diff --git a/lib/kgrader/backend/svn.rb b/lib/kgrader/backend/svn.rb
index 4af767f..2701eb8 100644
--- a/lib/kgrader/backend/svn.rb
+++ b/lib/kgrader/backend/svn.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+require 'io/console'
 require 'nokogiri'
 require 'open3'
 
@@ -8,6 +9,21 @@ module KGrader::Backend
       @fs = filesystem
       @course = course
       @config = config
+      @password = nil
+    end
+
+    def prepare(semester, assignment)
+      return unless @config['verify']
+      url = @config['verify'] % {
+        :semester => semester,
+        :assignment => assignment
+      }
+
+      status = run('list', '--non-interactive', url)[1]
+      if status.exited? && status.exitstatus != 0
+        print "svn: password: "
+        @password = STDIN.noecho(&:gets).chomp
+      end
     end
 
     def revision(repo)
@@ -46,6 +62,10 @@ module KGrader::Backend
 
     private
     def run(*cmd)
+      if @password
+        cmd.unshift '--password'
+        cmd.unshift @password
+      end
       Open3.capture2e('svn', *cmd)
     end
 
diff --git a/lib/kgrader/task.rb b/lib/kgrader/task.rb
index 4ebf7e0..fc69a1d 100644
--- a/lib/kgrader/task.rb
+++ b/lib/kgrader/task.rb
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ module KGrader
         raise TaskError, "can't set a new due date without fetching"
       end
 
+      prepare
       subtask 'setup' do |sub|
         sub.create unless sub.exists?
       end
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ module KGrader
     end
 
     def commit
+      prepare
       subtask 'commit', &:commit
     end
 
@@ -58,6 +60,10 @@ module KGrader
       @student_len ||= @submissions.map { |sub| sub.student.length }.max
     end
 
+    def prepare
+      @course.backend.prepare @semester, @assignment
+    end
+
     def subtask(name)
       progress = ProgressBar.create title: name, total: @submissions.size,
         throttle_rate: 0, format: '%t [%b>%i] %j%% %e    '
diff --git a/spec/cs241h b/spec/cs241h
index f9cb0aa..514bd96 160000
--- a/spec/cs241h
+++ b/spec/cs241h
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit f9cb0aabbe48368ef7a8db6c43e7d81e71d2c4fa
+Subproject commit 514bd96d25d797ceb17f166f508e3195afb795f1