sub authUser
{
    # open two-way pipe to auth script (or die with an error)
    my($h,$in,$out,$err,$t);

    my @cmd = ( $pathToPerl, './auth.pl' );

    eval
    {
        $h = harness(\@cmd, \$in, \$out, \$err, ( $t = timeout 5 ) );
        start($h);
        $in = "$cUser\n$cPass\n";

        pump($h) while length($in);  ## Wait for all input to go
        pump($h) until $out =~ m/\n\x1E\x1E\x1D\x1E/;

        finish $h;
    }

    if( $@ )
    {
        $h->kill_kill;
        die("failed to connect to authorization module: $@");
    }
}