We need to upgrade our magento setup time to time with release of the editions because of security reasons. Sometime we need to apply the security patches also to resolve security issues. Here I am explaining how to apply securtiy patches without ssh , by using php file.

Follow the steps to upload security patches e.g here I am uploading security patch SUPEE-6788-
1) Download the relative security patches from "https://www.magentocommerce.com/download" link.
2) Upload the patch on root folder of your magento setup.
3) Create patch.php file with the following content -

<?php
    print("<PRE>");
    passthru("/bin/bash PATCH&#95;SUPEE-6788.sh");
    print("</PRE>");
    echo "Done";
?>

4) Run file on browser , on successfully apply the patch you will see the result "Patch was applied/reverted successfully."