Re: Who understands the LDAP login module?

[Catalino Pineda Jr.]

Aaron Mulder wrote: Hah! I thought this LDAP module was pretty complicated. I just looked at the WebLogic OpenLDAP login module. It has *40* different settings. :) But anyway, with what little I know, I agree with Jeff -- will there ever be a case where you can look up groups for the user using something like "memberOf" and you wouldn't get the same information if you search the other way, for groups where that user was listed as a member in the group record?     I believe that current implementation would never give a duplicate value if you search using say, "memberOf" and searching the other way using "memberUID", unless the directory server contains that duplicate group assignments.  I would assume that LDAP administators would opt to choose to implement a single grouping mechanism rather than combining the uses of all the possible configurations for assigning members to a group. With that, the ldap login module will only have to choose between "userRoleName"  or "roleSearchMatching" , and on extreme cases, both. WebLogic talked about something called "dynamic groups" which I gether means there's not actually a group entry for the group in LDAP, so maybe the userRoleName could be used to detect those?     This is not supported in the current implementation. For dynamic grouping, the returned attribute value should be an LDAP URL rather than a distinguished name and will be handled differently than the userRoleName. Cata Aaron On 11/20/05, Jeff Genender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: This is my point. Unlike a database...I can index the memberUID (used as an example in a group schema) which gives me the list of users that belong to that group. If I need to know which group my use belongs to , the indexed attribute (memberUID) will rapidly tell me. I honestly think the userRoleName is not necessary. Jeff Catalino Pineda Jr. wrote: Let me correct myself on a previous message :) | " the value of the attribute will added to the roles obtained using userRoleName property. " should have been " the value of the attribute will added to the roles obtained using roleSearchMatching property. " Thanks, Cata Catalino Pineda Jr. wrote: Jeff Genender wrote: Isn't this then a duplicate of what the group contains? The group will have multiple (example) memberUID. If indexed, I should be able to determine which groups a user belongs to. Does this not possibly create a dis-joint issue? The purpose of such is to support directory server configurations where group assignments are determined using an attribute rather than putting user contexts within the group context (or they can be a combination of both). The option would allow the login module to connect to directory servers configured as such. Duplication on this sense would be at the directory server level. Regards, Cata Catalino Pineda Jr. wrote: Aaron Mulder wrote: For what it's worth, I think the search starts in the context identified by the userBase or roleBase. Then I assume the appropriate subtrees flag controls whether you search only there, or there and all sub-contexts recursively. So other than confirmation of that and of your answers, the main one we're not sure of is userRoleName. It's definitely used -- something to do with mucking with attributes -- but I the code isn't real clear to me. userRoleName is an attribute in the user entry which refers to a "role/group entry" where the user is a member of. If a value is set for the userRoleName property in the LDAPLoginModule configuration, the value of the attrubue will added to the roles obtained using userRoleName property. E.g. dn: cn=user1,ou=users,dc=domain,dc=com ... ... memberOf: cn=administrator,ou=groups,dc=domain,dc=com In the case above, user1 is a member of groups. The userRoleName property can be set to "memberOf". Hope this helps. Regards, Catalino Pineda Jr. Thanks, Aaron On 11/20/05, Jeff Genender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I can answer some of these questions...hopefully correctly. Aaron Mulder wrote: Well, that's a start, but it doesn't actually explain what any of the LDAP login module options are -- it only tells you what to set them to if you want to connect to the sample. I'd like to come up with a meaningful text description of each option: initialContextFactory The InitialContext factory to use. Usually is com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory. connectionURL URL of the LDAP server to connect to. For a production LDAP this will be: ldap://[your server's LDAP host address]:389 if you use it with Geronimo in its developer configuration, it would be ldap://localhost:1389 Because we had the Apache Directory Server listening on 1389 due to security issues with running on ports less than 1024. connectionUsername User name to bind. Should be administrator or Directory manager that has access to examine passwords. connectionPassword Password of user to bind connectionProtocol I think it can contain "ssl" for secure communication with certificates. authentication Usually one of several protocols. I think it follows the COntext, so I *believe* the possibilities are "none", "simple", and "strong". I could be wrong depending on the implementation. userBase Base of the LDAP search string to the users. userSearchMatching The LDAP attribute search string to find the user. Usually will be uid={0}. userSearchSubtree I don't know about this one. roleBase LDAP string specifying the base objects from which to search for group/role roleName Attribute that acts as the role's name. This typically is the "cn". roleSearchMatching The LDAP search string to find the user. The value here depends on how your group schema is configured. Generally the role will have many attributes that are the same, but with different values. An example would be "memberUID" for LDAP authentication for UNIX systems. In this scenario the value of the roleSearchMatching would be (memberUID={0}) roleSearchSubtree I don't know about this one. userRoleName I don't know about this one. I have a vague idea of some of them from hacking around with this kind of stuff before -- but for the most part, I probably coun't explain it well. But even for nominally straightforward ones like connect username and password -- does the provided account need to be an LDAP administrator? Yes. Do I understand right that the realm will attempt to bind to LDAP as the user to verify their password? No. It typically binds as an administrator user who has access to verify the password. If so, why do you need the admin account and search params, why not just connect as the user and if it works look up their groups? Same reason as JDBC...you have a user that has access to user/groups to lookup and respond with the appropriate subject/principals (user/roles). Thanks, Aaron On 11/20/05, Jeff Genender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Looks like Hernan put together a really nice tutorial on Geronimo with the LDAp login module and Apache Directory. http://opensource2.atlassian.com/confluence/oss/display/GERONIMO/Configuring+LDAP Aaron Mulder wrote: It has like 14 parameters -- if I could get some help figuring out what all of those mean, and maybe some samples for hooking it up to OpenLDAP, Sun LDAP, and Active Directory LDAP, that would be outstanding. Thanks, Aaron http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/geronimo/trunk/modules/security/src/java/org/apache/geronimo/security/realm/providers/LDAPLoginModule.java?rev=345629&view=markup