Hello,

I had a website setup with a hosting company few days ago, and i just found out that my cgi-bin was not well protected. Anyone could see what inside the folder. I have asked the technician to do something about it.

At first he/she told me to chmod to protect the cgi-bin, but i told them that it's not right to do that if i want users to execute my program, then he/she told me to put an index page in there, and nothing would show up. oh yah, that's true, but this is the first time ever I heard someone tell me to do thatfor an cgi-bin. I finally convinced the technician to better modify httpd file.

Do you think I should be worried for this hosing company? I mean, I want to stay with them, but the way they told me to chmod it to have password protected or to use index file really turned me off about continuing hosting my site with their company.

PS: i don't want to mention the company name b/c I don't think it is nice to do that b/c I might be wrong!

This is often the default setting that some control panels set up the cgi-bin with. They could have quite easily changed the settings though for you, it all just depends on what you're paying.

I would be surprised that they weren't a little more worried about their own security though.

Thank you eniki,

You are right! They should be worried for their own security. If a customer sees his hosting company consider security as one of their priorities, he/she should feel safe as well.

You said "it just depends on what you're paying". In my opinion, it doesn't matter since cgi-bin folder is commonly protected the way it has been.