I suppose it's possible that Apache is configured to execute scripts only within cgi-bin,

More than just possible - This is the default and is set via the ScriptAlias directive (see below)

though if that's the case I'm surprised that you would've been able to use this technique in the past.

Lazy administrators can use AddHandler to make any .cgi .pl .foo .bar .baz file executable regardless of where it is in the dir structure but as you can imagine this is not regarded as a *good* ie secure way of doing business

cheers

tachyon

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