How to install ionCube Loader on CentOS 7

To install ionCube Loader on CentOS 7

ionCube Loader is a PHP based module which is basically an encryption/decryption utility for PHP applications which also assists in speeding up the pages that are served. It is often required for a lot of PHP-based applications and is mostly preferred by commercial software vendors to protect their code and stop it from being visible. It is so simple to install ionCube Loader and this article covers the ground on the installation process involved with ionCube Loader on Centos 7.

Requirements
Apache
Php7

Installing ionCube Loader

In order to download the installation package you need to use the wget command along with the download link in the following manner.

[root@linuxhelp ~]# wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
--2017-11-24 10:30:45--  https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
Resolving downloads.ioncube.com (downloads.ioncube.com)... 192.241.136.243
Connecting to downloads.ioncube.com (downloads.ioncube.com)|192.241.136.243|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 10041272 (9.6M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: ‘ ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz’ 

100%[======================================> ] 10,041,272   324KB/s   in 26s    

2017-11-24 10:31:11 (384 KB/s) - ‘ ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz’  saved [10041272/10041272]

Once the file is downloaded, you shall extract it as follows.

[root@linuxhelp ~]# tar -zxf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz

And then, move it to the Apache document root location by making use of the following command.

[root@linuxhelp ~]# mv ioncube /var/www/html/

Once it is done, you shall set the appropriate owner and file execution permissions.

[root@linuxhelp html]# chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/
[root@linuxhelp html]# chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/

After that, you should move inside the ioncube directory and copy the highlighted part.

[root@linuxhelp html]# cd ioncube/
[root@linuxhelp ioncube]# ls -l
total 25084
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  464224 Oct 31 22:03 ioncube_loader_lin_4.1.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  463776 Oct 31 22:03 ioncube_loader_lin_4.2.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  464448 Oct 31 22:03 ioncube_loader_lin_4.3.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  482688 Oct 31 22:04 ioncube_loader_lin_4.3_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  467520 Oct 31 22:04 ioncube_loader_lin_4.4.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  486816 Oct 31 22:05 ioncube_loader_lin_4.4_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  476576 Oct 31 22:05 ioncube_loader_lin_5.0.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  490048 Oct 31 22:06 ioncube_loader_lin_5.0_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1097888 Oct 31 22:07 ioncube_loader_lin_5.1.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1137920 Oct 31 22:08 ioncube_loader_lin_5.1_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1137312 Oct 31 22:09 ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1176672 Oct 31 22:11 ioncube_loader_lin_5.2_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1226952 Oct 31 22:12 ioncube_loader_lin_5.3.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1283528 Oct 31 22:13 ioncube_loader_lin_5.3_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1501184 Oct 31 22:15 ioncube_loader_lin_5.4.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1586880 Oct 31 22:17 ioncube_loader_lin_5.4_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1514752 Oct 31 22:19 ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1596224 Oct 31 22:21 ioncube_loader_lin_5.5_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1480496 Oct 31 22:23 ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1540368 Oct 31 22:24 ioncube_loader_lin_5.6_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1240888 Oct 31 22:26 ioncube_loader_lin_7.0.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1296056 Oct 31 22:27 ioncube_loader_lin_7.0_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1331112 Oct 31 22:29 ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache 1406920 Oct 31 22:30 ioncube_loader_lin_7.1_ts.so
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache   10768 Nov  1 19:00 LICENSE.txt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache  181455 Nov  1 19:00 loader-wizard.php
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache    2195 Nov  1 19:00 README.txt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache   72816 Nov  1 19:00 USER-GUIDE.pdf
-rwxrwxr-x 1 apache apache   10975 Nov  1 19:00 USER-GUIDE.txt

Then find out the PHP modules location. Run the following command for the same purpose.

[root@linuxhelp ioncube]# php -i | grep extension_dir
extension_dir =>  /usr/lib64/php/modules =>  /usr/lib64/php/modules
sqlite3.extension_dir =>  no value =>  no value

Here paste ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so which was copied earlier, it is php7.1 ‘ s .so

[root@linuxhelp ioncube]# cp ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so /usr/lib64/php/modules

And then, open php.ini file as follows.

[root@linuxhelp ioncube]# vim /etc/php.ini

And then paste paste the following content into it.

zend_extension = /usr/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so

Next, you need to configure your Apache VirtualHost for your ION Cube Loader, and for that you need to open the .conf file, so do as follows.

[root@linuxhelp html]# vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/ion.conf

Once the .conf file is opened, make the following modifications in it.

< VirtualHost *:80> 
DocumentRoot " /var/www/html" 
ServerName www.linuxhelp1.com
< Directory " /var/www/html/" > 
DirectoryIndex index.php
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
< /Directory> 
< /VirtualHost> 

Once you are through with the configuration part, you ought to restart your Apache service by running the following command.

[root@linuxhelp ioncube]# systemctl restart httpd

Now let us move to the browser and give your domain name followed by your directory and your loader wizard php file.

If you see the square figure as given in the image, then you have successfully installed ionCube Loader.

With this, the installation of ionCube Loader on Centos 7 comes to an end.