I had the same problem as reading the installation instructions gives the impression to set permissions on folders, not any of the files, whereas the error is more related to the actual php file's permissions and when reading
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=9 it mentions...
Connect to your site with your FTP program.
Move to your public_html directory, and perhaps into your "zencart" folder underneath public_html, if you've used a subfolder.
Then look for a "Properties" command that can be applied to that directory (often if you right click, Properties will be one of the options).
Then change the permissions to the needed setting for the following folders:
(If prompted whether to include files/folders underneath them (also called "recursive"), say or check "Yes")
All of these to 777 (unless you're running PHP in suPHP mode -- ask your hosting company for confirmation, in which case 755 is appropriate):
*/cache
*/pub
*/images
*/includes/languages/english/html_includes
*/admin/backups
*/admin/images/graphs
so change folder AND file permissions and see if that works, it worked for me.
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