You can use the built in Authentication class to handle it. Laravel doesn't come with a completed Controller and Views, but it does have the functionality available to you. Nettus Laravel 4 Auth Tutorial

I bookmarked that page last night at 4 in the morning, I was about to get to it once I finish the beginners tutorials. I guess I'm on the correct track.

Is it extendable? I don't a password recovery feature or permissions.

Checkout the Security docs for Password Reset & Reminders.

The Auth library does just that authenticates. Roles/Permission/Groups isn't necessary in all apps, so it's not in the framework I guess. This would be up to you to create those features.

I am coming over from CI, so there maybe 3rd party auth packages that may already come with the features you need.