What is IonCube PHP loader?

3 replies
Hi there!

Can somesone share with me what is Ioncube all about? I was trying to access a website called ipods.free4every1.com and following is the message I get.

The file /home/.keekum/dabazgurl/ipods.free4every1.com/global.php has been encoded with the ionCube PHP Encoder and requires the free ionCube PHP Loader to be installed.


Thanks!
#ioncube #loader #php
  • Profile picture of the author Catalin Ionescu
    Hi,

    As you probably know, PHP files are plain text files. What used to happen was once you had access to a PHP based application, you pretty much had access also to the inner workings of it.

    What does this mean to you? Well, not much unless you're a programmer; or a software vendor.

    But I doubt Microsoft would still sell Windows if they had to give away the source code with every copy they sold.

    So a while ago, smart people figured out a way to encrypt -- or more correctly encode -- these source PHP files. The result is an application that works identical, if not faster, than the original.

    However if you try to open an encoded application in a text editor all you're going to see is gibberish that only computers understand.

    IonCube is one of these encoders. For your site to be able to undestand it, it needs a "loader."

    Looks like the site you mentioned doesn't have this loader installed or properly configured.

    - Catalin
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  • Profile picture of the author geek4ever
    ionCube loader is the PHP extension that decodes encrypted PHP files on runtime. It is freely available and installation is very easy.

    It can be downloaded here & install instructions can be found here

    Most commercial hosting companies have ionCube loader installed already. Seems like the webmaster of the site you are trying to access needs to contact his/her servers administrator or Hosting Provider and request that.
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  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    A handy trick is to create a php document with the "phpinfo" command as follows:
    Code:
    phpinfo();
    If you run this on your site you will see a wealth of configuration information, including whether IonCube or other loaders (such as Zend) are installed.

    Don't leave this page on your site permanently though as you're providing hackers with more than they need to know about your setup! Just use it for testing, perhaps you'll want to print a screen shot as a reference.

    Bill
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