Shadow password handling

[Phil Edwards]

Hi:

Does anybody know of a Python module which will allow username/password 
credentials to be validated ona Linux box which is configured to use md5 
and/or shadow passwords?

The application is a web portal which requires certain virtual sites on 
a Cobalt RaQ to be accessible only to particular users. Just in case 
anybody mentions .htpasswd files, the end user wants to be able to do 
all the username/password maintenance via the RaQ admin interface... :-(