Is it possible to use Unix user-based authentication for LDAP?

Hi everyone,

Your great replies to my previous question encouraged me to ask your opinion
on another issue that is not directly related to perl-LDAP, but rather to
LDAP itself. I am sorry if this is out-of-context, and please ignore this
email if you think it is, but here it comes:

Is there a way to use methods that require write access (add, delete, etc)
without providing a password? I want my script run as a cronjob and I do not
want to keep the password in a file or the code itself. In particular, I
would like to give LDAP-write access to a unix user, say "ldap". I was
wondering if it is possible to tell ldap server that 'ldap' user is the
Manager? If not, is there a good way to hide the password in Perl?

Thanks a lot!
-Mehmet