moritz gave you the right answer. But if you're just looking for a simple way not to have to hard code a password into your script, I usually do something like this. I keep a file in my home directory, in this example ~/.ldap.secret, protect with file permissions so that only I (or root / administrator) can access the file, then run a snippet like this (which is probably more complicated than necessary): 

my $ldap_password = fetch_ldap_password({ filename => $ENV{HOME} . '/.
+ldap.secret' });

# ...

# {{{ sub fetch_ldap_password
#
sub fetch_ldap_password {

    my $args = shift;
    die "No password file specified\n" unless defined $args->{filename
+};

    my $filename = $args->{filename};

    my $password;

    open( PW, "<$filename" )
        or die "Error opening bindpw file $filename: $!\n\n";

    foreach ( <PW> ) {
        chomp;
        $password = $_;
    }

    return $password;
}

[download]

This doesn't negate anything moritz said, the password is still essentially just sitting around to anyone with permission. But at least you don't have to hard code it. For a script that will be run by multiple people, the script should be using a database username that has been configured with adequate granted permissions on the database side itself to meet the needs of the script accessing the db.

--
naChoZ

Therapy is expensive. Popping bubble wrap is cheap. You choose.

In reply to Re: hiding database passwords by naChoZ
in thread hiding database passwords by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.