[Suggestion/Feature Request] PHPIDS not maintained for a decade
PHPIDS was introduced in ISPConfig version 3.0.5.4-patch-4, back in October 2014. Sadly, PHPIDS received had received its last update in September 2014, and remained unpatched/unmaintained since then. Its sole repository manager, Ananda Krishna, is still around in GitHub, but clearly couldn't care less about his code.
Obviously, nobody in 2014 could predict that the death of PHPIDS was imminent; major patches and contributions had been made that very same year, and there was a flurry of activity on GitHub.
Then it all suddenly stopped.
A few forks were attempted, and maintained for a while, especially to keep them current with PHP updates, but as of 2023, none are active. But the theory is that even an old, unmaintained intrusion detection system is better than having nothing at all — especially because "script kiddies" (wannabe hackers) often use outdated intrusion code, freely downloadable, knowing fully well that lots of websites out there haven't patched their systems for years (or decades...). As we can see from the reports on the HowToForge Forums, such attempts are still being caught by PHPIDS, thus it still remains useful.
To a degree.
Unless the ISPConfig3 maintainers are patching the PHPIDS code themselves (and if they are, they might be willing to share it under the LGPL-3.0
I see a few options here, to be discussed (possibly on the forums!):
- Remove PHPIDS completely from ISPConfig3. Eventually replace it by something else, if and when that "something" is developed.
- Leave it as an option, either through the installer, or as a module, which could be switched on/off by an administrator, with a warning regarding the last known version of PHP known to work with PHPIDS.
- Do minimal maintenance and patching to keep the essential core of PHPIDS operational even under PHP 8.X. That might require a lot of effort and/or many volunteers (I have no idea) and may not be an option. It could become a paid module, just like the Billing Module, to support the extra work required to maintain it. And it would probably mean contacting Ananda Krishna and asking him to place a few more maintainers on the GitHub project for PHPIDS, so that they can allow new pull/merge requests.