Couple of years ago I used to be an escalation enginners at Microsoft doing Windows NT Support. If we would final giveup brining a Server back, following was the standard conversation:
MS: Lets run your last backup
Customer: But I don't have a recent backup
MS: Then I am afraid we maybe be looking at data loss or install in a clean directory and we have to reinstall everything.
Customer: But I have crucial data and programs
MS: If its not on the backup it wasn't crucial
So I think the hack is very safe if you backup your cgi-bin directory. (Atleast the files that you are editing).
btw I am a novice at Perl and it did work fine for me on the very first attempt.