mod-auth-pipe is a module of authentication written for Apache 1 (it hasnt been tested with Apache 2, but it may work).

Actually, this module is just mod-auth-shadow with a few modifications in order to accept any program as a pipe, letting this one validate both users andr groups.

mod_auth_pipe contents the module itself and an example pipe.

mod-auth-pipe can be configured independantly for whole server, for any VirtualHost or just per Location/Directory. It has very few configuration variables and its format is very simple. In order to configure apache to authenticate, for example, access to the administrative interface of oscommerce you can type this on your httpd.conf:

< Directory /var/www/oscommerce/catalog/admin >
AuthType Basic
AuthName osCommerce admin site
AuthPipe on
AuthPipeProgram /usr/local/bin/auth-pipe
require group oscommerce-admins
< /Location >

This way, and with a well-made auth-pipe program you can be sure that only those within the group oscommerce-admins could enter that section of your web.