How secure are my CGIs? As I understand it, most web-based Perl CGI's have to have their permisions set to 0755 in order to work. (All of mine do at least).

Is it fairly trivial to download the source of the typical web-based Perl CGI using a web browser or a pseudo-web browser (i.e. a homemade web-client (possibly written in Perl) or TELNETing into a site and issuing HTTP commands)?

Any attempts I have made at downloading my own scripts or others via a real web browser have resulted in my downloading just the output (instead of the text of the script itself).

But that does not mean that others don't have access via a slightly modified method, right?

What about Telnet or FTP? Obviously if someone cracks my password, they can view the source of my scripts. But can they exploit FTP and or Telnet (or any other method) to gain access to my scripts even without the password?


In reply to How Secure are my Perl CGIs by Anonymous Monk

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