nss_ldap
nss_ldap(5) nss_ldap(5)
NAME
nss_ldap - LDAP nameservice provider
DESCRIPTION
The nss_ldap module is a set of C library extensions which allows
X.500 and LDAP directory servers to be used as a primary source of
name service information. (Name service information typically includes
users, hosts, groups, and other such data historically stored in flat
files or NIS.)
Features of the PADL nss_ldap module include support for both the RFC
2307 and RFC 2307bis schema, a common implementation across multiple
platforms, Kerberos and SSL security, configurable schema mapping, and
configuration file compatibility with the pam_ldap(5) module.
Because LDAP is a hierarchical directory service, one can distribute
the information in a manner which reflects organizational structure.
This contrasts with the flat, single domain policy of NIS. LDAP has
many of the advantages of NIS+ (security and scalability) without the
complexity.
nss_ldap will work alongside existing NIS, NIS+, DNS and flat file
name services. More importantly, because it builds as a shared
library, it is not necessary to recompile any applications to take
advantage of LDAP.
The present version of nss_ldap supports AIX 4.3.3 and above, FreeBSD
5.1, HP-UX 11i, Linux and Solaris 2.6 and above. Many vendors provide
their own LDAP nameservice providers, often also called nss_ldap. This
manual page applies to the PADL nss_ldap module only. If you are using
a vendor provided module, consult the relevant documentation instead.
The features supported by the version of nss_ldap depend on which
flags were enabled when the software was built. Most features are
enabled in the configuration file, described below. (The location of
the configuration file is configurable at compile time; the default
path is /etc/ldap.conf.) Also, some features may be unavailable on
certain operating systems or with certain LDAP libraries. For more
information, consult your vendor.
CONFIGURATION
nss_ldap stores its configuration in the ldap.conf file, the location
of which is configurable at compile time. (It should be noted that
some LDAP client libraries, such as OpenLDAP, also use a configuration
file of the same name. nss_ldap supports many of the same configura-
tion file options as OpenLDAP, but it adds several that are specific
to the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is not guaranteed
that nss_ldap will continue to match the configuration file semantics
of OpenLDAP. You may wish to use different files.)
Configuration file options consist of a keyword followed by a space
and any arguments. The following options are supported by both
nss_ldap and the PADL pam_ldap module:
host <name:port ...>
Specifies the name(s) or IP address(es) of the LDAP server(s)
to connect to. In the case that nss_ldap is used for host name
resolution, each server should be specified as an IP address or
name that can be resolved without using LDAP. Multiple servers
may be specified, each separated by a space. The failover time
depends on whether the LDAP client library supports config-
urable network or connect timeouts (see bind_timelimit below).
base <base>
Specifies the default base distinguished name (DN) to use for
searches.
uri <ldap[is]://[name[:port]] ...>
For LDAP client libraries that support it, specifies the URI(s)
of the LDAP server(s) to connect to. The URI scheme may be
ldap, ldapi, or ldaps, specifying LDAP over TCP, IPC and SSL
respectively. If applicable, a port number can be specified;
the default port number for the selected protocol is used if
omitted. This option takes precedence over the host option; it
is not possible to combine the two.
ldap_version <version>
Specifies the version of the LDAP protocol to use. Presently
version must be 2 or 3. The default is to use the maximum ver-
sion supported by the client library.
binddn <binddn>
Specifies the distinguished name with which to bind to the
directory server(s). This option is optional; the default is to
bind anonymously.
bindpw <bindpw>
Specifies the cleartext credentials with which to bind. This
option is only applicable when used with binddn above. The
default is no credential (anonymous bind). When binding to the
directory using SASL or other authentication mechanisms apart
from simple binds, this option is not used.
rootbinddn <binddn>
This option has the same syntax and effect as the binddn option
above, except it applies when the effective user ID is zero. If
not specified, then the identity specified in binddn is used
instead. Because the configuration file may be readable by many
users, the root bind DN credentials are stored in the
ldap.secret file instead. This file is usually in the same
directory as the configuration file.
port <port>
Specifies the port to connect to; this option is used with the
host option, and is ignored with the uri option.
scope <sub|one|base>
Specifies the search scope (subtree, one level or base object).
The default scope is subtree; base scope is almost never useful
for nameservice lookups.
deref <never|searching|finding|always>
Specifies the policy for dereferencing aliases. The default
policy is to never dereference aliases.
timelimit <timelimit>
Specifies the time limit (in seconds) to use when performing
searches. A value of zero (0), which is the default, is to wait
indefinitely for searches to be completed.
bind_timelimit <timelimit>
Specifies the time limit (in seconds) to use when connecting to
the directory server. This is distinct from the time limit
specified in timelimit and affects the initial server connec-
tion only. (Server connections are otherwise cached.) Only some
LDAP client libraries have the underlying functionality neces-
sary to support this option. The default bind timelimit is 30
seconds.
referrals <yes|no>
Specifies whether automatic referral chasing should be enabled.
The default behaviour is specifed by the LDAP client library.
restart <yes|no>
Specifies whether the LDAP client library should restart the
select(2) system call when interrupted. This feature is not
supported by all client libraries.
logdir <directory>
Specifies the directory used for logging by the LDAP client
library. This feature is not supported by all client libraries.
debug <level>
Specifies the debug level used for logging by the LDAP client
library. This feature is not supported by all client libraries,
and does not apply to the nss_ldap and pam_ldap modules them-
selves (debugging, if any, is configured separately and usually
at compile time).
ssl <on|off|start_tls>
Specifies whether to use SSL/TLS or not (the default is not
to). If start_tls is specified then StartTLS is used rather
than raw LDAP over SSL. Not all LDAP client libraries support
both SSL and StartTLS, and all related configuration options.
sslpath <cert7_path>
For the Netscape and Mozilla LDAP client libraries only, this
specifies the path to the X.509 certificate database.
tls_checkpeer <yes|no>
Specifies whether to require and verify the server certificate
or not, when using SSL/TLS with the OpenLDAP client library.
The default is to use the default behaviour of the client
library; for OpenLDAP 2.0 and earlier it is "no", for OpenLDAP
2.1 and later it is "yes". At least one of tls_cacertdir and
tls_cacertfile is required if peer verification is enabled.
tls_cacertdir <certificate_dir>
Specifies the directory containing X.509 certificates for peer
authentication.
tls_cacertfile <certificate_file>
Specifies the path to the X.509 certificate for peer authenti-
cation.
tls_randfile <entropy_file>
Specifies the path to an entropy source.
tls_ciphers <ciphers>
Specifies the ciphers to use for TLS. See your TLS implementa-
tion’s documentation for further information.
tls_cert <certificate_file>
Specifies the path to the file containing the local certificate
for client TLS authentication.
tls_key <key_file>
Specifies the path to the file containing the private key for
client TLS authentication.
The following configuration options apply to nss_ldap only:
bind_policy <hard_open|hard_init|soft>
Specifies the policy to use for reconnecting to an unavailable
LDAP server. The default is hard_open, which reconnects if
opening the connection to the directory server failed. By con-
trast, hard_init reconnects if initializing the connection
failed. Initializing may not actually contact the directory
server, and it is possible that a malformed configuration file
will trigger reconnection. If soft is specified, then nss_ldap
will return immediately on server failure. All "hard" reconnect
policies block with exponential backoff before retrying.
nss_connect_policy <persist|oneshot>
Determines whether nss_ldap persists connections. The default
is for the connection to the LDAP server to remain open after
the first request.
idle_timelimit <timelimit>
Specifies the time (in seconds) after which nss_ldap will close
connections to the directory server. The default is not to time
out connections.
sasl_authid <authid>
Specifies the authorization identity to be used when performing
SASL authentication.
rootsasl_auth_id <authid>
Specifies the authorization identity to be used when performing
SASL authentication as root (when the effective user ID is
zero).
sasl_secprops <properties>
Specifies Cyrus SASL security properties. Allowed values are
described in the ldap.conf(5) manual page.
rootuse_sasl <yes|no>
Specifies whether SASL authentication should be used when the
effective user ID is zero.
krb5_ccname <PREFIX:args>
If nss_ldap is built with configurable GSS-API credentials
cache name support, specifies the Kerberos credentials cache to
use.
nss_paged_results <yes|no>
Enables support for paged results.
pagesize <pagesize>
When paged results are enabled (see above), specifies the num-
ber of entries to return in a single page. The default is 1000.
nss_base_<map> <basedn?scope?filter>
Specify the search base, scope and filter to be used for spe-
cific maps. (Note that map forms part of the configuration file
keyword and is one of passwd, shadow, group, hosts, services,
networks, protocols, rpc, ethers, netmasks, bootparams, aliases
and netgroup.) The syntax of basedn and scope are the same as
for the configuration file options of the same name, with the
addition of being able to omit the trailing suffix of the base
DN (in which case the global base DN will be appended instead).
The filter is a search filter to be added to the default search
filter for a specific map, such that the effective filter is
the logical intersection of the two. The base DN, scope and
filter are separated with literal question marks (?) as given
above; this is for compatibility with the DUA configuration
profile schema and the ldapprofile tool. This option may be
specified multiple times.
nss_map_attribute <from_attribute> <to_attribute>
This option may be specified multiple times, and directs
nss_ldap to use the attribute to_attribute instead of the RFC
2307 attribute from_attribute in all lookups. If nss_ldap was
built without schema mapping support, then this option is
ignored.
nss_map_objectclass <from_objectclass> <to_objectclass>
This option may be specified multiple times, and directs
nss_ldap to use the object class to_objectclass instead of the
RFC 2307 object class from_objectclass in all lookups. If
nss_ldap was built without schema mapping support, then this
option is ignored.
nss_default_attribute_value <attribute> <value>
Specifies the default value to use for entries that lack the
specified attribute. This option may be specified multiple
times, for different attributes. If nss_ldap was built without
schema mapping support, then this option is ignored.
nss_override_attribute_value <attribute> <value>
Specifies a value to use for the specified attribute in prefer-
ence to that contained in the actual entry. This option may be
specified multiple times, for different attributes. If
nss_ldap was built without schema mapping support, then this
option is ignored.
nss_schema <rfc2307bis|rfc2307>
If the value of this option is rfc2307bis then support for the
RFC2307bis schema (distinguished names in groups) will be
enabled.
nss_initgroups <backlink>
This option directs the nss_ldap implementation of init-
groups(3) to determine a user’s group membership by reading the
memberOf attribute of their directory entry (and of any nested
groups), rather than querying on uniqueMember. This may provide
increased performance with certain directory servers that have
peculiar indexing configurations. If RFC2307bis support is
disabled, then this option is ignored.
nss_initgroups_ignoreusers <user1,user2,...,userN>
This option directs the nss_ldap implementation of init-
groups(3) to return NSS_STATUS_NOTFOUND if called with a listed
users as its argument.
nss_srv_domain <domain>
This option determines the DNS domain used for performing SRV
lookups.
AUTHOR
The nss_ldap module was developed by PADL Software Pty Ltd
(www.padl.com).
FILES
/etc/ldap.conf, /etc/ldap.secret, /etc/nsswitch.conf
SEE ALSO
nsswitch.conf(5)
nss_ldap(5)
