Why is this directive in a .htacess file?

Question

I am using the symfony web framework.

There is an .htacess file in the web folder which contains the following statement:

Options +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI

According to this page, Apache is more secure if these directives are switched off. Since I am NOT using symbolic links in my website, and I am not running any CGI scripts, I have disabled them in my .htacess file.

I want to know if there are any side effects that I need to be aware of?

Answer 1

You should be fine. The framework does not rely on either symlinks or CGI, so it does not need those settings.

If you are not the original maintainer of the web site, try check with them to ask if they needed it for some special reason.