7 INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
8 Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation
9 Expires in six months 26 October 2003
12 LDAP: Requesting Attributes by Object Class
13 <draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-06.txt>
18 This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
19 provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
21 This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and
22 revision, submitted to the RFC Editor as an Informational document.
23 Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this
24 document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions mailing list
25 <ldapext@ietf.org>. Please send editorial comments directly to the
26 author <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>.
28 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task
29 Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other
30 groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.
31 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
32 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
33 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
34 material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.''
36 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
37 <http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt>. The list of
38 Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
39 <http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html>.
41 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
43 Please see the Full Copyright section near the end of this document
49 The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) search operation
50 provides mechanisms for clients to request all user application
51 attributes, all operational attributes, or attributes selected by
52 their description. This document extends LDAP to provide a mechanism
53 for LDAP clients to request the return of all attributes of an object
58 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 1]
60 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-06 26 October 2003
65 In the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC3377], the
66 search operation [RFC2251] support requesting a sets of attributes.
67 This set is determined by a list of attribute descriptions. Two
68 special descriptors are defined to request all user attributes ("*")
69 [RFC2251] and all operational attributes ("+") [OPATTRS]. However,
70 there is no convenient mechanism for requesting pre-defined sets of
73 This document extends LDAP to allow an object class identifier to be
74 specified in search request attributes list to request the return all
75 attributes allowed by object class. A plus sign ("+", U+002B) is used
76 to distinguish an object class identifier from an attribute
79 For example, the attribute list of "+country" is equivalent to the
80 attribute list of 'c', 'searchGuide', 'description', and
81 'objectClass'. This object class and its attributes are described in
84 This extension is intended to be used where the user is in direct
85 control of the parameters of the LDAP search operation, such as when
86 entering a LDAP URL [RFC2255] into a web browser.
91 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
92 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
93 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
95 DSA stands for Directory System Agent (or server).
96 DSE stands for DSA-specific Entry.
99 3. Return of all Attributes of an Object Class
101 This extension allows object class identifiers is to be provided in
102 the attributes field of the LDAP SearchRequest [RFC2251]. For each
103 object class identified in the attributes field, the request is to be
104 treated as if each attribute allowed by that class (by "MUST" or
105 "MAY", directly or by SUPerior) was itself listed.
107 If the object class identifier is unrecognized, it is be treated an an
108 unrecognized attribute description.
110 This extension redefines the attributes field of the SearchRequest to
114 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 2]
116 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-06 26 October 2003
119 be a DescriptionList described by the following ASN.1 [X.680] data
122 DescriptionList ::= SEQUENCE OF Description
123 Description ::= LDAPString
125 The Description is string conforming to the ABNF [RFC2234]:
127 Description = AttributeDescription | ObjectClassDescription.
128 ObjectClassDescription = "+" ObjectClass *( ";" options )
130 where <AttributeDescription> and <options> productions are as defined
131 in Section 4.1.5 of [RFC2251] and an <ObjectClass> is an object
132 identifier, in either <numericoid> or <descr> form [RFC2252], of an
135 <ObjectClassDescription> <options> are provided for extensibility.
136 This document only defines semantics of <ObjectClassDescription>s with
137 zero options in the attributes field of a SearchRequest. Other uses
138 may be defined in future specifications.
140 Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the object identifier
141 (OID) 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures'
142 [FEATURES] attribute in the root DSE. Clients supporting this feature
143 SHOULD NOT use the feature unless they have knowledge the server
147 3. Security Considerations
149 This extension provides a shorthand for requesting all attributes of
150 an object class. As these attributes which could have been listed
151 individually, this short hand is not believed to raise additional
152 security considerations.
154 Implementors of this (or any) LDAP extension should be familiar with
155 general LDAP security considerations [RFC3377].
158 4. IANA Considerations
160 The OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 is used to identify the LDAP "OC AD
161 List" feature. This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP Foundation,
162 under its IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation [PRIVATE], for
163 use in this specification.
165 Registration of this protocol mechanism is requested per BCP 64
170 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 3]
172 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-06 26 October 2003
175 Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration
176 Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.2
177 Description: OC AD Lists
178 Person & email address to contact for further information:
179 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
181 Specification: RFC XXXX
182 Author/Change Controller: Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
193 6. Normative References
195 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
196 Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997.
198 [RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
199 Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
201 [RFC2251] Wahl, M., T. Howes and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory
202 Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.
204 [RFC2252] Wahl, M., A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, and S. Kille,
205 "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute
206 Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997.
208 [RFC3377] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
209 Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
212 [FEATURES] Zeilenga, K., "Feature Discovery in LDAP",
213 draft-zeilenga-ldap-features-xx.txt, a work in progress.
215 [X.680] International Telecommunication Union -
216 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "Abstract
217 Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) - Specification of Basic
218 Notation", X.680(1997) (also ISO/IEC 8824-1:1998).
221 7. Informative References
226 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 4]
228 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-06 26 October 2003
231 [RFC2255] Howes, T. and M. Smith, "The LDAP URL Format", RFC 2255,
234 [RFC2256] Wahl, M., "A Summary of the X.500(96) User Schema for
235 use with LDAPv3", RFC 2256, December 1997.
237 [RFC3383] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP", BCP 64
238 (also RFC 3383), September 2002.
240 [ASSIGN] OpenLDAP Foundation, "OpenLDAP OID Delegations",
241 http://www.openldap.org/foundation/oid-delegate.txt.
243 [PRIVATE] IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers",
244 http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers.
250 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
252 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
253 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
254 or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and
255 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
256 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
257 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
258 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
259 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
260 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
261 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
262 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed,
263 or as required to translate it into languages other than English.
282 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 5]