What suidperl does (used to do?) is allow you to run a script as a normal user, but with permission to do things as root.

Well, not exactly... suidperl provides setuid emulation. A program that is setuid runs with the privileges of the program's owner (whether the owner is root or not.) In order to provide that emulation though, suidperl itself must be setuid and owned by root...

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";