phpSuExec or suPHP

This secure environment makes 777 file permissions unacceptable, and makes php.ini necessary.

To verify your server is using suPHP, create a simple 'php info' script.
Create a file named 'phpinfo.php' in the public_html folder of your site and insert the following code:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Load the file in your browser and in the top section find the line 'Server API'.
If it shows 'CGI' then your account is on a server with suPHP.
If it shows 'apache' then you are NOT on a suPHP server.

You also know our servers normally have PHP running as CGI (not Apache).