Sure, those are unix style file permissions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod#String_modes
3 groups of 3 properties
In the previous exemple:
drwxr-xr-x
d= directory.
Then, the 3 groups represent
1) The file/directory owner rigths
2) The users in the same group as the owner rights
3) The rights for the rest of the users on the system.
On each group, the property are:
1st position: reading right
2nd position: writing right
3rd position: execution right. The execution right on a directory allow or prevent the listing of the directory and recursivity through the directory tree. So, if someone has only reading rights on a directory, he won't be able to list the directory content, only read a file that he knows is there.
So, in a drwxr-xr-x, it means that this is a directory, with reading, writing, and executing rights for the dir. owner, reading and executing rigths for the group of the owner, and reading and executing rights for any user not in the owner's group.
Now, What I suspect, is that the directory you are trying to stat have been created via ftp, or any similar mechanism.
But, when you try to use PHP to stat it, it's the user who runs the web server process who tries to access the directory, not the one who might have created it.
This is for security purpose, the web server always have (or at least should) be running with the minimum rights possible, to prevent hackers to get in through stack overflow attacks.
But in that case, it may require that you change the directory permissions to allow the "all the other users" group to access and execute this directory.
