Vbulletin 'Hacker' PHP Guru required

[sbryan]

Hi Guys, I want to add the following features to my website that has a Vbulletin forum on it.

http://www.xboxworld.com.au/

i want to add some features to let users post comments on the news but they obviously need to enter a username and password to avoid anonymous spamming etc and abuse.

is it possible to access the Vbulletin members usernames and password data in the Vb database in the forum and use that to let them 'login' to other areas of my site that i create?..

i could easily set this up and have two signup areas and user databases on the site, one to add comments and other stuff i want to add and the other for the forum, but if the forum details can be accessed then i can just use the forum as the membership platform for all site members..

thanks in advance for any feedback!

Shane