However, as more organizations replace their traditional on-prem infrastructure with cloud alternatives, the question becomes, “How do I provide LDAP authentication without anything on-prem?” Cloud-Based LDAP Authenticationįortunately, cloud-based directories and Open Directory Platforms have emerged, which can provide LDAP authentication as a cloud-based service. After all, most modern organizations would like to shift their entire on-prem identity management infrastructure to the cloud. This type of setup can be difficult to achieve, especially for smaller or cloud-forward IT organizations. Historically, LDAP has also been an on-prem implementation, requiring dedicated servers that must be integrated into an organization’s overall identity management infrastructure (which has also historically been on-prem). While LDAP authentication has certainly proven to be effective, the time and effort required to implement and customize LDAP-based infrastructure to meet a modern organization’s identity management needs can be significant. Learn more about LDAP security in our blog. Note : There are some precautions organizations should take to secure their LDAP authentication processes, like prohibiting anonymous LDAP binds and encrypting data in transit.
If the credentials sent don’t match, the bind fails and access is denied. If the user’s submitted credentials match the credentials associated with their core user identity that is stored within the LDAP database, the user is authenticated and granted access to the requested resources or information through the client. To authenticate, the client sends a bind request to the LDAP server along with the user’s identifier (i.e., username or email) and password, which the client obtains when the user inputs their credentials. Typically, the client is an LDAP-ready system or application accessed by a user, and the server is the LDAP directory database. LDAP authentication is accomplished through a bind operation, and it follows a client/server model. Let’s break the LDAP authentication process down. How does LDAP authentication between a client and server work? If they match, the user is authenticated and granted access. In an LDAP authentication transaction, the user inputs their credentials via a system or application, which are then compared to those stored within the LDAP directory database. As a result, a common LDAP use case is to store core user identities.īecause LDAP directories can store user data and credentials, they can act as the source of truth for LDAP authentication. LDAP directory servers use a flexible schema, which means they can store a variety of attributes, including user credentials, phone numbers, group associations, and more, in the format that meets the organization’s needs.
Basic LDAP Authentication and Common Challenges So, it’s safe to assume that LDAP authentication will be a foundational element of identity management for years to come despite its age. LDAP is even a core aspect of modern cloud directories like JumpCloud, which offers cloud LDAP. This, in turn, spawned numerous other open source solutions based on LDAP (like 389 Directory, Apache Directory Service), and formed the foundation for Microsoft Active Directory (AD) in the late 1990s. LDAP also inspired the creation of OpenLDAP, the leading open source directory services platform. In fact, LDAP.v3 became the internet standard for directory services in 1997.
LDAP has been highly successful ever since it was first introduced in 1993. LDAP came out of my desire to do something a little lighter weight in order to accommodate the Macs and PCs that were on everybody’s desktop.” Tim Howes
I was assigned this project to deploy an X.500 directory for the campus, which I completed, but I quickly learned that it was way too heavy of a protocol and too complicated for the machines that were on most people’s desktops. At that time, I was also working for the University’s information technology division. So, we were working with X.500, which was ISO’s standard for directory services. The Internet was just emerging, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was creating standards for everything related to the Internet, including email and directory services. I was in a group of young upstarts who were trying to bring Unix and the Internet to campus. According to Tim Howes, co-inventor of the LDAP protocol, LDAP was developed at the University of Michigan where Tim was a graduate student to initially replace DAP (the Directory Access Protocol) and provide low-overhead access to the X.500 Directory – the directory service that LDAP would eventually replace. Before we define what LDAP authentication is, we should talk about the significance of LDAP as a whole.
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