How to enable ionCube Loader module for PHP shipped with Plesk on Linux

Installing ionCube Loader via the Plesk Control Panel interface
Manually installing ionCube Loader using the Command Line interface

Reference KB :

Installing ionCube Loader via the Plesk Control Panel interface - https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12376924533655-How-to-enable-ionCube-Loader-module-for-PHP-shipped-with-Plesk-on-Linux
Manually installing ionCube Loader using the Command Line interface - https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377380178711-How-to-update-ionCube-Loader-to-the-latest-version-for-7-3-and-7-4-shipped-by-Plesk

Installing ionCube Loader via the Plesk Control Panel interface

Step 1 : Log in to Plesk, and then navigate to Tools & Settings -> General Settings > PHP Settings > 8.2, click Manage PECL Packages, and then click on Install package

Step 2 : Specify "ioncube_loader" in the field Package name and click OK:

Step 3 : After Step 2, now Go to Tools & Settings > PHP Settings > click on any handler of necessary version (8.2 in the above example) and enable ioncube_loader_lin_X.X

Step 4 : To verify if ionCube Loader has been installed, follow these steps:

Go to **Websites & Domains**
Navigate to the **Domains Dashboard**
Select **PHP (Dev Tools)**
Click on **View the phpinfo() page**

A PHP page will open displaying all the details. See the screenshots below for reference.

Manually installing ionCube Loader using the Command Line interface

The following example demonstrates how to update ionCube Loader to the latest version for PHP 7.3 and 7.4 provided by Plesk. You can adapt this process for the specific PHP version you require.

Step 1 : Connect to the server via SSH, then download the latest version of ionCube Loader using the command below and extract the compressed file:

# cd /root/
# wget https://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
# tar -xvf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz

Step 2 : Back up the existing ionCube Loader (if any), In the command below, replace the PHP version with the one you need. In this example, the process for PHP versions 7.3 and 7.4 is demonstrated.

For PHP 7.3
# cp -a /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so{,.old}

For PHP 7.4
# cp -a /opt/plesk/php/7.4/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so{,.old}

Step 3 : Now Install the new ionCube Loader as per below command and confirm the file overwrite when prompted.

For PHP 7.3
# cp -a ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so

For PHP 7.4
# cp -a ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so /opt/plesk/php/7.4/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so

Step 4 : Now set the permissions if required

For PHP 7.3
# chown root:root /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so && chmod 644 /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so

For PHP 7.4
# chown root:root /opt/plesk/php/7.4/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so && chmod 644 /opt/plesk/php/7.4/lib64/php/modules/ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so

Step 5 : Restart Apache Web Server in order to apply the change:

# service httpd restart

Step 6 : Check the version by executing php -v command for the corresponding PHP version. For example, for PHP 7.3:

# /opt/plesk/php/7.3/bin/php -v | grep -i ioncube
With the ionCube PHP Loader (enabled) + Intrusion Protection from ioncube24.com v10.2.0, Copyright (c) 2002-2018, by ionCube Ltd.