Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Setting file and user permissions

Summary

This is a short tutorial, or refresher, on how to set file and user Permissions in cPanel.

Changing File Permissions

Changing File Permissions

Linux is a multi-user environment. In a multi-user environment, security of user and system data is very important. Access should be given only to users who need to access the data.
From Cpanel open File Manager. Click on the file/folder name you wish to change permissions for.
Click "Change Permissions". Then select your permissions as appropriate for your needs.

r - Read permission. Whether the file may be read. In the case of a directory, this would mean the ability to list the contents of the directory.

w - Write permission. Whether the file may be written to or modified. For a directory, this defines whether you can make any changes to the contents of the directory. If write permission is not set then you will not be able to delete, rename or create a file.

x - Execute permission. Whether the file may be executed. In the case of a directory, this attribute decides whether you have permission to enter, run a search through that directory or execute some program from that directory.

You will generally want to restrict writable access to "group" and "world" permissions, and set them only for "user" access. Files you do not want changed (ie: read only) should have writable access turned of for all types of access.

If Setting to specific bit number values, they are:
r = 4
w = 2
x = 1

Knowledgebase Article