I was just browsing my new site (linux/unix server), checking my perl programs with MSIE6 with Win2k.pro and suddenly, out of the blue, I got a system popup as if I requested to download a file. This file was from a completely different set of programs that I hadn't even used for about 3days.

What do you think caused it and is there a way to prevent this from happening again? Like anyone, there's alot of things I want protected, like passwords etc. for my site and SQL, that could potentially be in one of my scripts.

Is CHMOD 755/555 the absolute minimum (and workable)? Should I also CHMOD the directory?

If I could password protect the directory, could I still link into the files in that directory (cgi-bin)?

p.s. I havn't wrote any programs for downloading any files either, so it wouldn't be a likely cause.

Thank you in advance... JayBee

UPDATE:

  • the file was a ~.cgi file
  • I am using the highest class of Canaca's virtual hosting
  • My windows does have a firewall and I update atleast every month
  • There are many problems with my Win2k, but still the server should not allow that...

    • In reply to Script security by JayBee

    Title:
    Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
    and:  <code> code here </code>
    to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.