Server: php/mcrypt has been deprecated

[LorbusChris]

Mcrypt is listed as a Recommended lib in the installation manual. https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/13/admin_manual/installation/source_installation.html

It has been deprecated in PHP upstream and should be removed.
http://us1.php.net/manual/en/book.mcrypt.php
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mcrypt-viking-funeral

[nickvergessen]

mcrypt is only used by php-seclib which we use:
https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/pull/1040

They seem to be aware of the issue and will mostlikely fix it (instead of surpressing the deprecation info) in a future version.

[terrafrost]

@nickvergessen - This is not an issue with phpseclib.

Quoting https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/issues/1134,

phpseclib has used the error suppression operator on all mcrypt function calls since 1.0.4 / 2.0.4:

https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/commit/640f10609fdb2aa825f8a42c6bee975879974e1c

Those versions were released on October 3, 2016. My recommendation: upgrade to the latest version of phpseclib from either the 1.0 or 2.0 branches.

Removing mcrypt is not going to happen because, deprecated tho it may be, it's still a heck of a lot faster than the pure-PHP implementation. The fact that it's being used on your system suggests that OpenSSL isn't available so mcrypt is gonna be the fastest way to do encryption in PHP.

phpseclib (all branches) are unit tested on PHP 7.2:

https://travis-ci.org/phpseclib/phpseclib

They all pass in spite of using mcrypt. idk if you've ever used Travis CI / phpunit but an E_DEPRECATED notice will result in a failing unit test and yet the unit tests are all passing.

[Skywalker-11]

The code comments says that they use a custom mcrypt implementations if the the php module is not available which would explain why it still works with PHP 7.2:
https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/search?p=1&q=mcrypt

[glaringgibbon]

Hi,

I raised issue https://github.com/iuscommunity/wishlist/issues/209 with IUS that Carl just closed off above. He suggested I subscribe to this thread and I'm hoping you can be as helpful as he was.

I'm strictly an enthusiastic amateur so please bear with me. Apologies in advance for any n00bish behaviour, comments, practices, etc.

I am trying to get to the bottom of the mcrypt/sodium situation, what the implications are, where is it heading etc. This is for a VPS install on public internet so I'm sure you appreciate my concern.

Can someone explain in layman's terms what the implications are of running PHP7.2 on NC14 instance?

Is a temporary 7.1 or 7.0 solution preferable?

I understand mcrypt will be replaced by sodium. Is there an ETA?

Is there anything else you can point me to that would help?

I opened a thread on the NC installation forum about the route I'm trying to take which gives some background which may/may not help. I'm trying to get a safe, secure, up to date NC14 running that won't require a huge overhaul in a few months time.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[mlduber]

Documentation is misleading but the point is, official Nextcloud 14 (Docker image) + official SAML app just don't work out of the box.

[kesselb]

@mlduber could you report this at https://github.com/nextcloud/docker?

[glaringgibbon]

Hi

Am I in any danger of a response in the foreseeable future?

I was asked to post here from the NC forum as this is the place to ask apparently. Of the few responses I got there one starts out with this comment

Feeling a wall of silence from NC?

7 days after posting here I am beginning to see what they were talking about.

This is not a good look.

In the absence of any info from you guys I have been reading up on the subject and have come to the conclusion that there appears to be a PHP timebomb under NC. Ignoring the issue won't make it go away.

[mlduber]

Hi

Am I in any danger of a response in the foreseeable future?

Hi, I understand things are being done on the mcrypt front, according to this pull request. Not sure it answers your questions about sodium, ffmpeg and all, though.

[kesselb]

I guess there is not ETA for this issue. On my personal nextcloud instance i use php7.2 (with nextcloud 13) without mcrypt.

@terrafrost explained here https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/issues/1134#issuecomment-383352185 that mcrypt is not required when openssl is available as php module. When mcrypt is not available a slower plain php implementation is used in some special cases.

[nickvergessen]

Yeah as daniel already said, we are working on it as much as we can.
We removed all mcrypt dependencies from our source files. A last lib was removed in https://github.com/nextcloud/server/pull/11769

The only thing remaining in core is phpseclib, which as per above, also works without it, so I guess it should be totally fine?

[k00ni]

Hi, can anyone give me a short status update please?

[kesselb]

As per https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/installation/source_installation.html mcrypt is no longer a mandatory dependency.