I'm on FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE #2

In /usr/local/bin:

-rws--x--x  1 root  wheel  949226 Nov 14  2005 sperl5.8.7
-rws--x--x  1 root  wheel  951625 Dec 19 23:07 sperl5.8.9
-rwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  951373 Dec 19 23:07 suidperl
[download]

Since the permissions are the same for both the sperl5.8.7 and 5.8.9, should the lack of 044 (r's for group and others) be a concern?

To jagh: my IHP set up their control panel to use suidperl. If it works in the 5.8.7 that the IHP built, its being deprecated doesn't have much bearing on my problem. To my reading, the perldelta page you cite includes both negative and positive things about suidperl, possibly written by different people.

Hoping for more words from you folks and perhaps others,
cmac