LDAP

Binding#

When it comes to LDAP there are several considerations for deciding how to bind to the LDAP server.

Unauthenticated Binding#

The most insecure method is unauthenticated binds. They are generally considered insecure due to the fact allowing them at all ensures anyone with any level of network access can easily obtain objects and their attributes.

Authelia does support unauthenticated binds but it is not by default, you must configure the permit_unauthenticated_bind configuration option.

End-User Binding#

One method to bind to the server that is favored by a lot of people is binding to the LDAP server as the end user. While this is more secure than methods such as Unauthenticated Binding the drawback is that it can only be used securely at the time the user enters their credentials. Storing a password in memory in general is not very secure and prone to breakage due to outside influences (i.e. the user changes their password).

In addition, this method is not compatible with the password reset / forgot password flow at all (not to be confused with a change password flow).

Authelia doesn’t currently support such a binding method excluding for checking user passwords.

Service-User Binding#

This is the most common method of binding to LDAP. This involves setting up a special service user with a complex password which has the minimum permissions required to do the tasks required.

Authelia primarily supports this method.

Implementation Guide#

The following implementations exist:

• custom:
  • Not specific to any particular LDAP provider
• activedirectory:
  • Specific configuration defaults for Active Directory
  • Special implementation details:
    • Includes a special encoding format required for changing passwords with Active Directory
• rfc2307bis:
  • Specific configuration defaults for RFC2307bis
  • No special implementation details
• freeipa:
  • Specific configuration defaults for FreeIPA
  • No special implementation details
• lldap:
  • Specific configuration defaults for lldap
  • No special implementation details
• glauth:
  • Specific configuration defaults for GLAuth
  • No special implementation details

Group Search Modes#

There are currently two group search modes that exist.

Search Mode: filter#

The filter search mode is the default search mode. Generally this is recommended.

Search Mode: memberof#

The memberof search mode is a special search mode. Generally this is discouraged and is currently experimental.

Some systems provide a memberOf attribute which may include additional groups that the user is a member of. This search mode allows using this attribute as a method to determine their groups. How it works is the search is performed against the base with the subtree scope and the groups filter must include one of the {memberof:*} replacements, and the distinguished names of the results from the search are compared (case-insensitive) against the users memberOf attribute to determine if they are members.

This means:

1. The groups still must be in the search base that you have configured.
2. The memberOf attribute MUST include the distinguished name of the group.
3. If the {memberof:dn} replacement is used:
   1. The distinguished name MUST be searchable by your directory server.
4. The first relative distinguished name of the distinguished name MUST be search

Filter replacements#

Various replacements occur in the user and groups filter. The replacements either occur at startup or upon an LDAP search which is indicated by the phase column.

The phases exist to optimize performance. The replacements in the startup phase are replaced once before the connection is ever established. In addition to this, during the startup phase we purposefully check the filters for which search phase replacements exist so we only have to check if the replacement is necessary once, and we don’t needlessly perform every possible replacement on every search regardless of if it’s needed or not.

General filter replacements#

Users filter replacements#

Groups filter replacements#

memberof:dn#

Requirements:

1. Must be using the memberof search mode.
2. Must have the distinguished name attribute configured in Authelia.
3. Directory server must support searching by the distinguished name attribute (many directory services DO NOT have a distinguished name attribute).

memberof:rdn#

Requirements:

1. Must be using the memberof search mode.
2. Directory server must support searching by the first relative distinguished name as an attribute.

Splits every memberOf value to obtain the first relative distinguished name and joins all of those after surrounding them in parentheses. This makes the general suggested filter pattern for this particular replacement (|{memberof:rdn}). The format of this value is as follows:

(<RDN>)

For example if the user has the following distinguished names in their object:

• CN=abc,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
• CN=xyz,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com

The value will be replaced with (CN=abc)(CN=xyz) which using the suggested pattern for the filter becomes (|(CN=abc)(CN=xyz)) which will then return any user that as a CN of abc or xyz.