Due to the concerns raised, this ticket has been escalated... Unfortunately, as our servers use suPHP, there is not a way to allow scripts to run using 777 permissions. The majority of hosting companies now use suPHP servers, where 755 permissions will allow PHP to read, write and execute scripts like 777 does. Most scripts are now written with this in mind, but some rarer or custom scripts such as yours retain the use of 777.

In one of the recent responses I see that you have found a section of the script that sets the permissions to 777 and also mentioned that you were getting in contact with the developer to determine how to work around or update this option. As such, we'd like to ask if you've received any word back? Unfortunately this is not a script I've seen before, but often forums will have configurable options in the back-end to declare what permissions to use when a new file is created.

Still waiting for developer's response, hopefully with clarification such as: Yes, go right ahead and edit the permission settings in that file. No other files do that. No other files need to be changed. No other files will check permissions and refuse to run or malfunction if not 777 or 666. That's what I hope to hear. I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, I'm manually changing the permissions every time the software thinks it knows better. That's only a minor annoyance since nobody else is using it yet.

But opening the forum to others will be impossible, since the software can set file permissions when users perform certain actions. Then, the server will freeze the forum without giving users a clue.

If the developer says it's ok to change that file and maybe other files or provides a revision to the software, that will solve the problem. I'll let you know.