How does PEAR :: Auth help in implementing secure user identification in PHP applications?

PEAR :: Auth helps in implementing secure user identification in PHP applications by providing a flexible and customizable authentication framework. It allows developers to easily integrate authentication mechanisms such as HTTP, database, or LDAP, and also supports various encryption methods for storing passwords securely.

// Example code snippet using PEAR :: Auth for secure user identification
require_once 'Auth.php';

$options = array(
    'dsn' => 'mysql://username:password@localhost/database',
    'table' => 'users',
    'usernamecol' => 'username',
    'passwordcol' => 'password',
    'cryptType' => 'md5'
);

$auth = new Auth('DB', $options);

if ($auth->checkAuth()) {
    echo "User is authenticated";
} else {
    echo "Authentication failed";
}