diff --git a/simgear/io/HTTPFileRequest.cxx b/simgear/io/HTTPFileRequest.cxx
index 33b7339a..69c89cdd 100644
--- a/simgear/io/HTTPFileRequest.cxx
+++ b/simgear/io/HTTPFileRequest.cxx
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ namespace HTTP
       // TODO validate path? (would require to expose fgValidatePath somehow to
       //      simgear)
       SGPath path(_filename);
-      path.create_dir(0777);
+      path.create_dir(0755);
 
       _file.open(_filename.c_str(), std::ios::binary | std::ios::trunc);
     }
diff --git a/simgear/props/props_io.cxx b/simgear/props/props_io.cxx
index c86f9d6c..d44db098 100644
--- a/simgear/props/props_io.cxx
+++ b/simgear/props/props_io.cxx
@@ -616,7 +616,7 @@ writeProperties (const string &file, const SGPropertyNode * start_node,
                  bool write_all, SGPropertyNode::Attribute archive_flag)
 {
   SGPath path(file.c_str());
-  path.create_dir(0777);
+  path.create_dir(0755);
 
   ofstream output(file.c_str());
   if (output.good()) {