7 INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
8 Intended Category: Standard Track OpenLDAP Foundation
9 Expires in six months 25 October 2003
12 The LDAP Assertion Control
13 <draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01.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 IESG for consideration as a Standard Track
23 document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical
24 discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP
25 Extensions mailing list <ldapext@ietf.org>. Please send editorial
26 comments directly to the 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 This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
50 Assertion Control which allows a client to specify that a directory
51 operation should only be processed if an assertion applied to the
52 target entry of the operation is true. It can be used to construct
53 "test and set" and "test and clear" and other conditional operations.
58 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 1]
60 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01 25 October 2003
65 This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
66 [RFC3377] assertion control. The assertion control allows the client
67 to specify a condition which must be true for the operation to be
68 processed normally. Otherwise the operation fails.
70 The control can be used with the Modify operation [RFC2251] to perform
71 atomic "test and set" and "test and clear" operations as the asserted
72 condition is evaluated as an integral part the operation. The control
73 may be attached to other update operations to support conditional add,
74 delete, and renaming of objects.
76 The control may also be used with the search operation. Here the
77 assertion is applied to the base object of the search before searching
78 for objects matching the search scope and filter.
80 The control may also be used with the compare operation. Here it
81 extends the compare operation to allow a more complex assertion.
86 Protocol elements are described using ASN.1 [X.680] with implicit
87 tags. The term "BER-encoded" means the element is to be encoded using
88 the Basic Encoding Rules [X.690] under the restrictions detailed in
89 Section 5.1 of [RFC2251].
91 DSA stands for Directory System Agent (or server).
92 DSE stands for DSA-specific Entry.
94 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
95 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
96 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
99 3. The Assertion Control
101 The assertion control is an LDAP Control [RFC2251] whose controlType
102 is IANA-ASSIGNED-OID and controlValue is a BER-encoded Filter
103 [RFC2251, Section 4.5.1]. The criticality may be TRUE or FALSE.
104 There is no corresponding response control.
106 The control is appropriate for both LDAP interrogation and update
107 operations [RFC2251] including Add, Compare, Delete, Modify, ModifyDN
108 (rename), and Search. It is inappropriate for Abandon, Bind nor
109 Unbind operations. It is also inappropriate for the Start TLS
114 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 2]
116 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01 25 October 2003
119 When the control is attached to an LDAP request, the processing of the
120 request is conditional on the evaluation of the Filter as applied
121 against the target of the operation. If the Filter evaluates to TRUE,
122 then the request is processed normally. If the Filter evaluates to
123 FALSE or Undefined, then assertionFailed (IANA-ASSIGNED-CODE)
124 resultCode is returned and no further processing is performed.
126 For Add, Compare, and ModifyDN the target is indicated by the entry
127 field in the request. For Modify, the target is indicated by the
128 object field. For Delete, the target is indicated by the DelRequest
129 type. For the Compare operation and all update operations, the
130 evaluation of the assertion MUST be performed as an integral part of
131 the operation. That is, the evaluation of the assertion and the
132 normal processing of the operation SHALL be done as one atomic action.
134 For search operation, the target is indicated by the baseObject field
135 and the evaluation is done after "finding" but before "searching"
136 [RFC2251]. Hence, if the evaluation fails, no entries or
137 continuations references are returned.
139 Servers implementing this technical specification SHOULD publish the
140 object identifier IANA-ASSIGNED-OID as a value of the
141 'supportedControl' attribute [RFC2252] in their root DSE. A server
142 MAY choose to advertise this extension only when the client is
143 authorized to use it.
145 Other documents may specify how this control applies to other LDAP
146 operations. In doing so, they must state how the target entry is
150 4. Security Considerations
152 The filter may, like other components of the request, contain
153 sensitive information. When so, this information should be
154 appropriately protected.
156 As with any general assertion mechanism, the mechanism can be used to
157 determine directory content. Hence, the mechanism SHOULD be subject
158 to appropriate access controls.
160 Some assertions may be very complex, requiring significant time and
161 resources to evaluate. Hence, the mechanism SHOULD be subject to
162 appropriate administrative controls.
164 All security considerations for the base operations [RFC2251] to which
165 this control is attached to apply, as do general LDAP security
166 considerations [RFC3377].
170 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 3]
172 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01 25 October 2003
175 5. IANA Considerations
177 5.1. Object Identifier
179 It is requested that IANA assign upon Standards Action an LDAP Object
180 Identifier [RFC3383] to identify the LDAP Assertion Control defined in
183 Subject: Request for LDAP Object Identifier Registration
184 Person & email address to contact for further information:
185 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@OpenLDAP.org>
186 Specification: RFC XXXX
187 Author/Change Controller: IESG
189 Identifies the LDAP Assertion Control
191 5.2 LDAP Protocol Mechanism
193 Registration of this protocol mechanism [RFC3383] is requested.
195 Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration
196 Object Identifier: IANA-ASSIGNED-OID
197 Description: Assertion Control
198 Person & email address to contact for further information:
199 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
201 Specification: RFC XXXX
202 Author/Change Controller: IESG
208 Assignment of an LDAP Result Code [RFC3383] called 'assertionFailed'
211 Subject: LDAP Result Code Registration
212 Person & email address to contact for further information:
213 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@OpenLDAP.org>
214 Result Code Name: assertionFailed
215 Specification: RFC XXXX
216 Author/Change Controller: IESG
222 The assertion control concept is attributed to Morteza Ansari.
226 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 4]
228 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01 25 October 2003
238 8. Normative References
240 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
241 Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997.
243 [RFC2251] Wahl, M., T. Howes and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory
244 Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.
246 [RFC2252] Wahl, M., A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, and S. Kille,
247 "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute
248 Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997.
250 [RFC3377] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
251 Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
255 9. Informative References
257 [RFC3383] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP", BCP 64
258 (also RFC 3383), September 2002.
262 Intellectual Property Rights
264 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
265 intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain
266 to the implementation or use of the technology described in this
267 document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or
268 might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any
269 effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's
270 procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
271 standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
272 claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
273 licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
274 obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary
275 rights by implementors or users of this specification can be obtained
276 from the IETF Secretariat.
278 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
282 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 5]
284 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-01 25 October 2003
287 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
288 rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice
289 this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive
296 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
298 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
299 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
300 or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and
301 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
302 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
303 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
304 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
305 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
306 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
307 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
308 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed,
309 or as required to translate it into languages other than English.
338 Zeilenga LDAP Assertion Control [Page 6]