Ok, I'd best clarify. How I do this is not set in stone, I'm totally open to other options. My goal is to have a directory full of stuff that isn't easy for just anyone to access. I already well on my towards implementing a system where people apply to look at some information, their application is stored in a database and potentially approved. In this same database I have an encrypted password for this user.

Ok, so an administrative type sets a flag in the database, now we have some approved users, they have usernames and a password.

These users can now log in via a CGI login screen. Is there a way to allow only these logged on users access to certain documents?(ideally a bunch of static HTML pages and a few dynamic cgi pages)