The LDAP Protocol

Amrish Kaushik
Graduate Student USC Computer Science (CN)

Agenda

Background and Motivation Understanding LDAP

Information Structure Naming Functions/Operations Security

Protocol Model Mapping onto Transport Services Protocol Element Encoding Discussion

Background and Motivation

Increased reliance on networked computers Need in information

Functionality Ease-of-Use Administration (Application specific dirs) Clear and consistent organization Integrity Confidentiality

X.500

X.500 standard. CCITT 1988

Refer ISO 9594 X.500-X.521 of 1990

X.500

Organizes directory entries into a hierarchical namespace Powerful search capabilities Often used for interfacing incompatible directory services Used DAP for c/s communication DAP (App. Layer) requires ENTIRE OSI stack to operate Too heavy for small environments

What is LDAP?

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Used to access and update information in a directory built on the X.500 model Specification defines the content of messages between the client and the server Includes operations to establish and disconnect a session from the server

LDAP Server: G/S

Understanding LDAP

Lightweight alternative to DAP Uses TCP/IP instead of OSI stack Simplifies certain functions and omits others Uses strings rather than DAPs ASN.1 notation to represent data.

LDAP

Information

Structure of information stored in an LDAP directory. How information is organized and identified. Describes what operations can be performed on the information stored in an LDAP directory. Describes how the information can be protected from unauthorized access.

Naming

Functional / Operations

Security

LDAP Information Storage

LDAP Information Storage

Each attribute has a type/syntax and a value Can define how values behave during searches/directory operations Syntax: bin, ces, cis, tel, dn etc. Usage limits: ssn only one, jpegPhoto 10K

LDAP Information Storage

Each entry describes an object (Class)

Person, Server, Printer etc. InetOrgPerson(cn, sn, ObjectClass) cn (cis), sn (cis), telephoneNumber (tel), ou (cis), owner (dn), jpegPhoto (bin)

Example Entry:

Example Attributes:

LDAP Naming

DNs consist of sequence of Relative DN

cn=John Smith,ou=Austin,o=IBM,c=US (Leaf 2 Root) (~use \ for special)

Directory Information Tree (DIT) Follow geographical or organizational scheme Aliases: Tree-like, Aliases can link non-leaf nodes

LDAP Naming

Referrals: May not store entire DIT (v3) Referrals

objectClass=referral, attribute=ref, value=LDAPurl Refferals/Chaining (vendor)

Implementation differs

RFC 1777: server chaining is expected.

LDAP Naming

Schema

Defines what object classes allowed Where they are stored What attributes they have (objectClass) Which attributes are optional (objectClass) Type/syntax of each attribute (objectClass)

Query server for info: zero-length DN LDAP schema must be readable by the client

LDAP Naming Examples

Attribute Type CommonName LocalityName StateorProvinceName OrganizationName OrganizationalUnitName CountryName StreetAddress domainComponent Userid CN L ST O OU C STREET DC UID String

LDAP Functions/Operations

Authentication

BIND/UNBIND ABANDON Search Compare entry Add an entry Delete an entry (Only Leaf nodes, no aliases) Modify an entry, Modify DN/RDN

Query

Update

Client and Server Interaction

Client establishes session with server (BIND)

Hostname/IP and port number Security

User-id/password based authentication Anonymous connection - default access rights Encryption/Kerberos also supported

Client performs operations

Read/Update/Search SELECT X,Y,Z FROM PART_OF_DIRECTORY

Client ends the session (UNBIND) Client can ABANDON the session

BIND/UNBIND/ABANDON

Request includes LDAP version, the name the client wants to bind as, authentication type

Simple (clear text passwords, anonymous) Kerberos v4 to the LDAP server (krbv42LDAP) Kerberos v4 to the DSA server (krbv42DSA)

Server responds with a status indication UNBIND: Terminates a protocol session

UnbindRequest ::= [APPLICATION 2] NULL MessageID to abandon

ABANDON:

Search/Compare

Request includes

baseObject: an LDAPDN Scope: how many levels to be searched derefAliases: handling of aliases sizeLimit: max number of entries returned timeLimit: max time allowed for search attrsOnly: return attribute types OR values also Filter: cond. to be fulfilled when searching Attributes: List of entrys attributes to be returned

Read and List implemented as searches Compare: similar to search but returns T/F

ADD/MODIFY/DELETE

ADD request

Entry: LDAPDN List of Attributes and values (or sets of values) Used to add, delete, modify attributes Request includes

MODIFY request

Object: LDAPDN List of modifications (atomic)

Add, Delete, Replace

DELETE request

Object: LDAPDN

Protocol Elements

LDAPMessage (MessageID unique)

Protocol Elements

LDAPString ::= OCTET STRING LDAPDN ::= LDAPString RelativeLDAPDN ::= LDAPString AttributeValueAssertion ::=
Sequence { attributeType attributeValue, attributeValue attributeValue }

attributeType ::= LDAPString

Protocol Elements

LDAP Result Errors

Truncated DIT RDN sequence is sent

noSuchObject aliasProblem invalidDNSyntax isLeaf etc.

LDAP Security

Current LDAP version supports

Clear text passwords KERBEROS version 4 authentication

Other authentication methods possible in future versions (March 1995) SASL support added in version 3

Kerberos deemed stronger than SASL

LDAP Security

Security based on the BIND model Clear text ver 1 Kerberos ver 1,2,3 (depr) SASL ver 3

Simple Authentication and Security Layer uses one of many authentication methods Based on SSL v3 from Netscape

Proposal for Transport Layer Security

LDAP Security

No Authentication Basic Authentication

DN and password provided Clear-text or Base 64 encoded Parameters: DN, mechanism, credentials Provides cross protocol authentication calls Encryption can be optionally negotiated ldap_sasl_bind() (ver3 call) Ldap://<ldap_server>/?supportedsaslmechanisms

SASL (RFC 2222)

LDAP Security

LDAP using SASL using SSL/TLS

LDAP Security

SSL/TLS Handshake

Agenda

Background and Motivation Understanding LDAP

Information Structure Naming Functions/Operations Security

Protocol Model Mapping onto Transport Services Protocol Element Encoding Discussion

Protocol Model

Clients performing protocol operations against servers

Client sends protocol request to server Server performs operation on directory Server returns response (results/errors)

Asynchronous Server Behavior

Directory Client/Server Interaction

Mapping onto Transport

Uses Connection-oriented, reliable transport TCP

LDAPMessage PDU mapped onto TCP byte stream LDAP listener on port 389

Connection Oriented Transport Service (COTS)

LDAP PDU is mapped directly onto T-Data

Protocol Element Encoding

Encoded for Exchange using BER (Basic Encoding Rules) BER defined in Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) High Overhead for BER

Restrictions imposed to improve perf.

Definite form of length encoding only Bit Strings/ Octet Strings and all character string types encoded in primitive form only

LDAP Implementations

C Library API

LDAPv2 - RFC 1823 The LDAP API LDAPv3 In Internet Draft stage

Java JNDI LDAP v3 uses the UTF-8 encoding of the Unicode character set. HTTP to LDAP gateway LDAP to X.500 gateway ldapd

Version 2 v/s Version 3

Referrals

A server that does not store the requested data can refer the client to another server. Extensible authentication using Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) UTF-8 support for international characters. New object types and operations can be dynamically defined and schema published in a

Security

Internationalization

Extensibility