-# Copyright 1999-2005, The OpenLDAP Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
+# Copyright 1999-2006 The OpenLDAP Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
# COPYING RESTRICTIONS APPLY, see COPYRIGHT.
H1: Using SASL
The LDAP administrator will need to tell the slapd server how to
map an authentication request DN to a user's authentication DN.
-This is done by adding one or more {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directives to
+This is done by adding one or more {{EX:authz-regexp}} directives to
the {{slapd.conf}}(5) file. This directive takes two arguments:
-> sasl-regexp <search pattern> <replacement pattern>
+> authz-regexp <search pattern> <replacement pattern>
The authentication request DN is compared to the search pattern
using the regular expression functions {{regcomp}}() and {{regexec}}(),
and if it matches, it is rewritten as the replacement pattern. If
-there are multiple {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directives, only the first
+there are multiple {{EX:authz-regexp}} directives, only the first
whose search pattern matches the authentication identity is used.
The string that is output from the replacement pattern should be
the authentication DN of the user or an LDAP URL. If replacement
> uid=adamson,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
-then the following {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directive in {{slapd.conf}}(5)
+then the following {{EX:authz-regexp}} directive in {{slapd.conf}}(5)
would provide for direct mapping.
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,]*),cn=example.com,cn=gssapi,cn=auth
> uid=$1,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
An even more lenient rule could be written as
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,]*),cn=[^,]*,cn=auth
> uid=$1,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
security holes. If there is only one authentication mechanism in
place at your site, and zero or one realms in use, you might be
able to map between authentication identities and LDAP DN's with a
-single {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directive.
+single {{EX:authz-regexp}} directive.
Don't forget to allow for the case where the realm is omitted as
well as the case with an explicitly specified realm. This may well
-require a separate {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directive for each case, with
+require a separate {{EX:authz-regexp}} directive for each case, with
the explicit-realm entry being listed first.
H3: Search-based mappings
The information in the authentication request DN is insufficient
to allow the user's DN to be directly derived, instead the user's
DN must be searched for. For these situations, a replacement pattern
-which produces a LDAP URL can be used in the {{EX:sasl-regexp}}
+which produces a LDAP URL can be used in the {{EX:authz-regexp}}
directives. This URL will then be used to perform an internal
search of the LDAP database to find the person's authentication DN.
Suppose that the person in the example from above did in fact have
an authentication username of "adamson" and that information was
-kept in the attribute "uid" in their LDAP entry. The {{EX:sasl-regexp}}
+kept in the attribute "uid" in their LDAP entry. The {{EX:authz-regexp}}
directive might be written as
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,]*),cn=example.com,cn=gssapi,cn=auth
> ldap:///ou=people,dc=example,dc=com??one?(uid=$1)
statements of the form:
> # Match Engineering realm
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,]*),cn=engineering.example.com,cn=digest-md5,cn=auth
> ldap:///dc=eng,dc=example,dc=com??one?(&(uid=$1)(objectClass=person))
>
> # Match Accounting realm
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,].*),cn=accounting.example.com,cn=digest-md5,cn=auth
> ldap:///dc=accounting,dc=example,dc=com??one?(&(uid=$1)(objectClass=person))
>
> # Default realm is customers.example.com
-> sasl-regexp
+> authz-regexp
> uid=([^,]*),cn=digest-md5,cn=auth
> ldap:///dc=customers,dc=example,dc=com??one?(&(uid=$1)(objectClass=person))
> uid=<username>,cn=<realm>,cn=<mechanism>,cn=auth
That authorization request DN is then run through the same
-{{EX:sasl-regexp}} process to convert it into a legitimate authorization
+{{EX:authz-regexp}} process to convert it into a legitimate authorization
DN from the database. If it cannot be converted due to a failed
search from an LDAP URL, the authorization request fails with
"inappropriate access". Otherwise, the DN string is now a legitimate
begins. There are two attributes that the LDAP administrator can
put into LDAP entries to allow authorization:
-> saslAuthzTo
-> saslAuthzFrom
+> authzTo
+> authzFrom
-Both can be multivalued. The {{EX:saslAuthzTo}} attribute is a
+Both can be multivalued. The {{EX:authzTo}} attribute is a
source rule, and it is placed into the entry associated with the
authentication DN to tell what authorization DNs the authenticated
DN is allowed to assume. The second attribute is a destination
The choice of which authorization policy attribute to use is up to
the administrator. Source rules are checked first in the person's
-authentication DN entry, and if none of the {{EX:saslAuthzTo}} rules
-specify the authorization is permitted, the {{EX:saslAuthzFrom}}
+authentication DN entry, and if none of the {{EX:authzTo}} rules
+specify the authorization is permitted, the {{EX:authzFrom}}
rules in the authorization DN entry are then checked. If neither
case specifies that the request be honored, the request is denied.
Since the default behaviour is to deny authorization requests, rules
telling what authorizations to deny.
The value(s) in the two attributes are of the same form as the
-output of the replacement pattern of a {{EX:sasl-regexp}} directive:
-either a DN or an LDAP URL. For example, if a {{EX:saslAuthzTo}}
+output of the replacement pattern of a {{EX:authz-regexp}} directive:
+either a DN or an LDAP URL. For example, if a {{EX:authzTo}}
value is a DN, that DN is one the authenticated user can authorize
-to. On the other hand, if the {{EX:saslAuthzTo}} value is an LDAP
+to. On the other hand, if the {{EX:authzTo}} value is an LDAP
URL, the URL is used as an internal search of the LDAP database,
and the authenticated user can become ANY DN returned by the search.
If an LDAP entry looked like:
> dn: cn=WebUpdate,dc=example,dc=com
-> saslAuthzTo: ldap:///dc=example,dc=com??sub?(objectclass=person)
+> authzTo: ldap:///dc=example,dc=com??sub?(objectclass=person)
then any user who authenticated as {{EX:cn=WebUpdate,dc=example,dc=com}}
could authorize to any other LDAP entry under the search base
H4: Notes on Proxy Authorization Rules
-An LDAP URL in a {{EX:saslAuthzTo}} or {{EX:saslAuthzFrom}} attribute
+An LDAP URL in a {{EX:authzTo}} or {{EX:authzFrom}} attribute
will return a set of DNs. Each DN returned will be checked. Searches
which return a large set can cause the authorization process to
take an uncomfortably long time. Also, searches should be performed
on attributes that have been indexed by slapd.
-To help produce more sweeping rules for {{EX:saslAuthzFrom}} and
-{{EX:saslAuthzTo}}, the values of these attributes are allowed to
+To help produce more sweeping rules for {{EX:authzFrom}} and
+{{EX:authzTo}}, the values of these attributes are allowed to
be DNs with regular expression characters in them. This means a
source rule like
-> saslAuthzTo: uid=[^,]*,dc=example,dc=com
+> authzTo: uid=[^,]*,dc=example,dc=com
would allow that authenticated user to authorize to any DN that
matches the regular expression pattern given. This regular expression
H4: Policy Configuration
-The decision of which type of rules to use, {{EX:saslAuthzFrom}}
-or {{EX:saslAuthzTo}}, will depend on the site's situation. For
+The decision of which type of rules to use, {{EX:authzFrom}}
+or {{EX:authzTo}}, will depend on the site's situation. For
example, if the set of people who may become a given identity can
easily be written as a search filter, then a single destination
rule could be written. If the set of people is not easily defined
should be allowed to perform the proxy authorization.
By default, processing of proxy authorization rules is disabled.
-The {{EX:sasl-authz-policy}} directive must be set in the
+The {{EX:authz-policy}} directive must be set in the
{{slapd.conf}}(5) file to enable authorization. This directive can
be set to {{EX:none}} for no rules (the default), {{EX:from}} for
source rules, {{EX:to}} for destination rules, or {{EX:both}} for
both source and destination rules.
Destination rules are extremely powerful. If ordinary users have
-access to write the {{EX:saslAuthzTo}} attribute in their own
+access to write the {{EX:authzTo}} attribute in their own
entries, then they can write rules that would allow them to authorize
as anyone else. As such, when using destination rules, the
-{{EX:saslAuthzTo}} attribute should be protected with an ACL that
+{{EX:authzTo}} attribute should be protected with an ACL that
only allows privileged users to set its values.