Introduction
ED-ID is a directory designed to allow applications easy programmatic access to data needed for authentication, authorization, application personalization and customization, and programmatic business decision evaluation.
While ED-ID provides the same basic functionality as ED-Auth, namely PID/pass authentication and simple affiliation authorization, ED-ID exists mainly to give privileged accounts access to person information that can otherwise not be publicly viewed. These privileged accounts, called ED Services, are primarily used to look up person data and authorize people on this data. See the ED-ID Schema for the complete listing of person data.
Note: These instructions do not show how to do PID/pass authentication. The ED-Auth Usage instructions show how this is done. The same code will apply in ED-ID.
What can I use ED-ID for?
ED-ID can be used for PID/pass authentication and simple affiliation authorization (though ED-Auth is recommended if this is all your application needs to do), authorization based on any number of person attributes, and simple lookup of person data such as preferred email address and major. Once you have been issued an ED Service and have been approved to view person attributes, you may use ED-ID to authenticate, authorize, or retrieve person data as you wish.
ED-Auth vs. ED-ID
Middleware provides two directories for authentication and authorization purposes. Before you begin the process of interfacing your system with ED-Auth or ED-ID (or both!), you must first consider which system better suits your needs. Both ED-Auth and ED-ID support authentication and provide authorization data, however, ED-ID provides much more authorization data. Below are some criteria to help you decide which system will work best for you. Please note you may have to ask the vendor of your product whether it has some of the functionality listed below.
Use ED-Auth if:
- Your application can support LDAP over SSL, or startTLS (an LDAP version 3 function) AND
- Your application requires extremely fast authentication responses OR
- Your application only requires knowledge of a person’s basic affiliation (faculty, staff, student, etc.) for authorization decisions
Use ED-ID if:
- Your application can support SSL or TLS with client certificates AND
- Your application requires more information about a person than simply their affiliation OR
- Your application requires access to information about which groups a person is a member of OR
- Your application requires that the directory keep an explicit list of people who are authorized to use your service
Some applications may even be able to support the usage of both directories. If this is the case, it is strongly recommended that you use ED-Auth for authentication and use ED-ID for the lookup of data pertaining to a person. This guarantees fast response times on authentication requests and allows access to all the information about a person that has been collected for placement in the directory.
Primary Affiliations vs. Standard Affiliations
Primary Affiliations
The eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation attribute is an attribute used to communicate, to other institutions, the most basic affiliation a person has with Virginia Tech. This attribute is used in conjunction with systems like Shibboleth* to allow other universities to make authorization decisions about this person. This attribute should NEVER be used by internal Virginia Tech systems for purposes of authorization, it is strictly meant as an external, to VT, facing attribute.
Standard Affiliations
The eduPersonAffiliation attribute gives all the affiliations a person associated with Virginia Tech has with the university. This attribute is meant to be used by internal applications, and will often be used in authorization logic. It is vitally important to realize that this attribute can, and almost always will, have more than one value, which is a change from the current affiliation tracking systems.
A Bit About SASL
Unlike the other LDAP directories (ED-Auth and ED-Lite), ED-ID credentials are not passwords but instead are digital certificates. SASL EXTERNAL, the SASL mechanism used with ED-ID, allows ED-ID to derive a service’s DN from the certificate as well as authenticate the service given the certificate. Thus, you will see that DNs are not required on bind by the service, nor is any special credential presented. This makes it appear as if the service is doing an anonymous bind when in fact it is not. The use of SASL EXTERNAL in conjunction with TLS client certificate authentication gives us an extremely strong form of authentication to ED-ID.
ED Services
What are ED Services?
ED Services are privileged accounts that are allowed to see person data in ED-ID. ED Services are given access to person data with permissions that correspond to person attributes. These permissions allow each ED Service to have a specialized set of user data that it is able to see. For instance, it is possible to have an ED Service that is only capable of seeing email information, while another ED Service could see only information about peoples’ names. Further service permission enhancements are on the horizon. Additionally, an ED Service with enough permission will be able to see confidential and suppressed information. ED Services are an extremely powerful way to look up person information at Virginia Tech.
What can ED Services see?
ED Services can see:
- Their own entry by searching on ou=services,dc=vt,dc=edu with the filter ‘(objectclass=)*’.
- All users in the ou=people,dc=vt,dc=edu tree.
- User attributes that they have been approved to see (corresponds to the viewablePersonAttribute in the ED Service’s entry).
- Entries in ou=addresses,dc=vt,dc=edu if they have the viewablePersonAttribute value address.
- Group data (with proper access rights)
- Entitlement data (with proper access rights)
- Organizations
Java Applications
Installing the Unlimited Strength JCE Policy Files
The key sizes of the VT Root CA certificates are too large to be used by the Java keytool implementation. In order to work around these problems the Unlimited Strength JCE Policy Files must be installed.
- Download the policy files for the version of your JVM
- Unzip the archive and copy US_export_policy.jar and local_policy.jar to $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security
Creating a Java keystore
Java uses keystores for all SSL negotiations. These instructions detail how to create a keystore with your client certificate and private key.
The key sizes of the VT Root CA certificates are too large to be used by the Java keytool implementation. In order to work around these problems the Bouncy Castle Keystore type must be used.
- Convert your client certificate into DER format:
- Convert your private key into DER format:
- Import your client certificate into a Bouncy Castle keystore
- Execute the keystore script that is bundled with the EDLdap libs:
- Windows users should use the keystore.bat script
- Delete the DER formats since your private key is not encrypted in this form
- To verify the integrity of the edid.keystore file , execute the following command:
Using JNDI to Access ED-ID
The following code sample demonstrates how to query ED-ID via SSL client authentication to bind as an ED Service user mentioned in the CN of the X.509 client certificate.
Requirements:
- JDK 1.5 or greater
- ED Service user on the certificate must have access to the attributes mentioned in the example, namely givenname, surname, and displayname
- edid.keystore on $CLASSPATH (see creating a Java keystore)
The sample code may be executed by a command like the following:
Using Middleware’s LDAP Library (EDLdap)
Requirements:
- JDK 1.5 or greater
- Middleware EDLdap Libraries on $CLASSPATH
- edid.keystore on $CLASSPATH (see creating a Java keystore)
The sample code may be executed by a command like the following:
EDLdap Maven Integration
The EDLdap module may be included in Java projects with a Maven build system by including the following in the project pom.xml file:
IMPORTANT: If you filter resources in your build, be careful not to filter binary files like the ED-ID keystore. If you see strange authentication errors or NullPointerException errors thrown on operations that perform client authentication, it may be a sign that the ED-ID keystore has been inadvertently corrupted by resource filtering. We are aware of at least two occurrences of this problem at the time of writing, and both were capable developers with Maven experience. It happens, so doublecheck that the build does not filter binary files.
Spring Framework Configuration
The Middleware EDLdap Libraries may be used in conjunction with the Spring LDAP LdapContextSource object to connect to ED-ID in a way that is natural for Spring applications. In order for the following Spring context configuration example to work, the following conditions must be met:
- EDLdap libraries must be on application classpath.
- ED-ID keystore file edid.keystore must exist at root of application classpath, e.g. WEB-INF/classes/edid.keystore for a Java servlet.
Common Problems
javax.naming.AuthenticationNotSupportedException: [LDAP: error code 7 - SASL(-4): no mechanism available: ]
You did not successfully negotiate client authentication, most likely because your keystore could not be found.
- Verify that the directory containing edid.keystore is in your $CLASSPATH
- Add the -Djavax.net.debug=ssl switch when starting your JVM and verify the correct keystore is being used
- Ensure the edid.keystore is not a symbolic link (e.g. ln -s edid-cas.bks edid.keystore); we have seen cases where symbolic links are not handled correctly.
java.security.UnrecoverableKeyException: no match
You need to install the Unlimited Strength JCE jars.
javax.naming.AuthenticationNotSupportedException: EXTERNAL
Java 1.5
You do not have the SASL security provider installed.
- Add security.provider.7=com.sun.security.sasl.Provider to $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/java.security
Troubleshooting Certificate Problems
The edldap/edldap.sh script provided in the bin directory of the unpacked Middleware EDLdap Libraries is an indispensible tool for troubleshooting ED-ID certificate problems. To perform ED-ID operations with this tool, copy the keystore containing your ED-ID certificate to $EDLDAP_HOME/edid.keystore, where $EDLDAP_HOME is the location where the library archive was unpacked.
If you are interested in particular attributes, you can specify a space-delimited list of attributes after the LDAP filter:
C/C++ Applications
A C/C++ LDAP library supporting LDAP with the startTLS extension and SASL support is required in order to connect to ED-ID. Instructions for compiling such a library can be found at Appendix: Compiling OpenLDAP Libraries These instructions use the OpenLDAP C LDAP library. You must make sure this library is in your applications library path. Please see Appendix: OpenLDAP and Certificates for information on how to set up your environment for SSL/TLS.
- Lines 1-2 include necessary headers
- Lines 6-20 declare necessary variables
- Lines 22-23 set the creds as an empty string (SASL negotiation)
- Lines 25-30 initialize the LDAP connection
- Lines 32-39 set the version to LDAPv3, and startTLS
- Lines 41-46 perform a SASL EXTERNAL bind
- Lines 48-60 search on the filter
- Lines 62-71 get the first entry and its DN
- Lines 73-98 print out all attributes and their values
- Lines 100-105 perform an LDAP compare operation (typical authorization with ED-ID)
- Lines 106-109 clean up
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#include <stdio.h>
#include <ldap.h>
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
LDAP* ldap;
LDAPMessage *result, *entry;
BerElement* ber;
char *HOST_NAME = "id.directory.vt.edu";
int PORT_NUMBER = 389;
char *filter = "(uupid=UUPID)";
char *attrs[] = { NULL };
char *base = "ou=People,dc=vt,dc=edu";
char *attribute = NULL;
char **values = NULL;
char *dn = NULL;
char *cmpAttr = "eduPersonAffiliation";
char *cmpVal = "VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER";
int i, resultCode, version;
struct berval cred;
cred.bv_val = "";
cred.bv_len = strlen(cred.bv_val)*sizeof(char);
/* Initialize an LDAP connection. */
if( (ldap = ldap_init(HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)) == NULL)
{
perror("ldap_init");
return 1;
}
/* Set the version number so that we may use startTLS. */
version = LDAP_VERSION3;
ldap_set_option(ldap, LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION, &version);
if(ldap_start_tls_s(ldap, NULL, NULL) != LDAP_SUCCESS)
{
ldap_perror(ldap, "ldap_start_tls_s");
}
resultCode = ldap_sasl_bind_s(ldap, NULL, "EXTERNAL", &cred, NULL,
NULL, NULL);
if(resultCode != LDAP_SUCCESS)
{
ldap_perror(ldap, "ldap_sasl_bind_s");
}
resultCode = ldap_search_ext_s(ldap, base, LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE,
filter, attrs, 0, NULL, NULL,
NULL, LDAP_NO_LIMIT, &result);
if(resultCode != LDAP_SUCCESS)
{
/* another way to print errors...
fprintf(stderr, "ldap_search_ext_s: %s\n",
ldap_err2string(resultCode));
*/
ldap_perror(ldap, "ldap_search_ext_s");
ldap_unbind_ext_s(ldap, NULL, NULL);
return 1;
}
entry = ldap_first_entry(ldap, result);
if(entry != NULL)
dn = ldap_get_dn(ldap, entry);
else
{
printf("search on filter: %s returned no entries\n", filter);
ldap_msgfree(result);
ldap_unbind_ext_s(ldap, NULL, NULL);
return 1;
}
/* print out all attribute/value pairs */
if(entry != NULL)
{
printf("\ndn: %s\n", dn);
/* Iterate through each attribute in the entry. */
for( attribute = ldap_first_attribute(ldap, entry, &ber);
attribute != NULL;
attribute = ldap_next_attribute(ldap, entry, ber))
{
/*For each attribute, print the name and values.*/
values = ldap_get_values(ldap, entry, attribute);
if( values != NULL)
{
for(i = 0; values[i] != NULL; i++)
{
printf("%s: %s\n", attribute, values[i]);
}
ldap_value_free(values);
}
ldap_memfree(attribute);
}
if(ber != NULL)
{
ber_free(ber, 0);
}
}
/* see if user has a specific affiliation */
resultCode = ldap_compare_s(ldap, dn, cmpAttr, cmpVal);
if(resultCode == LDAP_COMPARE_TRUE)
printf("ldap_compare_s: %s has %s=%s\n", dn, cmpAttr, cmpVal);
else
printf("ldap_compare_s: %s does not have %s=%s\n", dn, cmpAttr, cmpVal);
ldap_msgfree(result);
ldap_memfree(dn);
ldap_unbind_ext_s(ldap, NULL, NULL);
return 0;
}
Note that in addition to setting up the OpenLDAP Library for certificates (Appendix: OpenLDAP and Certificates), you can do this in the code directly:
WinLDAP C Applications (Windows)
This example uses the native Windows LDAP API (WinLDAP) to connect to ED-ID. Similar code could probably be compiled as a COM object or DLL for use with .Net or VB. Pay special attention to the notes section at the beginning of the example.
- Lines 24-28 include necessary headers \
- Lines 37-49 declare variables necessary for example \
- Lines 56-62 initialize the LDAP connection \
- Lines 64-70 set LDAPv3 and ensure SSL in on \
- Lines 73-81 connect to ED-ID \
- Lines 85-90 perform a SASL EXTERNAL bind \
- Lines 93-100 search on the filter, get the first entry, and grab its DN \
- Lines 103-128 print out all viewable attributes and their values for the person \
- Lines 132-138 determine if the person has the specified affiliation \
- Lines 140-141 clean up
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/**
* winldap-edid.c
* This code is an example of how to connect to ED-ID, do a
* SASL EXTERNAL bind with a client certificate, search for a user,
* print out the user's attributes, and then determine if the user
* has the proper affiliation specified. This is but the tip of the
* iceberg for authorization that can be done with ED-ID.
*
* Notes: * You must have a client certificate that has been issued
* by the VT Middleware CA to connect to ED-ID.
* * You must have a service entry that corresponds to your
* client certificate to be able to view entries
* * You must have imported the VTCA chain into the
* Windows keystore before this code will work properly.
* This is available at https://www.middleware.vt.edu/ed/ldap/vt-cachain.pem.
* * Your client certificate must also be in the Windows
* keystore (see Appendix for instructions)
* * You must link this against wldap32.lib
*/
#include <windows.h>
#include <ntldap.h>
#include <winldap.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <winber.h>
/**
* Do a SASL EXTERNAL bind, search for the user with the supplied UUPID,
* print all attributes for the person, determine if the person has the
* specified affiliation.
*/
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
LDAP* ld = NULL;
INT retVal = 0;
PCHAR pHost = "id.directory.vt.edu";
int port = 636;
char* base = "ou=people,dc=vt,dc=edu";
char* filter = "(uupid=UUPID)";
LDAPMessage *result, *entry;
char *dn;
char *cmpAttr = "eduPersonAffiliation";
char *cmpVal = "VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER";
struct berval cred;
struct berval *servercredp;
ULONG version = LDAP_VERSION3;
cred.bv_val = "";
cred.bv_len = strlen(cred.bv_val)*sizeof(char);
printf("\nConnecting to host \"%s\" ...\n",pHost);
// Create an LDAP session.
ld = ldap_sslinit(pHost, port, 1);
if (ld == NULL)
{
printf( "ldap_sslinit failed with 0x%x.\n",GetLastError());
return -1;
}
// Specify version 3; the default is version 2.
printf("Setting Protocol version to 3.\n");
retVal = ldap_set_option(ld,
LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION,
(void*)&version);
retVal = ldap_set_option(ld,LDAP_OPT_SSL,LDAP_OPT_ON);
// Connect to the server.
retVal = ldap_connect(ld, NULL);
if(retVal == LDAP_SUCCESS)
printf("ldap_connect succeeded \n");
else
{
printf("ldap_connect failed with 0x%x.\n",retVal);
return 1;
}
// Perform a SASL EXTERNAL bind. The CN of your client certificate
// will be your service's UUSID
retVal = ldap_sasl_bind_s(ld, "", "EXTERNAL" , &cred, NULL, NULL, &servercredp);
if(retVal != LDAP_SUCCESS)
printf("ldap_sasl_bind_s failed with 0x%x\n", retVal);
else
printf("ldap_sasl_bind_s succeeded\n");
// Search for a person by UUPID
retVal = ldap_search_s(ld, base, LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE, filter, NULL, NULL, &result);
if(retVal != LDAP_SUCCESS)
printf("ldap_search_s failed with 0x%x.\n",retVal);
// Get the first entry and its DN
entry = ldap_first_entry(ld, result);
dn = ldap_get_dn(ld, entry);
// Print out all viewable attributes for the person
if(entry != NULL)
{
char *attribute;
BerElement *ber;
char **values;
for(attribute = ldap_first_attribute(ld, entry, &ber);
attribute != NULL;
attribute = ldap_next_attribute(ld, entry, ber))
{
if((values = ldap_get_values(ld, entry, attribute)) != NULL)
{
for(int i = 0; values[i] != NULL; i++)
{
printf("%s: %s\n", attribute, values[i]);
}
ldap_value_free(values);
}
ldap_memfree(attribute);
}
if(ber != NULL)
{
ber_free(ber, 0);
}
}
ldap_msgfree(result);
// Determine if the person has the specified affiliation
retVal = ldap_compare_s(ld, dn, cmpAttr, cmpVal);
if(retVal != LDAP_COMPARE_TRUE)
printf("ldap_compare_s failed with 0x%x.\n",retVal);
else
printf("\n%s == %s", cmpAttr, cmpVal);
ldap_memfree(dn);
ldap_unbind_s(ld);
return 0;
}
.NET Framework Applications (Windows)
The System.DirectoryServices.Protocols assembly available in .NET Framework 2.0 and later provides a convenient integration option for Windows applications based on the .NET Framework. A simple command-line ED-ID query program is demonstrated in the following C# sample.
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using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.DirectoryServices.Protocols;
using EdCommon;
namespace EdIdTest
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
if (args.Length < 2)
{
Console.WriteLine("USAGE: EdIdTest uusid query");
return;
}
// The following should be the uusid of your ED Service
string certCN = args[0];
string ldapQuery = args[1];
string ldapHost = EdConstants.ED_ID;
int ldapPort = 389;
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Querying {0} as service {1} for {2}", ldapHost, certCN, ldapQuery));
// Create connection and attempt to bind and search
LdapConnection conn = null;
try
{
conn = new LdapConnection(
new LdapDirectoryIdentifier(ldapHost, ldapPort),
null,
AuthType.External);
// VT Enterprise Directory requires LDAPv3
conn.SessionOptions.ProtocolVersion = 3;
// Must use custom hostname verification strategy due to DNS aliases
conn.SessionOptions.VerifyServerCertificate = new VerifyServerCertificateCallback(
new EdCertificateVerifier(ldapHost).VerifyCertificate);
// Look up client cert in Local Machine store by subject CN
conn.SessionOptions.QueryClientCertificate
delegate(LdapConnection c, byte[][] trustedCAs)
{
X509Store lmStore = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.LocalMachine);
try
{
lmStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
// Uncomment the following lines to help diagnose cert problems
//Console.WriteLine();
//Console.WriteLine("Available certificates in Local Machine store:");
//foreach (X509Certificate cert in lmStore.Certificates)
//{
// Console.WriteLine(" " + cert.Subject);
//}
//Console.WriteLine("Querying Local Machine store for valid cert with subject " + certCN);
X509Certificate2Collection clientCerts = lmStore.Certificates.Find(
X509FindType.FindBySubjectName, certCN, true);
if (clientCerts.Count == 0)
{
throw new ArgumentException("Cannot find valid certificate with subject " + certCN);
}
return clientCerts[0];
}
finally
{
lmStore.Close();
}
};
conn.SessionOptions.StartTransportLayerSecurity(null);
conn.Bind();
// 4th parameter, attributeList, is omitted to indicate all available attributes
SearchResponse response = (SearchResponse)conn.SendRequest(
new SearchRequest(EdConstants.SEARCH_BASE, ldapQuery, SearchScope.Subtree));
// Stopping TLS is demonstrated for completeness.
// Ideally ED-ID connections are pooled and the TLS session is maintained
// for the life of the connection.
conn.SessionOptions.StopTransportLayerSecurity();
// Print attributes of result entries
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine(response.Entries.Count + " entries found:");
foreach (SearchResultEntry entry in response.Entries)
{
Console.WriteLine(" " + entry.DistinguishedName);
foreach (String name in entry.Attributes.AttributeNames)
{
Console.Write(" " + name + "=");
int n = 0;
foreach (object value in entry.Attributes[name].GetValues(typeof(string)))
{
if (n++ > 0)
{
Console.Write(',');
}
Console.Write(value);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Application error: \n" + e);
}
finally
{
if (conn != null)
{
conn.Dispose();
}
}
}
}
}
The EdCertificateVerifier is available in a standalone library assembly, EdCommon, to facilitate use in real applications. A complete Visual Studio solution file containing the source for EdCommon and all .NET ED samples is available in the ED Samples Project.
Perl Applications
To connect to ED-ID with Perl you will need the following Perl modules: Net::SSLeay, IO::Socket::SSL, Convert::BER, Authen::SASL, and Net::LDAP. These modules can be found on the CPAN website. For your convenience, a link to the current versions are supplied in the resource appendix.
Note that certain versions of perl-ldap can cause various errors, including SASL errors. Be sure to use the latest version, 0.34.
- Lines 3-4 use required modules
- Lines 7-16 declare variables
- Line 17 set up SASL ojbect
- Line 20 create a new LDAP
- Lines 22-27 start TLS
- Lines 29-31 perform a SASL EXTERNAL bind
- Lines 33-34 search on the filter
- Line 46 print the entry
- Lines 48-59 get the entry and do an LDAP compare operation
- Line 61 disconnect from ED-ID
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#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::LDAP;
use Authen::SASL;
use strict;
my $server = "id.directory.vt.edu";
my $port = 389;
my $dn = "";
my $cafile = "/PATH/TO/ED_ID/CA_file.pem";
my $clientcert = "/PATH/TO/ED_ID/clientcert.pem";
my $clientkey = "/PATH/TO/ED_ID/clientkey.pem";
my $base = "ou=people,dc=vt,dc=edu";
my $filter = "(uupid=UUPID)";
my $attr = "eduPersonAffiliation";
my $value = "VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER";
my $sasl = Authen::SASL->new(mechanism => 'EXTERNAL',
callback => { pass => '', user => ''});
my $ldap = Net::LDAP->new($server, port => $port, version => 3) or die $@;
my $mesg = $ldap->start_tls(verify => 'require',
cafile => $cafile,
ciphers => 'AES256-SHA256', sslversion => 'tlsv1_2',
clientcert => $clientcert,
clientkey => $clientkey);
$mesg->code && die $mesg->error;
$mesg = $ldap->bind(dn => '',
sasl => $sasl);
$mesg->code && die $mesg->error;
$mesg = $ldap->search(base => $base, filter => $filter);
$mesg->code && die $mesg->error;
# print specific attribute
#$entry = $mesg->entry(0);
#if($entry)
#{
# print $entry->get_value('edupersonprimaryaffiliation')."\n";
# my $ref = $entry->get_value('edupersonaffiliation', asref => 1);
# foreach(@{$ref}){ print $_."\n"; }
#}
# print all attributes for the entry
foreach my $entry ($mesg->all_entries) { $entry->dump; }
my $entry = $mesg->entry(0);
$mesg = $ldap->compare($entry,
attr => $attr,
value => $value);
if($mesg->code == 6) # error code 6 is LDAP_COMPARE_TRUE
{
print $entry->dn.": $attr == $value\n";
}
else
{
print $entry->dn.": $attr != $value\n";
}
$ldap->unbind;
Python Applications
This example uses python-ldap to communicate with ED-ID. Since python-ldap is a wrapper around the OpenLDAP libraries, OpenLDAP, OpenSSL, and Cyrus SASL are required for this example to work. Certificates can be set up according to Appendix: OpenLDAP and Certificates. See Appendix: Compiling OpenLDAP Libraries for help with compiling the OpenLDAP library. See the INSTALL document bundled with python-ldap for installation instructions (hint: modify setup.cfg to give OpenLDAP, OpenSSL, and Cyrus SASL include and library paths).
- Line 3 import the ldap modules
- Lines 5-9 declare variables
- Line 12 initialize the connection
- Line 13 set LDAPv3
- Line 14 startTLS on the connection
- Line 15 perform a SASL EXTERNAL bind
- Line 16 search on the filter
- Line 17 get the results from the search
- Line 18 get the DN
- Line 21 print out the entire entry
- Lines 22-25 determine if the entry has the specified eduPersonAffiliation
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#!/usr/bin/python
import ldap,ldap.sasl
base = "ou=People,dc=vt,dc=edu"
scope = ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE
searchFilter = "uupid=UUPID"
attribute = "eduPersonAffiliation"
value = "VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER";
try:
edid = ldap.initialize("ldap://id.directory.vt.edu:389")
edid.protocol_version=ldap.VERSION3
edid.start_tls_s()
edid.sasl_interactive_bind_s("", ldap.sasl.external())
results = edid.search(base, scope, searchFilter, None)
resultType, result_data = edid.result(results, 1)
dn = result_data[0][0]
# barf out all user data for first entry returned (not pretty)
print dn
print result_data[0][1]
if edid.compare_s(dn, attribute, value) == 0:
print dn, attribute, "!=", value
else:
print dn, attribute, "==", value
except ldap.LDAPError,e:
print str(e)
PHP Applications
This example uses PHP to connect to ED-ID. You must compile PHP with LDAP for this example to work (–with-ldap and –with-ldap-sasl). See Appendix: Compiling OpenLDAP Libraries for instructions on installing OpenLDAP libraries.
- Lines 3-8 create and initialize variables
- Lines 10-13 get a connection and do a SASL EXTERNAL bind
- Lines 16-18 search for a user
- Lines 21-29 print out the user’s entry
- Lines 30-37 check for affiliation
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<?php
$host = 'ldap://id.directory.vt.edu';
$baseDn = 'ou=People,dc=vt,dc=edu';
$userfield = 'uupid';
$pid = "UUPID";
$compareAttr = 'eduPersonAffiliation';
$compareValue = 'VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER';
$ldap = ldap_connect($host);
ldap_set_option($ldap, LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION, 3);
ldap_start_tls($ldap);
ldap_sasl_bind($ldap, null, null, "EXTERNAL");
if (isset($ldap) && $ldap != '') {
/* search for pid dn */
$result = @ldap_search($ldap, $baseDn, $userfield.'='.$pid);
if ($result != 0) {
$entries = ldap_get_entries($ldap, $result);
for ($i = 0; $i < $entries["count"]; $i++) {
$dn = $entries[$i]["dn"];
print "dn: $dn\n";
/* print out attributes and values */
for ($j = 0; $j < $entries[$i]["count"]; $j++) {
$attrib = $entries[$i][$j];
for ($k = 0; $k < $entries[$i][$attrib]["count"]; $k++) {
print $attrib.": ".$entries[$i][$attrib][$k]."\n";
}
}
/* check for affiliation */
print("\nDoes user ".$compareAttr."=".$compareValue.": ");
$cmp = ldap_compare($ldap, $dn, $compareAttr, $compareValue);
if($cmp == true) {
print("YES\n");
} else {
print("NO\n");
}
}
ldap_free_result($result);
} else {
print('Error occured searching the LDAP');
}
ldap_close($ldap);
} else {
print('Could not connect to LDAP at '.$host);
}
?>
Ruby Applications
To use this script to connect to ED-Auth you must have the ruby-ldap module compiled against the OpenLDAP and OpenSSL libraries. See Appendix: Compiling OpenLDAP Libraries.
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#!/usr/bin/ruby
# Simple ED-ID script; requires ruby-ldap built against OpenLDAP (with SASL)
# and OpenSSL. Add error checking at your own discretion.
require 'ldap'
HOST, PORT = 'id.directory.vt.edu', 389
BASEDN = 'ou=People,dc=vt,dc=edu'
FILTER = 'uupid=UUPID'
ATTRIBUTE = 'eduPersonAffiliation'
VALUE = 'VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER'
dn = nil
ldap = LDAP::SSLConn.new(HOST, PORT, true)
ldap.sasl_quiet = true
ldap.sasl_bind('', 'EXTERNAL')
# search for affiliations
ldap.search(BASEDN, LDAP::LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE, FILTER,
['eduPersonAffiliation']) do |entry|
dn = entry.get_dn
puts dn
puts entry.get_values(ATTRIBUTE)
end
# determine if we have a specific affiliation
if ldap.compare(dn, ATTRIBUTE, VALUE) == true
puts dn + ': ' + ATTRIBUTE + ' == ' + VALUE
else
puts dn + ': ' + ATTRIBUTE + ' != ' + VALUE
end
ldap.unbind
Appendix: OpenLDAP and Certificates
If the application you are using to connect to ED-ID or ED-Auth uses the OpenLDAP libraries, it may be necessary to set up the certificates for your client. This is done with the following directives: TLS_CACERT, TLS_CERT, and TLS_KEY. TLS_CACERT refers to the certificate chain used to verify the server. TLS_CERT and TLS_KEY refer to the client certificate and private key, respectively, that are used for TLS client authentication (only used for ED-ID). These directives can be set up in the following ways:
Download the VT Middleware CA chain file
- Add the following to the OpenLDAP library’s ldap.conf. This must be the ldap.conf that corresponds to the OpenLDAP library you are using for your application (note that there may be multiple ldap.conf files on your system, but only one will actually be used by a particular OpenLDAP library).
This sets up certificates system-wide for the OpenLDAP library.
-
Put the above directives in a file called ldaprc in the user’s $HOME directory that is using the application. This will override the system-wide settings for the user.
-
Put the above directives in a file called .ldaprc in the user’s $HOME directory that is using the application. This will override the system-wide settings for the user.
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Put the above directives in a file called ldaprc in the user’s current working directory ($PWD) that is using the application. This will override the system-wide settings for the user.
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Set the following environment variables:
These directives are searched for in this order. The last directives set override any previous directives. For more information on this, see the ldap.conf manpage for OpenLDAP.
Appendix: Testing and Debugging With OpenLDAP
The ldapsearch program distributed with OpenLDAP is a useful tool for testing and debugging your custom application, particularly if it uses the OpenLDAP libraries at some level. Below is an example of how to connect to ED-ID with ldapsearch. Please refer to Appendix: OpenLDAP and Certificates for information on how to set up your server and client certificates.
NOTE: Your OpenLDAP libraries must be compiled with SSL and SASL support to do this.
Search for a person:
View the service account:
Meaning of options:
- -H – specifies the LDAP URL
- -Y – specifies the SASL Mechanism (SASL EXTERNAL) when doing a SASL bind
- -Z – specifies that we want to do a Start TLS request
- -b – specifies the search base
If you are having difficulties with this example, you can turn debugging on by appending -d 1 to the end of the ldapsearch command. This will produce a wealth of debugging information.
Appendix: Compiling OpenLDAP Libraries
Many of the examples contained in this document depend on the OpenLDAP LDAP Libraries for their functionality. This includes the C, Net::LDAP, Python, and PHP examples as well as the standard LDAP utilities such as ldapsearch. This appendix exists to help you compile the libraries needed for your application to interface with ED-ID.
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Download the OpenLDAP Software Distribution. The OpenLDAP //stable// Release is always the best choice to install.
-
Configure OpenLDAP with the following line:
If your OpenSSL and/or Cyrus SASL libraries are not in the standard include and lib paths, you may need to run the following:
- make depend && make && make install
Appendix: Using the Paged Result LDAP Control to Return More Entries
RFC 2696 describes an LDAPv3 control to return paged results. This control allows a client to control the rate LDAP search entries are returned.
This can be useful for ED Services that need to return large result sets, since search timelimits are currently set at 60 seconds. For example:
will start returning all entries your service has permission to see, 1000 entries at a time. If you keep pressing enter, you will get 1000 entries each time until the search has finished. This works because 1000 entries can easily be returned in under 60 seconds. If you use a paged results size that cannot return in under 60 seconds, you will still get a timeout. The trick here is to set a resonable results size. Of course, using 1 as the result size is a good guarantee you will never hit a timeout.
See the documentation for your LDAP library of choice to see if they have implemented LDAP paged results.