How to install IonCube PHP Encoder on Hestia

The ionCube PHP Encoder is a widely used tool that allows developers to protect their PHP files with powerful encryption and security features. To use ionCube-encoded files on a web server, the ionCube Loader must be installed and made available to PHP. To install ionCube Loader on you server go ahead and download the latest version available for your operating system. You can download it from the link below:

https://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

On Linux server with ARM architecture you can download it by running the below command, if you need 32-bit and 64-bit version you can get the link from from the link above.

wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_aarch64.zip

Once you have ionCube Loader package downloaded you will have to unzip it

unzip ioncube_loaders_lin_aarch64.zip

Once you unzip the package, a directory called “ioncube/” will get created on your system. In that directory you will find all available onCube Loader php extensions, the version of each extension corresponds to the version of php it needs to run, (e.g. ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so is extension for php8.1)

Run the following command to find out your current PHP version

php -v

Next you need to figure out your default PHP extensions directory you can do that by running the following command

php -i | grep extension_dir

Once you know your PHP version and path to the PHP extensions default directory, copy that extensions file supported by your PHP version to the default extensions directory.

cp ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so /usr/lib/php/20210902

Next login to your Hestia Control Panel and open “php.ini” file. Server Settings -> php8.1-fpm add the following line anywhere in the file. Make sure you replace the path with your default extensions path.

zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/20210902/ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so

Go ahead and save the changes to the “php.ini”, that will restart your web server and at that point you should have ionCube PHP Encoder sucesfully installed and loaded on you Hestia server. To confirm installation run

php -v

For more detailed explanation, with visuals go ahead and checkout my video tutorial on Youtube .