On versions of Perl before 5.26, activating taint mode will also remove the current directory (".") from the default value of @INC. Since version 5.26, the current directory isn't included in @INC by default.

Cleaning Up Your Path

For "Insecure $ENV{PATH}" messages, you need to set $ENV{'PATH'} to a known value, and each directory in the path must be absolute and non-writable by others than its owner and group. You may be surprised to get this message even if the pathname to your executable is fully qualified. This is not generated because you didn't supply a full path to the program; instead, it's generated because you never set your PATH environment variable, or you didn't set it to something that was safe. Because Perl can't guarantee that the executable in question isn't itself going to turn around and execute some other program that is dependent on your PATH, it makes sure you set the PATH.