Masking/Hiding a password in Perl Source

I have written a Perl script that connects to various networking devices
and downloads their configurations to a TFTP server. This is working
great and I want to enhance its security by masking the password
somehow. Currently, I hardcode a variable to the password.

$password = 'mypassword';

In the interest of security, I want to find a way to mask this. I'm not
sure how to go about it though. I don't want to have a plain-text
password on the system anywhere.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Chris G.
c-gauthie-A-T-pcc-D-O-T-edu (just remove the - characters and make the
appropriate substitutions to email me.

Re: Masking/Hiding a password in Perl Source

Chris G. wrote:
> I want to enhance its security by masking the password somehow.

perldoc -q "hide the source"

You won't like the answer.