#! /usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; use Hash::Util qw(lock_keys); my %hash = (test => {key => 1, kes => 2}, test2 => {key => 1, kes => 2}, ); lock_keys(%{$hash{test2}}); $hash{test}->{uhu} = 1; print Dumper(\%hash); $hash{test2}->{uhu} = 1; print Dumper(\%hash);