The reason the root privileges are needed is the Net::Rsh module seems to connect from a port < 1024 to server port 514(rsh). I beleive to listen on ports < 1024 or connect from ports <1024 to a server port you neet to be a superuser (like root) (but not on Windows XP)

You could get around this by modifying Rsh.pm to start trying to connect from ports higher then 1024 by altering the value of $end_port to something like 2048

NB THIS INFORMATION BEARS NO WARRANTY. USE ONLY AT YOUR RISK. The author must have done this for a reason. I don't know why so please be careful. Please note rsh is considered a huge security risk .

Update:The server (at least on debian) does not seem to require connection from port < 1024 as indicated above. Some web sites (like here) say the server will terminate connection if source port is < 1024.

I got to get faster at typing and submitting ;-)