($name,$pass,$uid,$gid,$quota,$comment,$gcos,$dir,$shell) = getpwent()
+;
[download]

If your system supports it, look into Pluggable Authentication Modules - PAM. A quote from the Linux PAM S.A. Guide: "It is the purpose of the Linux-PAM project to separate the development of privilege granting software from the development of secure and appropriate authentication schemes. This is accomplished by providing a library of functions that an application may use to request that a user be authenticated."

The Authen-PAM module at CPAN will help.

Creating system shell accounts may not be what you really want. If this is web based, consider whether http Basic Auth may be more appropriate.

After Compline,
Zaxo

The short answer to your question: probably yes. I've never done it before, but it would probably involve making your script setUID root.

BUT, that is generally considered to be a *bad thing*(tm). You most certainly wouldn't want to do it if you are planning on running this over the web or something like that.