Perl references

# Utils.pm
####################
sub AuthenticateUser
{
    my $user = shift;
    my $passwd = shift;
    my $privs = shift;
    my $res;
    my $authlink = $Globals::baseurl."/cgi-bin/auth.pl";
    # now we have to authenticate the user
    $res = CGI_ats::GetUserandPasswd(\$user, \$passwd, \$privs);
    #$res = 1;
    if (!$res)
    {
        print  "<meta http-equiv=\"REFRESH\"content=\"0;url=$authlink?caller=".$CGI_at$
        Utils::HTMLFailure("Failed to get cookie info", 1);
    }

    return($res);
}
################

# CGIats.pm

sub GetUserandPasswd
{
    my ($user, $password, $privs) = @_;

    my $cookie = $CGI_ats::query->cookie($CGI_ats::ats_cookie_name);

    #Check it was defined
    if(! defined $cookie)
    {
        Utils::HTMLFailure("Failed to get $CGI_ats::ats_cookie_name cookie");
        return 0;
    }

    my @cookie_content = split(/\,/, MIME::Base64::decode($cookie));

    # check if had valid content
    if(! scalar @cookie_content)
    {
        Utils::HTMLFailure("Failed to get $CGI_ats::ats_cookie_name cookie");
        return 0;
    }

    $$user     = $cookie_content[0];
    $$password = MIME::Base64::decode($cookie_content[1]);
    $$privs    = $cookie_content[2];

    return 1;

}
##############
# auth.pl
if(defined $CGI_ats::query->param('op'))
{
    if($CGI_ats::query->param('op') eq 'login')
    {
        # make sure we have a name and password before we
        # enter the poll loop
        if(! defined $CGI_ats::query->param('name')   ||
           ! $CGI_ats::query->param('name')           ||
           ! defined $CGI_ats::query->param('passwd') ||
           ! $CGI_ats::query->param('passwd'))
        {
            $error_text = "<p>User name and password not supplied</p>\n";
        }
        else
        {
            # we have to enter a poll loop to do this
            enter_poll();
        }
###############

# results.pl
$res = Utils::AuthenticateUser(\$user, \$passwd, \$privs);
if (!$res)
{
    exit(1);
}