How to Manage File Permissions in cPanel File Manager

File and folder permissions control who can read, write, or execute a file on your server. Getting them wrong is a common cause of “500 Internal Server Error” or a blank white screen.

Reading a permission number

Permissions are shown as three digits (e.g. 644 or 755), one each for the file’s owner, group, and everyone else. Each digit is a sum of: 4 (read), 2 (write), 1 (execute). So 644 means the owner can read and write, while group and others can only read; 755 adds execute for everyone, which folders and scripts need.

The standard, safe defaults

• Folders: 755
• Regular files (images, CSS, PHP): 644
• Scripts that must execute directly (rare on shared hosting): 755

Changing permissions in File Manager

1. Open Files > File Manager in cPanel.
2. Right-click the file or folder and choose Change Permissions (or select it and click Permissions in the toolbar).
3. Tick the boxes or type the numeric value directly, then save.

Never use 777

Setting 777 (read/write/execute for everyone) is a common “quick fix” some tutorials suggest — avoid it. It means any process on the server, including a compromised script, can rewrite that file. If something needs 777 to work, the underlying issue is almost always an ownership mismatch, not a genuine need for world-writable access.

Fixing permissions in bulk

File Manager’s Change Permissions dialog has a “Recurse into subdirectories” option for applying a permission to an entire folder tree at once — useful after a migration or restore where every file ended up with the same (often wrong) permission.

If a WordPress site specifically is throwing permission errors, the common fix is 755 for all directories and 644 for all files, applied recursively, then correcting wp-config.php to 640 if you want it locked down further.