That depends on whether your (custom) Perl does any interaction with the kernel beyond what its C library does. I also consider it highly unlikely that your Perl program would do interaction closely coupled to the kernel without you knowing about it.

Of course, there is an easy way to determine that. Get your admins to set up a box with the upgraded kernel and test your application(s) on that box.

Unless you have a Perl module that directly uses any kernel-specific features (e.g. access a /proc or /sys file which is deprecated in a later kernel), this is complete baloney. Any "system administrator" who spouts such nonsense does not deserve the name and has a very faulty understanding of system fundamentals.

Dave.

The only way I could see this being valid (other than tight coupling of your application and the kernel, as previously mentioned), is if they mean upgrades, not patches. Even that is not guaranteed.