NoCatSplash --with-mode=passive

hello all,

does anyone know what the logic thoughts were on getting NoCatSplash to
authenticate in passive and/or captured modes?  I have the
NoCatSplash-0.93pre2 tarball and in the README file it states:

  --with-mode=passive
        Compile for *experimental* authenticating passive mode. Passive mode
        basically doesn't really work yet. Patches welcome.

I would like to work on the code to enable it to authenticate against a
shadow file or mysql database, but don't really see where NoCatSplash should
request authentication.

Any ideas? Who was the original developer/maintainer of the NoCatSplash
modules (email address maybe)?

Thanks,
Murrah Boswell