diff --git a/settings.json.template b/settings.json.template
index a664ea8ed..d8f67e765 100644
--- a/settings.json.template
+++ b/settings.json.template
@@ -46,12 +46,27 @@
   /* This is the path to the Abiword executable. Setting it to null, disables abiword.
      Abiword is needed to enable the import/export of pads*/  
   "abiword" : null,
-  
-  /* This setting is used if you need http basic auth */
-  // "httpAuth" : "user:pass",
+ 
+  /* This setting is used if you require authentication of all users.
+     Note: /admin always requires authentication. */
+  "requireAuthentication": false,
 
-  /* This setting is used for http basic auth for admin pages. If not set, the admin page won't be accessible from web*/
-  // "adminHttpAuth" : "user:pass",
+  /* Require authorization by a module, or a user with is_admin set,
+     see below. Access to /admin allways requires either, regardless
+     of this setting. */
+  "requireAuthorization": false,
+
+  /* Users for basic authentication. is_admin = true gives access to /admin */
+  "users": {
+    "admin": {
+      "password": "changeme",
+      "is_admin": true
+    },
+    "user": {
+      "password": "changeme",
+      "is_admin": false
+    }
+  },
 
   /* The log level we are using, can be: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR */
   "loglevel": "INFO"
diff --git a/src/node/hooks/express/adminplugins.js b/src/node/hooks/express/adminplugins.js
index 1d1320ab3..6cc80cf2a 100644
--- a/src/node/hooks/express/adminplugins.js
+++ b/src/node/hooks/express/adminplugins.js
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ exports.expressCreateServer = function (hook_name, args, cb) {
 exports.socketio = function (hook_name, args, cb) {
   var io = args.io.of("/pluginfw/installer");
   io.on('connection', function (socket) {
+    if (!socket.handshake.session.user.is_admin) return;
+
     socket.on("load", function (query) {
       socket.emit("installed-results", {results: plugins.plugins});
     });
diff --git a/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js b/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
index e040f7aca..6774b653a 100644
--- a/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
+++ b/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
@@ -7,11 +7,27 @@ var hooks = require("ep_etherpad-lite/static/js/pluginfw/hooks");
 var padMessageHandler = require("../../handler/PadMessageHandler");
 var timesliderMessageHandler = require("../../handler/TimesliderMessageHandler");
 
-
+var connect = require('connect');
+ 
 exports.expressCreateServer = function (hook_name, args, cb) {
   //init socket.io and redirect all requests to the MessageHandler
   var io = socketio.listen(args.app);
 
+  /* Require an express session cookie to be present, and load the
+   * session. See http://www.danielbaulig.de/socket-ioexpress for more
+   * info */
+  io.set('authorization', function (data, accept) {
+    if (!data.headers.cookie) return accept('No session cookie transmitted.', false);
+    data.cookie = connect.utils.parseCookie(data.headers.cookie);
+    data.sessionID = data.cookie.express_sid;
+    args.app.sessionStore.get(data.sessionID, function (err, session) {
+      if (err || !session) return accept('Bad session / session has expired', false);
+      data.session = new connect.middleware.session.Session(data, session);
+      accept(null, true);
+    });
+  });
+
+
   //this is only a workaround to ensure it works with all browers behind a proxy
   //we should remove this when the new socket.io version is more stable
   io.set('transports', ['xhr-polling']);
diff --git a/src/node/hooks/express/webaccess.js b/src/node/hooks/express/webaccess.js
index 48b5edae7..499451d89 100644
--- a/src/node/hooks/express/webaccess.js
+++ b/src/node/hooks/express/webaccess.js
@@ -2,55 +2,99 @@ var express = require('express');
 var log4js = require('log4js');
 var httpLogger = log4js.getLogger("http");
 var settings = require('../../utils/Settings');
+var randomString = require('ep_etherpad-lite/static/js/pad_utils').randomString;
+var hooks = require('ep_etherpad-lite/static/js/pluginfw/hooks');
 
 
 //checks for basic http auth
 exports.basicAuth = function (req, res, next) {
-  
-  // When handling HTTP-Auth, an undefined password will lead to no authorization at all
-  var pass = settings.httpAuth || '';
-  
-  if (req.path.indexOf('/admin') == 0) {
-    var pass = settings.adminHttpAuth;
-    
+ var authorize = function (cb) {
+    // Do not require auth for static paths...this could be a bit brittle
+    if (req.path.match(/^\/(static|javascripts|pluginfw)/)) return cb(true);
+
+    if (req.path.indexOf('/admin') != 0) {
+      if (!settings.requireAuthentication) return cb(true);
+      if (!settings.requireAuthorization && req.session && req.session.user) return cb(true);
+    }
+
+    if (req.session && req.session.user && req.session.user.is_admin) return cb(true);
+
+    // hooks.aCallFirst("authorize", {resource: req.path, req: req}, cb);
+    cb(false);
   }
-  
-  // Just pass if password is an empty string
-  if (pass === '') {
-    return next();
+
+  var authenticate = function (cb) {
+    // If auth headers are present use them to authenticate...
+    if (req.headers.authorization && req.headers.authorization.search('Basic ') === 0) {
+      var userpass = new Buffer(req.headers.authorization.split(' ')[1], 'base64').toString().split(":")
+      var username = userpass[0];
+      var password = userpass[1];
+
+      if (settings.users[username] != undefined && settings.users[username].password == password) {
+        settings.users[username].username = username;
+        req.session.user = settings.users[username];
+        return cb(true);
+      }
+      // return hooks.aCallFirst("authenticate", {req: req, username: username, password: password}, cb);
+    }
+    // hooks.aCallFirst("authenticate", {req: req}, cb);
+    cb(false);
   }
-  
-  
-  // If a password has been set and auth headers are present...
-  if (pass && req.headers.authorization && req.headers.authorization.search('Basic ') === 0) {
-    // ...check login and password
-    if (new Buffer(req.headers.authorization.split(' ')[1], 'base64').toString() === pass) {
-      return next();
+
+
+  var failure = function () {
+    /* Authentication OR authorization failed. Return Auth required
+     * Headers, delayed for 1 second, if authentication failed. */
+    res.header('WWW-Authenticate', 'Basic realm="Protected Area"');
+    if (req.headers.authorization) {
+      setTimeout(function () {
+        res.send('Authentication required', 401);
+      }, 1000);
+    } else {
+      res.send('Authentication required', 401);
     }
   }
-  // Do not require auth for static paths...this could be a bit brittle
-  else if (req.path.match(/^\/(static|javascripts|pluginfw)/)) {
-    return next();
-  }
 
 
-  // Otherwise return Auth required Headers, delayed for 1 second, if auth failed.
-  res.header('WWW-Authenticate', 'Basic realm="Protected Area"');
-  if (req.headers.authorization) {
-    setTimeout(function () {
-      res.send('Authentication required', 401);
-    }, 1000);
-  } else {
-    res.send('Authentication required', 401);
-  }
+  /* This is the actual authentication/authorization hoop. It is done in four steps:
+
+     1) Try to just access the thing
+     2) If not allowed using whatever creds are in the current session already, try to authenticate
+     3) If authentication using already supplied credentials succeeds, try to access the thing again
+     4) If all els fails, give the user a 401 to request new credentials
+
+     Note that the process could stop already in step 3 with a redirect to login page.
+
+  */
+ 
+  authorize(function (ok) {
+    if (ok) return next();
+    authenticate(function (ok) {
+      if (!ok) return failure();
+      authorize(function (ok) {
+        if (ok) return next();
+        failure();
+      });
+    });
+  });
 }
 
 exports.expressConfigure = function (hook_name, args, cb) {
-  args.app.use(exports.basicAuth);
-
   // If the log level specified in the config file is WARN or ERROR the application server never starts listening to requests as reported in issue #158.
   // Not installing the log4js connect logger when the log level has a higher severity than INFO since it would not log at that level anyway.
   if (!(settings.loglevel === "WARN" || settings.loglevel == "ERROR"))
     args.app.use(log4js.connectLogger(httpLogger, { level: log4js.levels.INFO, format: ':status, :method :url'}));
   args.app.use(express.cookieParser());
+
+  /* Do not let express create the session, so that we can retain a
+   * reference to it for socket.io to use. Also, set the key (cookie
+   * name) to a javascript identifier compatible string. Makes code
+   * handling it cleaner :) */
+
+  args.app.sessionStore = new express.session.MemoryStore();
+  args.app.use(express.session({store: args.app.sessionStore,
+                                key: 'express_sid',
+                                secret: apikey = randomString(32)}));
+
+  args.app.use(exports.basicAuth);
 }
diff --git a/src/node/utils/Settings.js b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
index 12fcc55c5..cb6a64033 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/Settings.js
+++ b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
@@ -80,15 +80,12 @@ exports.abiword = null;
  */
 exports.loglevel = "INFO";
 
-/**
- * Http basic auth, with "user:password" format
- */
-exports.httpAuth = null;
-
-/**
- * Http basic auth, with "user:password" format
- */
-exports.adminHttpAuth = null;
+/* This setting is used if you need authentication and/or
+ * authorization. Note: /admin always requires authentication, and
+ * either authorization by a module, or a user with is_admin set */
+exports.requireAuthentication = false;
+exports.requireAuthorization = false;
+exports.users = {};
 
 //checks if abiword is avaiable
 exports.abiwordAvailable = function()
diff --git a/src/package.json b/src/package.json
index 83441da08..eda385b22 100644
--- a/src/package.json
+++ b/src/package.json
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
                       "ueberDB"             : "0.1.7",
                       "async"               : "0.1.18",
                       "express"             : "2.5.8",
+                      "connect"             : "1.8.7",
                       "clean-css"           : "0.3.2",
                       "uglify-js"           : "1.2.5",
                       "formidable"          : "1.0.9",