Install PHP Mcrypt on CentOS 6 VPS

Overview

The PHP module "Mcrypt" provides encryption and decryption using algorithms such as DES, TripleDES and Blowfish. You can read more about it on the official PHP Mcrypt page.

This is required by eCommerce systems such as Magento, however it's not part of the standard RHEL / CentOS packaging.

Instructions

1. SSH to VPS as the root user.
2. Install the the latest "EPEL" repo:

   CentOS 6 32 Bit

   wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
   rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

   CentOS 6 64 Bit

   wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
   rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
   
   

   [root@ws1 ~]# rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
   Preparing...                ############################# [100%]
      1:epel-release           ############################# [100%]
   

3. Install "php-mcrypt":
    

   [root@ws1 ~]# yum install php-mcrypt
   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
   Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
   epel/metalink                                | 3.6 kB     00:00     
    * base: mirror.aarnet.edu.au
    * epel: mirror.overthewire.com.au
    * extras: mirror.overthewire.com.au
    * updates: mirror.overthewire.com.au
   epel                                         | 4.4 kB     00:00     
   epel/primary_db                              | 6.2 MB     00:00     
   Setting up Install Process
   Resolving Dependencies
   --> Running transaction check
   ---> Package php-mcrypt.x86_64 0:5.3.3-3.el6 will be installed
   --> Finished Dependency Resolution
   
   Dependencies Resolved
   
   ===============================================================
    Package       Arch        Version         Repository      Size
   ===============================================================
   Installing:
    php-mcrypt    x86_64      5.3.3-3.el6     epel            19 k
   
   Transaction Summary
   ===============================================================
   Install       1 Package(s)
   
   Total download size: 19 k
   Installed size: 46 k
   Is this ok 2021: y
   Downloading Packages:
   php-mcrypt-5.3.3-3.el6.x86_64.rpm             |  19 kB     00:00     
   Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
   Importing GPG key 0x0608B895:
    Userid : <span class="scayt-misspell-word" data-scayt-word="EPEL">EPEL</span> (6) <>
    Package: epel-release-6-8.noarch (installed)
    From   : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
   Is this ok 2021: y
   Running rpm_check_debug
   Running Transaction Test
   Transaction Test Succeeded
   Running Transaction
   Warning: RPMDB altered outside of yum.
     Installing : php-mcrypt-5.3.3-3.el6.x86_64               1/1
   &nbsp; Verifying  : php-mcrypt-5.3.3-3.el6.x86_64               1/1 
   Installed:
     php-mcrypt.x86_64 0:5.3.3-3.el6                         
   Complete!

    

4. Restart Apache to apply the changes:

   [root@ws1 ~]# service httpd restart
   Stopping httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
   Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
   

5. You can also check to confirm that mcrypt has been installed:

   [root@ws1 ~]# php -m | grep -i mcrypt
   mcrypt