Using the ionCube PHP Loader

This article discusses support for the ionCube PHP Loader on hosting.com servers. The ionCube Loader is a PHP extension that decodes and executes encoded files at run-time.

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Note

Information in this article about unmanaged dedicated servers is only for customers who purchased those plans before May 27, 2024. As of that date, unmanaged dedicated servers are no longer available. Our new managed dedicated server plans feature more powerful hardware to meet your hosting needs. To view available dedicated hosting options, please visit https://hosting.com/hosting/dedicated-hosting/.

Shared hosting and reseller servers

All shared hosting and reseller servers have the ionCube PHP Loader enabled by default. You can verify this yourself by viewing the server's PHP configuration settings. For more information about how to do this, please see this article.

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Note

On some shared and reseller hosting accounts, you must follow additional configuration steps to use ionCube Loader with non-default PHP versions. For more information, please see this article.

Managed VPS and managed Dedicated Servers

Managed VPS and managed Dedicated Servers have the ionCube PHP Loader enabled by default. You can verify this yourself by viewing the server's PHP configuration settings. For more information about how to do this, please see this article.

Unmanaged VPS and unmanaged Dedicated Servers

If you use Webuzo to install a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack, it installs and configures the ionCube Loader as well. No further configuration is required on your part.

If you install Apache and PHP yourself, however, then you must download and configure the ionCube Loader. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the VPS or dedicated server using SSH.

2. At the command prompt, type the following command:

   Bash

   wget http://downloads2.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
   

3. To extract the files, type the following command:

   Bash

   tar xvzf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
   

4. Move the ioncube directory to the /usr/local directory by typing the following command:

   Bash

   mv ioncube /usr/local
   

5. Add the following line to the /etc/php.ini file. Replace x.y with the PHP version number that you are running (for example, 5.4 ):

   zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_x.y.so
   

6. Restart Apache. To do this, type the appropriate command for your Linux distribution:

   • For AlmaLinux and Fedora, type:

     Bash

     service httpd restart
     

   • For Debian and Ubuntu, type:

     Bash

     service apache2 restart
     

More Information

For more information about the ionCube PHP Loader, please visit http://www.ioncube.com.

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