Plugging mcrypt into PHP on macOS High Sierra 10.13: A Requiem

Since Apple’s desktop operating system was called OS X Leopard, I’ve been concocting little ditties on how to plug mcrypt functionality into PHP without complete recompilation and/or using a black box MAMP offering. The previous stop on that [eight year?] journey was with macOS Sierra. And it was/is the end of the line.

Queue list of excuses …

  • I don’t use PHPMyAdmin or Magento eCommerce (both major targets as PHP + mcrypt needs go)
  • I’ve been leaning on Linux VMs for relevant development work (trashing environments and starting over less often than ever)
  • I’ve taken a liking to Python, as it covers everything from number tumbling and data crunching to stupid little utilities for replacing website photos (dropping Anaconda in is a breeze)
  • And not really last but certainly not least, Apple’s latest release, High Sierra 10.13, came complete with a security-related flaw so ludicrous that I probably won’t upgrade until at least iteration two or three. It’s a trust thing.

For those who have already gained elevation in the States’ westernmost major range, all is not lost. If you run through the last set of instructions and replace any code that says “10.12” with “10.13” – along with identifying the proper XCode and PHP versions at the start – you should be ok.

Meanwhile, thanks for the good times.

MG signing off (because that’s all folks)

UPDATE 11/28/17: Like I said, lack of trust.

October 12, 2017 4 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP on macOS Sierra 10.12

We climbed up then down El Capitan, yet little changed. We’re still in the Sierras, and there’s still work to do.

The following instructions are for peeps a) developing on macOS Sierra 10.12, b) need mcrypt for their PHP development i.e. PHPMyAdmin and/or encrypting personally identifiable data before storage (unlike your health insurer, Yahoo! and/or pretty much every other knucklehead out there), and c) do not want to recompile PHP or run MAMP. Mcrypt will load dynamically with PHP after completing this tutorial.

We begin by acquiring the following stuffs …

1) libmcrypt-2.5.8, which you can find here; download by clicking the one of the two file links (author used “libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.gz”);

2) PHP 5.6.24 source code, which is available here; [NOTE: you may someday update OS X beyond 10.12, and PHP may get updated along with it; the author used 10.12, and PHP 5.6.24 was included with that OS version. If necessary use php -v to check your version of PHP and then download the PHP source for that version.];

3) Xcode 8.0, which you can get from the App Store. You will also need the Command Line Tools (macOS 10.12) for Xcode, which you get by selecting “Xcode/Open Developer Tool/More Developer Tools…” from the Xcode menu, then logging into your Apple Developer account (yea you need one of those too); and

4) Homebrew (http://brew.sh) which can be installed by typing ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/ install/master/install)" at the command line.

But before we really wind up, let’s turn off System Integrity Protection (SIP):

  1. Click the Apple menu (upper left hand corner of your screen)
  2. Select Restart, then hold down the Command-R keys to boot into Recovery Mode
  3. Select the Utilities menu and then Terminal
  4. In Terminal, type csrutil disable and then hit return; then close Terminal
  5. Click the Apple menu and select Restart

NOTE: When you are done installing mcrypt, you can restart SIP by following the above steps while substituting csrutil enable in step 4.

Proceed.

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September 28, 2016 45 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11

We made our way into the park. Now we do some climbing.

The following instructions are for those a) developing on OS X El Capitan 10.11.X, b) need mcrypt for their PHP development (think PHPMyAdmin, Magento eCommerce or just twisting _RIJNDAEL_256 for shits and giggles), and c) are unwilling to recompile PHP from scratch or run an alternative development package set such as MAMP. Mcrypt will load dynamically with PHP by venturing forth.

Before beginning acquire the following stuff …

1) libmcrypt-2.5.8, which you can find here; download by clicking the one of the two file links (author used “libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.gz”);

2) PHP 5.5.27 source code, which is available here; [NOTE: you may someday update OS X beyond 10.11, and PHP may get updated along with it; the author used 10.11, and PHP 5.5.27 was included with that OS version. If necessary use php -v to check your version of PHP and then download the PHP source for that version.];

3) Xcode 7.0.1, which you can get from the App Store. You will also need the Command Line Tools (OS X 10.11) for XCode, which you get by selecting “Xcode/Open Developer Tool/More Developer Tools…” from the Xcode menu, then logging into your Apple Developer account (and if you don’t have one of those, get one); and

4) Homebrew (http://brew.sh) which can be installed by typing ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/ install/master/install)" at the command line.

Now we get down to business …

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October 5, 2015 22 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10

Mavericks rode in on Mountain Lions, but the park ranger at Yosemite wouldn’t let them in. “We need mcrypt” they said, “And we don’t want to recompile PHP!” The ranger handed them a map, and it led them here.

The following instructions are for those a) developing on OS X Yosemite 10.10.X, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development (like using PHPMyAdmin or Magento eCommerce), and c) do not want to recompile PHP from scratch or run MAMP. Mcrypt will get loaded dynamically with PHP by following these instructions.

Before you begin, grab the following bits …

1) libmcrypt-2.5.8, which you can find here; download libmcrypt (not mcrypt!), by clicking the link labeled “libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.gz” on the SourceForge page;

2) PHP 5.5.14 source code, which is available here; NOTE – you may update OS X at some point and PHP may get updated along with it – for the author OS X 10.10 was being run, and PHP 5.5.14 is what’s included with that particular OS version; if necessary use phpinfo() to check your version of PHP and then download the PHP source for that version;

3) Xcode 6.1, which you can get from the App Store. You will also need the Command Line Tools (OS X 10.10) for XCode, which you get by selecting “Xcode/Open Developer Tool/More Developer Tools..” from the Xcode menu, then logging into your Apple Developer account (yes, you need one of those too);

and

4) Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/) which can be installed by typing ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent
.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" at the command line.

Now for the down and dirty…

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November 2, 2014 22 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9

The big cats are gone; the Mavericks are now in charge. But that doesn’t mean the need for mcrypt with your PHP applications requires marching perpetually to the beat of a different drum.

The following instructions are for those a) developing on OS X Mavericks 10.9.X, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development (Magento eCommerce comes to mind), and c) do not want to recompile PHP from scratch or run MAMP. Mcrypt will get loaded dynamically with PHP by following these instructions.

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October 29, 2013 25 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

Out with the old lion, in with the high altitude cat. Twice again, thanks goes out to previous commenters – this time it’s Mario, Max, and Rob, for the providing the right pieces to the puzzle. Onward…

The following instructions cater to those who a) are developing on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.X, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development (such as installing Magento eCommerce), and c) do not want to completely recompile PHP or run MAMP. You’ll get mcrypt loading dynamically within PHP with these instructions.

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September 26, 2012 26 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X Lion 10.7

Perfected for the winter cat, now on to the king of the jungle. Once again, thanks goes out to a previous commenter, this time it’s rachanta, for the first test. Now let’s get moving…

The following instructions cater to those who a) are developing on OS X Lion 10.7.X, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development, and c) do not want to completely recompile PHP to get there. You’ll get mcrypt loading dynamically for use in PHP with this method.

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July 21, 2011 140 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.1

First mcrypt on Leopard, and now we ready for the winter cat. Additionally, special thanks goes out in advance to commenter Yvan Barthelemy (a.k.a. ybart) for cluing me in here. The procedure is almost exactly like the previous…almost. So pay attention.

The following instructions cater to those who a) are developing on OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.1, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development, and c) do not want to completely recompile PHP to get there. You’ll get mcrypt loading dynamically for use in PHP with this method.

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September 23, 2009 306 Comments

I like my cookies with encryption on top

Quick and dirty mcrypt usage

I don’t know where I discovered the original idea, but in messing around with a PHP app I found the need to encrypt session cookies. Here’s how it was done, with the mcrypt library:

//encrypt session cookie
function encryptUserCookie($value)
{
if(!$value) {
return false;
}
$key = SESSION_SALT;
$text = $value;
$iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB);
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv($iv_size, MCRYPT_RAND);
$crypttext = mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, $text, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv);
return trim(base64_encode($crypttext)); //encode for cookie
}

Decoding the cookie was much the same…

//decrypt session cookie
function decryptUserCookie($value)
{
if(!$value) {
return false;
}
$key = SESSION_SALT;
$crypttext = base64_decode($value); //decode cookie
$iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB);
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv($iv_size, MCRYPT_RAND);
$decrypttext = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, $crypttext, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv);
return trim($decrypttext);
}

SESSION_SALT was of course something I called from a variables file.

These snippets were used in an online directory system, where I didn’t want attendees inspecting the cookies for the purpose of setting up multiple listings under the same login.

Simple stuff, but hope it is useful to someone.

February 11, 2009 4 Comments

Plugging mcrypt into PHP, on Leopard 10.5.6

mcrypt on Fedora Core easy – on Leopard with PHP 5.2.6 not so much.

The instructions below cater to those folks who a) are developing on OS X Leopard 10.5.6, b) need the capabilities provided by mcrypt during their PHP development, and c) do not want to completely recompile PHP to get there. You’ll get mcrypt loading dynamically for use in PHP with this method.

First, you are going to need a few things…

1) libmcrypt-2.5.8, which you can pick up here;

2) PHP 5.2.6 source, which you grab here; and

3) Xcode 3 tools (dig through your sock drawer to find your Leopard disk).

Next, create a directory at root called ‘SourceCache’ and dump the files from #1 and #2 in there and unwrap.

Move to the libmcrypt-2.5.8 directory, and punch in this…

MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.5 CFLAGS='-O3 -fno-common -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' LDFLAGS='-O3 -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' CXXFLAGS='-O3 -fno-common -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' ./configure --disable-dependency-tracking

and then…

make -j6

and finally…

sudo make install

libmcrypt is ready – now for the PHP extension…

Move back to /SourceCache, then down to php-5.2.6/ext/mcrypt – type…

/usr/bin/phpize (phpize should be in /usr/bin – if not go find it and change the command as appropriate)

Then configure as follows…

MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.5 CFLAGS='-O3 -fno-common -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' LDFLAGS='-O3 -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' CXXFLAGS='-O3 -fno-common -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc7400 -arch ppc64' ./configure --with-php-config=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk/usr/bin/php-config

Again make -j6 then sudo make install

Make sure you have php.ini in the /etc directory (it may be php.ini.default to start, so rename it). Ensure that enable_dl = On but do not remove the ; from in front of ;extension_dir = "./". UPDATE: Almost forgot – add one line to the .ini file in the Dynamic Extensions section… ‘extension=mcrypt.so’, without the quotes of course (thanks to Badrul).

Restart Apache – when all’s said and done you should be able to see this with phpinfo():

Special thanks go to salty beagle and Kenior Design for giving me the clues to getting the combination of events right.

MORE: Two commenters noted they had their success with the above after updated Xcode to 3.1.2.

December 26, 2008 104 Comments