I have a small python program which will be used locally by a small group of people (<15 people).But for accountability, i want to have a simple username+password check at the start of the program ( doesn't need to be super secure).For your information, I am just a beginner and this is my first time trying it.When i search around, i found that python has passlib for encryption. But even after looking though it i am still not sure how to implement my encryption.So, there are a few things that i want to know. 

How do i store the passwords of users locally? The only way i know at the moment is to create a text file and read/write from it but that will ruin the whole purpose of encryption as people can just open the text file and read it from there.
What does hash & salt means in encryption and how does it work? (a brief and simple explanation will do.)
What is the recommended way to implement username and password check?

I am sorry for the stupid questions. But i will greatly appreciate if you could answers my question.
You could use htpasswd which is installed with apache or can be downloaded seperately. Use subprocess.check_output to run it and you can create Python functions to add users, remove them, verify they have given the correct password etc. Pass the -B option to enable salting and you will know that it's secure (unlike if you implement salts yourself).
Password Protection Python