You don't have to set your code to 0700 to make it secure. Make the data 0060 and make your setgid code do a thorough authentication before it reads the data file.

You don't have to worry about the group being compromised, because you don't even need to have any members in this group. No one can read the data except your program. If you build sufficent security into the program, you're all set.

(This time I remembered to log in...)

buckaduck

If someone has access to that one account, why don't they have access to root as well? Most likely they do. Especially if the machine is set up well, so that root is the only user that can get access to that account. At that point don't worry about the perl script or the files that you're working on. Worry about the machine (rm -rf /).

Hoping that the cracker isn't a particular type is about the worst security you can carry, since crackers come in more flavors than unix.

Hope This Helps,
jynx