Apache/httpd error: SoftException in Application.cpp:357: UID of script "/home/foo/public_html/index.php" is smaller than min_uid

On a server I am working on right now, I installed a PHP application and attempted to run it. However, I ran into a "500 Internal Server Error". Upon further investigation by checking the logs, I found the following errors in the Apache error log:

SoftException in Application.cpp:357: UID of script "/home/foo/public_html/index.php" is smaller than min_uid
Premature end of script headers: index.php

Seeing as to how the first message was hinting at UID issues, I checked the ownership & permissions on the index.php (and other) files. Sure enough, they were wonky and assigned to, in this case, root. Once I fixed this by changing the owner & group of the non-compliant files and directories using chown, all was well.

Moral of the story as with most things Apache, check the logs :)

Hope this helps!