so /opt/sp/php8.3/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/
    sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php8.3/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/ioncube_loader_lin_8.3.so" > /etc/php8.3-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
    sudo service php8.3-fpm-sp restart

PHP 8.2

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_8.2.so /opt/sp/php8.2/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20220829/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php8.2/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20220829/ioncube_loader_lin_8.2.so" > /etc/php8.2-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php8.2-fpm-sp restart

PHP 8.1

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so /opt/sp/php8.1/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20210902/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php8.1/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20210902/ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so" > /etc/php8.1-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php8.1-fpm-sp restart

PHP 8.0

The ionCube loader does not support PHP 8.0.

PHP 7.4

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so /opt/sp/php7.4/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20190902/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php7.4/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20190902/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so" > /etc/php7.4-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php7.4-fpm-sp restart

PHP 7.3

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so /opt/sp/php7.3/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20180731/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php7.3/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20180731/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so" > /etc/php7.3-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php7.3-fpm-sp restart

PHP 7.2

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.2.so /opt/sp/php7.2/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20170718/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php7.2/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20170718/ioncube_loader_lin_7.2.so" > /etc/php7.2-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php7.2-fpm-sp restart

PHP 7.1

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so /opt/sp/php7.1/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20160303/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php7.1/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20160303/ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so" > /etc/php7.1-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php7.1-fpm-sp restart

PHP 7.0

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.0.so /opt/sp/php7.0/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20151012/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php7.0/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20151012/ioncube_loader_lin_7.0.so" > /etc/php7.0-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php7.0-fpm-sp restart

PHP 5.6

cd /usr/local
sudo wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
sudo cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so /opt/sp/php5.6/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20131226/
sudo bash -c 'echo "zend_extension=/opt/sp/php5.6/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20131226/ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so" > /etc/php5.6-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini'
sudo service php5.6-fpm-sp restart

Verifying ionCube Loader Is Installed

In the commands shown, replace "X.Y" with your app's PHP version (for example, "7.4" or "8.1").

You can verify the ionCube Loader extension is installed correctly by running this command:

phpX.Y-sp -i | grep -i ioncube

You should see output like the following:

Additional .ini files parsed => /etc/phpX.Y-sp/conf.d/20ioncube.ini,
    with the ionCube PHP Loader (enabled) + Intrusion Protection from ioncube24.com (unconfigured) v10.0.0 (), Copyright (c) 2002-2017, by ionCube Ltd.
ionCube Loader

Uninstalling IonCube Loader