Files permissions - 644 versus 444

After many months of configuring and testing, I am just about ready to cut over to our new zen cart store. I am now going through with final security recommendation checks.

My question is regarding folder and file permissions and 444 versus 644. I am on a Linux server.

In the Zen Cart FAQs and forums when it's stated to set something to Read-only, it's considered 644 and Read/Write is considered 777, but there appears to be some exceptions to this.

When I originally had my configure.php files set to 644 (thinking this was Read-only), zen cart told me they were still writable. I had to change them to 444.

So, does that mean that all my zc files should be 444 as that is really considered Read-only on my server? Or, is 644 OK for all other files because it's write-only for the file owner/user?


Right now I have the following permissions set:

Both configure.php files are 444 (only way the zen cart write alert error would go away)
All other files (including images) are 644
All Folders are 755

444 is read only
read (user, group, world)

644 is read/write
read (user, group, world)
write (user)

755 is read / write / execute
read (user, group, world)
write (user)
execute (user, group, world)

Your current permissions setting are perfect for safe usage.

Thanks Rob.