Yes, you are correct. This is from perldoc -f dbmopen

If the database does not exist, it is created with 
protection specified by MASK (as modified by the "umask").
[download]

Sorry for the confusion. Apparently, I was smoking something at the moment. ;)

You can still improve your code by not using open() and using file tests instead; e.g.,

sub validateSession{
  my ($session, $file) = @_;
  my %stored;
  return 0 unless (-f "$file.dir" and -f "$file.pag") or
                   -f "file.db";
  return 0 unless dbmopen %$session, $file, 0444;
  %$session = %stored;
  dbmclose %stored;
}
[download]

--perlplexer