This is a topic that has interested me as well. Although I havent had the time to fully explore it, I think you may want to start by looking into apache::htpasswd. It looks like it provides a good deal of the abilities that you're looking for. Plus, I believe its written by one of our own.
You may also want to read through this which seems to provide some external info on the topic you're interested in.

humbly -c

In reply to Re: Mimicking htaccess user authentication by c
in thread Mimicking htaccess user authentication by hotyopa

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