diff --git a/advanced/Scripts/updatecheck.sh b/advanced/Scripts/updatecheck.sh
index b5ae7e46..b64917a2 100755
--- a/advanced/Scripts/updatecheck.sh
+++ b/advanced/Scripts/updatecheck.sh
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ rm -f "/etc/pihole/localversions"
 # Create new versions file if it does not exist
 VERSION_FILE="/etc/pihole/versions"
 touch "${VERSION_FILE}"
-chmod 640 "${VERSION_FILE}"
+chmod 644 "${VERSION_FILE}"
 
 # if /pihole.docker.tag file exists, we will use it's value later in this script
 DOCKER_TAG=$(cat /pihole.docker.tag 2>/dev/null)
diff --git a/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh b/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
index ed2e6a2e..7ad1bfe8 100755
--- a/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
+++ b/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ FTL_PID_FILE="$(getFTLConfigValue files.pid)"
 # Ensure that permissions are set so that pihole-FTL can edit all necessary files
 mkdir -p /var/log/pihole
 chown -R pihole:pihole /etc/pihole/ /var/log/pihole/
-# allow all users read version file
-chmod 0664 /etc/pihole/versions
+
+# allow all users read version file (and use pihole -v)
+chmod 0644 /etc/pihole/versions
 
 # allow pihole to access subdirs in /etc/pihole (sets execution bit on dirs)
 find /etc/pihole/ /var/log/pihole/ -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} +