Yes, the code in which this excerpt appears does need to be run setuid, until it reads a configuration file, after which it revers back to uid == euid. By the time it reaches the code in question, uid == euid, but the error appears at BEGIN time, not runtime. I am aware of how to untaint variables, but was curious if anyone else has seen this or reported it to perl.org. Tonight I submitted a bug report to perl.org. Let's see what kind of reply I get from them. Thanks again!