PHP v5.3
The latest stable release of the programming language PHP, PHP v5.3, made its debut on June 30, 2009. A quick glance at the change log reveals it to be, in the words of Daft Punk, ” Harder Better Faster Stronger” than previous versions. Those interested in more detail should check out Migrating from PHP 5.2.x to PHP 5.3.x.
ionCube Encoder
When an author of a PHP file wishes to protect his or her work from observation or modification, he or she might use an encoder, such as ionCube, to protect their PHP coding efforts. Opening an encoded file reveals what seems to be jibberish, however, through the use of a loader, the script can still execute. ionCube further explains what PHP code protection is:
Code protection is based on 100% optimised compiled bytecodes, plus several layers of encoding on top. Never restoring files back to source is essential for true security. By eliminating source code before your files are encoded, and pre-parsing, compiling and optimising the compiled binary code, delivers the maximum possible protection, runtime performance and language compatibility. Encoded files are also protected by digital signatures, and any change to an encoded file, such as tampering with your PHP product’s copyright text, renders the encoded file unusable.
ionCube Loader
As was mentioned earlier, when PHP coders wish to protect their efforts from change, they might make use of a PHP encoder such as ionCube. However, now that their PHP code has been encoded and “locked,” there must be some kind of loader or “key” installed on the server for the PHP script to execute.
Incompatibilities
Will my encoded files for PHP 5.3 run on older versions of PHP
No.
With PHP 5.3 we are releasing an encoder with a different compiler so as to support the new PHP language, and forwards compatibility so that files from the new Encoder will run on earlier versions of PHP is not possible.
So, if I am interpreting this statement correctly, what this means is that when the ionCube encoder is released for PHP v5.3, the ionCube protected files will not execute on PHP versions lower than v5.3. In other words, if I use the encoder designed for PHP v5.3 on a file, and someone using PHP v5.2.10 attempts to run it, the execution will fail.
Even though PHP has been through both beta and release candidate testing before the release of a stable build of PHP v5.3, ionCube does not support PHP v5.3 at this time — and some have demonstrated an ionCube PHP v5.3 frustration.
Other questions
Q: If I use the ionCube loader designed for PHP v5.2.x, will upgrading to PHP v5.3 cause problems?
A: There is no support at the present time for an ionCube loader when using PHP v5.3. A forum post on the ionCube forum answers the question this way:
We’ll be releasing support for the new PHP language later in the year. I doubt that it’s any intentional deception on the part of the PHP group to try and gain quicker acceptance of the new language with hosts than usually happens, but PHP 5.3 is really the new PHP 6.0 as it’s not just a change of major proportions but a new version of the language with a new syntax and some incompatibility with previous versions of PHP 5. The forthcoming language that the PHP group are calling PHP 6 should really be PHP 7.
DirectAdmin & CPanel w/ PHP v5.3
At the present time, the latest version of PHP v5.3 is not available to be installed through the cPanel or the DirectAdmin interfact due to the glaring incompatibility issues. Here’s what being talked about on the cpanel forum regarding upgrading PHP. And here’s what being talked about on the DirectAdmin forum regarding the upgrade.
In a nutshell
Because PHP v5.3 introduces a lot of new features and changes a lot of things, upgrading to this version will cause a lot of scripts to break at the present time. These existing scripts first need to be updated in order to support the latest PHP release. Included in this would be the ionCube encoder and the ionCube loader.
Comments on this entry are closed.