Perl Security

by: Paul Fenwick, Jacinta Richardson

Welcome to Perl Training Australia’s Perl Security training module. This is a one day training
module in which you will learn about Perl’s security related features, and issues that you should be
aware of when working with Perl in a security sensitive context.

Course outline
• What is computer security
• Taint checks
• Opening files
• Executing system commands
• Dropping privileges in Perl
• Database security
• Tricks, traps and other useful stuff

Assumed knowledge
This training module assumes the following prior knowledge and skills:
• Intermediate Perl fluency, including a familiarity with Perl variable types and references, file
input/output, system interaction and using Perl modules. Some experience of using Perl objects
would be useful.
• Basic Unix fluency, including logging in, moving around directories, and editing files