7 INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
8 Intended Category: Standard Track OpenLDAP Foundation
9 Expires in six months 11 May 2003
12 The LDAP Assertion Control
13 <draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-00.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 Working Group mailing list <ldapext@ietf.org>. Please send
26 editorial 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
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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 the assertion when applied to
52 the target entry of the operation. It can be used to construct "test
53 and set" and "test and clear" operations.
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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 allows the operation to be processed
68 normally only when true. 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 the
72 asserted condition is evaluated as an integral part the operation.
73 The control may be attached to other update operations to support
74 conditional add, 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]. The term
87 "BER-encoded" means the element is to be encoded using the Basic
88 Encoding Rules [X.690] under the restrictions detailed in Section 5.1
91 DN stands for Distinguished Name.
92 DSA stands for Directory System Agent (i.e., a directory server).
93 DSE stands for DSA-specific Entry.
95 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
96 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
97 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
100 3. The Assertion Control
102 The assertion control is an LDAP Control [RFC2251] whose controlType
103 is IANA-ASSIGNED-OID and controlValue is a BER-encoded Filter
104 [RFC2251, Section 4.5.1]. The criticality may be TRUE or FALSE.
105 There is no corresponding response control.
107 Servers implementing this technical specification SHOULD publish
108 IANA-ASSIGNED-OID as a value of the 'supportedControl' attribute
109 [RFC2252] in their root DSE.
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119 The control is appropriate for both LDAP interrogation and update
120 operations [RFC2251] including Add, Compare, Delete, Modify, ModifyDN
121 (rename), and Search. It is not appropriate for Abandon, Bind nor
122 Unbind operations. Nor is it appropriate for the Start TLS [RFC2830]
125 When the control is attached to an LDAP request, the processing of the
126 request is conditional on the evaluation of the Filter as applied
127 against the target of the operation. If the Filter evaluates to TRUE,
128 then the request is processed normally. If the Filter evaluates to
129 FALSE, then assertionFailed (IANA-ASSIGNED-CODE) resultCode is
130 returned and no further processing is performed.
132 For Add, Compare, and ModifyDN the target is indicated by the entry
133 field in the request. For Modify, the target is indicated by the
134 object field. For Delete, the target is indicated by the DelRequest
135 type. For the Compare operation and all update operations, the
136 evaluation of the assertion MUST be performed as an integral part of
137 the operation. That is, the evaluation of the assertion and the
138 normal processing SHALL be done as one atomic action.
140 For search operation, the target is indicated by the baseObject field
141 and the evaluation is done after "finding" but before "searching"
142 [RFC2251]. Hence, if the evaluation fails, no entries or
143 continuations references are returned.
145 Other documents may specify how this control applies to other LDAP
146 operations. In doing so, they must how the target entry is
150 3. Security Considerations
152 The filter may, like other values of the request, contain sensitive
153 information. When so, this information should be appropriately
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].
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175 4. IANA Considerations
177 4.1. Object Identifier
179 It is requested that IANA register upon Standards Action an LDAP
180 Object Identifier [RFC3383] to identify the LDAP Assertion Control
181 defined in this document.
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 4.2 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-00 11 May 2003
238 7. 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 8. Informative References
257 [RFC3383] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP", BCP 64
258 (also RFC 3383), September 2002.
262 Intellectual Property Rights
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276 from the IETF Secretariat.
278 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
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284 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-assert-00 11 May 2003
287 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
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289 this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive
296 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
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