I have installed apache on my ubuntu. The htdocs folder is in /var/www/html
I am using a cgi script (running in browser) to write files inside multiple directories of /var/www/html.

If I give 755 permission(looks safest because only owner has write permissions) to directories inside /var/www/html then I am not able to write into them using cgi script because cgi script owner is www-data which does not have permission to write into them.

If I give 777 permissions to these directories then everything works fine but this does not look a secure way at all because projects of /var/www/html folder is accessible using browser globally and 777 means anyone can write into them.

What should be the ownership and permissions of /var/www/html and the directories inside /var/www/html, so projects are secured enough and cgi script should be worked fine.

Please help.

Thank You

Hi,

If your installation is standard so the permissions on /var/www/html are 755 and it is own by root:root.
But while Apache runs it drops the privileges to apacha:apache, who does not have rights to write to the folder.
This is by design and on purpose.

Why do you want to allow a cgi script to write to /var/www/html/ ?
If your web site is compromised the attacker can then arbitraily alter/modify/add anything wanted in your web site.
And you do not want that? Do you?