Prefered Method for User authetification on VHosts

Hello, I have at my hosting provider only 1 GByte of Diskspace and can install VHosts as much as I want. The problem is, that I have "no access" to the OS for OS-Level autentification. Currently I have ${CUSTOMERPATH}/htdocs/index.php which handel all VHosts and get ist config from directories like ${CUSTOMERPATH}/CONFIG_<vhost>.tamay-dogan.net/... in which I currently use files like <user>:<shadow_passwd> and then I use: ----[ STDIN ]----------------------------------------------------------- function login($user, $pass, $redirect) { if ($user != '' and $pass != '') { $SHADOW=exec("grep \"^$user:\" " . DIR_HOST . "/.shadow |cut -d: -f2"); if (empty($SHADOW)) { header("Content-Type: text/html"); die("<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"5;$redirect\">\n<font size=\"+2\" color=\"red\"><b>Error</b></font><hr size=\"3\" noshade=\"noshade\">The username \"$user\" does not exist."); } $SALT=exec("grep \"^$user:\" " . DIR_HOST . "/.shadow |cut -d: -f2 |cut -d$ -f1-3"); $ENCRYPTED=crypt($pass, $SALT); if ($SHADOW != $ENCRYPTED) { header("Content-Type: text/html"); die("<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"5;$redirect\">\n<font size=\"+2\" color=\"red\"><b>Error</b></font><hr size=\"3\" noshade=\"noshade\">Wrong password for user \"$user\"."); } $TIME_NOW=date("U"); $SESSID=exec("echo \"${user}${TIME_NOW}\" |md5sum |sed 's| .*||'"); setcookie('TDSESSION', "$SESSID"); setcookie('USER', $user); exec("echo '" . date("U") . " " . $user . "' >" . DIR_SESSIONS . "/" . $SESSID); } if (empty($redirect)) { $redirect="/"; } header("Content-Type: text/html"); die("<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;$redirect\">"); } ------------------------------------------------------------------------ which is working properly... I like to know, whether this is good enough or is there a better solution? Thanks, Greetings and nice Day/Evening Michelle Konzack Systemadministrator 24V Electronic Engineer Tamay Dogan Network Debian GNU/Linux Consultant -- Linux-User #280138 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org/ ##################### Debian GNU/Linux Consultant ##################### Michelle Konzack Apt. 917 ICQ #328449886 +49/177/9351947 50, rue de Soultz MSN LinuxMichi +33/6/61925193 67100 Strasbourg/France IRC #Debian (irc.icq.com)