The RSH protocol states that the local port (i.e. on the machine initiating the connection) must be in the range 512-1023. However, UNIX will only let the root user open a port below 1024.

So unless you can recompile the rsh server to remove this restriction and accept connections from ports >1023, it will be necessary to run your script as root.

Sorry this isn't very positive, but that's just how the protocol works. If you're happy to send passwords in plain text across the network (rsh is quite insecure anyway), you could always try Net::Telnet as an alternative, or Net::SSH / Net::SSH::Perl if you're more security conscious.

JJ