Permissions set on php script question

Hi,

I'm very new to php.

One thing I noticed in order to run the php program (on a linux server) I
need to set the read permission
for Other.

In this program I'll have the MySQL credentials defined.

Are there are any security concerns when the read permission
is set like this.  Wouldn't it be better if the permission was set for
user only and the php engine
could run the program as user like one can do for cgi using suEXEC.

Couldn't one write a program to remotely read the contents of the file.

Thank-you
David J.