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NAME

       slapd-ldap - LDAP backend to slapd

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/ldap/slapd.conf

DESCRIPTION

       The LDAP backend to slapd(8) is not an actual database; instead it acts
       as a proxy to forward incoming requests to another LDAP  server.  While
       processing requests it will also chase referrals, so that referrals are
       fully processed instead of being returned to the slapd client.

       Sessions that explicitly Bind to the back-ldap database  always  create
       their  own  private  connection  to  the  remote LDAP server. Anonymous
       sessions will share a single anonymous connection to the remote server.
       For sessions bound through other mechanisms, all sessions with the same
       DN will share the same connection. This connection pooling strategy can
       enhance  the  proxy's efficiency by reducing the overhead of repeatedly
       making/breaking multiple connections.

       The ldap database can also act as  an  information  service,  i.e.  the
       identity  of  locally  authenticated  clients is asserted to the remote
       server, possibly in some modified form.  For this  purpose,  the  proxy
       binds  to  the remote server with some administrative identity, and, if
       required, authorizes the asserted identity.  See the  idassert-*  rules
       below.  The administrative identity of the proxy, on the remote server,
       must be allowed to authorize by means of appropriate authzTo rules; see
       slapd.conf(5) for details.

       The  proxy instance of slapd(8) must contain schema information for the
       attributes and objectClasses used in filters, request DN  and  request-
       related data in general.  It should also contain schema information for
       the data returned by the proxied server.  It is the  responsibility  of
       the  proxy  administrator to keep the schema of the proxy lined up with
       that of the proxied server.

       Note: When  looping  back  to  the  same  instance  of  slapd(8),  each
       connection  requires  a  new thread; as a consequence, slapd(8) must be
       compiled with thread support, and the threads parameter may  need  some
       tuning;  in those cases, one may consider using slapd-relay(5) instead,
       which performs the relayed operation internally  and  thus  reuses  the
       same connection.

CONFIGURATION

       These  slapd.conf options apply to the LDAP backend database.  That is,
       they must follow a "database ldap" line and come before any  subsequent
       "backend" or "database" lines.  Other database options are described in
       the slapd.conf(5) manual page.

       Note: In early versions of back-ldap it was recommended to always set

              lastmod  off

       for ldap and meta databases.  This  was  required  because  operational
       attributes  related  to  entry  creation and modification should not be
       proxied, as they could be mistakenly written to the  target  server(s),
       generating  an  error.   The  current implementation automatically sets
       lastmod to off, so its use is redundant and should be omitted.

       uri <ldapurl>
              LDAP server to use.  Multiple  URIs  can  be  set  in  a  single
              ldapurl   argument,   resulting   in   the   underlying  library
              automatically call the first server of the list  that  responds,
              e.g.

              uri "ldap://host/ ldap://backup-host/"

              The  URI list is space- or comma-separated.  Whenever the server
              that responds is not the first one in  the  list,  the  list  is
              rearranged  and  the  responsive server is moved to the head, so
              that it will be first contacted the next time a connection needs
              be created.

       acl-bind        bindmethod=simple|sasl       [binddn=<simple       DN>]
              [credentials=<simple    password>]    [saslmech=<SASL     mech>]
              [secprops=<properties>] [realm=<realm>] [authcId=<authentication
              ID>]  [authzId=<authorization  ID>]   [starttls=no|yes|critical]
              [tls_cert=<file>]      [tls_key=<file>]      [tls_cacert=<file>]
              [tls_cacertdir=<path>]      [tls_reqcert=never|allow|try|demand]
              [tls_ciphersuite=<ciphers>]         [tls_protocol_min=<version>]
              [tls_crlcheck=none|peer|all]
              Allows to define the parameters  of  the  authentication  method
              that  is internally used by the proxy to collect info related to
              access control,  and  whenever  an  operation  occurs  with  the
              identity of the rootdn of the LDAP proxy database.  The identity
              defined  by  this  directive,  according   to   the   properties
              associated  to  the  authentication  method, is supposed to have
              read access on the target server to attributes used on the proxy
              for ACL checking.

              There  is no risk of giving away such values; they are only used
              to check permissions.  The default is to use simple  bind,  with
              empty  binddn  and  credentials,  which  means  that the related
              operations will be performed anonymously.  If not  set,  and  if
              idassert-bind  is defined, this latter identity is used instead.
              See idassert-bind for details.

              The connection between the proxy database and the remote  server
              associated to this identity is cached regardless of the lifespan
              of the client-proxy connection that first established it.

              This identity is by no means implicitly used by the  proxy  when
              the  client  connects  anonymously.   The idassert-bind feature,
              instead,  in  some  cases  can  be  crafted  to  implement  that
              behavior,  which is intrinsically unsafe and should be used with
              extreme  care.   This  directive  obsoletes   acl-authcDN,   and
              acl-passwd.

              The  TLS  settings  default  to  the  same as the main slapd TLS
              settings, except for tls_reqcert which defaults to "demand".

       cancel {ABANDON|ignore|exop[-discover]}
              Defines how  to  handle  operation  cancellation.   By  default,
              abandon  is  invoked, so the operation is abandoned immediately.
              If set to ignore, no action is taken and any further response is
              ignored;  this  may  result  in  further response messages to be
              queued for that connection,  so  it  is  recommended  that  long
              lasting  connections  are  timed  out  either by idle-timeout or
              conn-ttl, so that resources eventually get released.  If set  to
              exop,  a cancel operation (RFC 3909) is issued, resulting in the
              cancellation of the  current  operation;  the  cancel  operation
              waits  for  remote  server  response,  so  its  use  may  not be
              recommended.  If set to exop-discover,  support  of  the  cancel
              extended  operation  is  detected by reading the remote server's
              root DSE.

       chase-referrals {YES|no}
              enable/disable automatic referral chasing, which is delegated to
              the  underlying  libldap, with rebinding eventually performed if
              the rebind-as-user directive is used.  The default is  to  chase
              referrals.

       conn-ttl <time>
              This  directive  causes  a  cached  connection  to be dropped an
              recreated after a given ttl, regardless of being idle or not.

       idassert-authzFrom <authz-regexp>
              if defined, selects what  local  identities  are  authorized  to
              exploit  the  identity  assertion  feature.   The string <authz-
              regexp> follows the rules defined for the  authzFrom  attribute.
              See  slapd.conf(5), section related to authz-policy, for details
              on the syntax of this field.

       idassert-bind    bindmethod=none|simple|sasl    [binddn=<simple    DN>]
              [credentials=<simple     password>]    [saslmech=<SASL    mech>]
              [secprops=<properties>] [realm=<realm>] [authcId=<authentication
              ID>]  [authzId=<authorization  ID>]  [authz={native|proxyauthz}]
              [mode=<mode>]     [flags=<flags>]     [starttls=no|yes|critical]
              [tls_cert=<file>]      [tls_key=<file>]      [tls_cacert=<file>]
              [tls_cacertdir=<path>]      [tls_reqcert=never|allow|try|demand]
              [tls_ciphersuite=<ciphers>]         [tls_protocol_min=<version>]
              [tls_crlcheck=none|peer|all]
              Allows to define the parameters  of  the  authentication  method
              that  is  internally  used by the proxy to authorize connections
              that are authenticated by other databases.  The identity defined
              by this directive, according to the properties associated to the
              authentication method, is supposed to have auth  access  on  the
              target server to attributes used on the proxy for authentication
              and authorization, and to be allowed  to  authorize  the  users.
              This  requires  to  have  proxyAuthz privileges on a wide set of
              DNs, e.g.  authzTo=dn.subtree:"", and the remote server to  have
              authz-policy  set  to to or both.  See slapd.conf(5) for details
              on these statements and for remarks and  drawbacks  about  their
              usage.  The supported bindmethods are

              none|simple|sasl

              where  none  is  the  default,  i.e.  no  identity  assertion is
              performed.

              The authz parameter is used to instruct the SASL bind to exploit
              native  SASL  authorization, if available; since connections are
              cached, this should only be used when authorizing with  a  fixed
              identity  (e.g.  by means of the authzDN or authzID parameters).
              Otherwise, the default proxyauthz is used, i.e.  the  proxyAuthz
              control  (Proxied  Authorization,  RFC  4370)  is  added  to all
              operations.

              The supported modes are:

              <mode> := {legacy|anonymous|none|self}

              If <mode> is not present, and authzId is given, the proxy always
              authorizes that identity.  <authorization ID> can be

              u:<user>

              [dn:]<DN>

              The  former  is  supposed  to  be  expanded by the remote server
              according to the authz rules; see slapd.conf(5) for details.  In
              the  latter  case, whether or not the dn: prefix is present, the
              string must pass DN validation and normalization.

              The default mode is legacy, which implies that  the  proxy  will
              either  perform  a  simple bind as the authcDN or a SASL bind as
              the authcID and assert the client's  identity  when  it  is  not
              anonymous.   Direct  binds  are always proxied.  The other modes
              imply that the proxy will always either perform a simple bind as
              the  authcDN or a SASL bind as the authcID, unless restricted by
              idassert-authzFrom  rules  (see  below),  in  which   case   the
              operation  will  fail;  eventually,  it  will  assert some other
              identity according to <mode>.  Other  identity  assertion  modes
              are  anonymous  and self, which respectively mean that the empty
              or the client's identity will be  asserted;  none,  which  means
              that  no  proxyAuthz control will be used, so the authcDN or the
              authcID identity will be asserted.  For all modes  that  require
              the  use  of  the  proxyAuthz  control, on the remote server the
              proxy identity must have appropriate authzTo permissions, or the
              asserted identities must have appropriate authzFrom permissions.
              Note, however, that the ID assertion feature  is  mostly  useful
              when  the asserted identities do not exist on the remote server.

              Flags can be

              override,[non-]prescriptive,proxy-authz-[non-]critical

              When the override flag is used, identity assertion  takes  place
              even  when  the  database is authorizing for the identity of the
              client, i.e. after binding with the provided identity, and  thus
              authenticating  it,  the  proxy  performs the identity assertion
              using the configured identity and authentication method.

              When the prescriptive flag is  used  (the  default),  operations
              fail with inappropriateAuthentication for those identities whose
              assertion is not allowed by the idassert-authzFrom patterns.  If
              the  non-prescriptive  flag  is  used,  operations are performed
              anonymously for those identities whose assertion is not  allowed
              by the idassert-authzFrom patterns.

              When  the  proxy-authz-non-critical  flag is used (the default),
              the proxyAuthz control is not marked as critical,  in  violation
              of RFC 4370.  Use of proxy-authz-critical is recommended.

              The  TLS  settings  default  to  the  same as the main slapd TLS
              settings, except for tls_reqcert which defaults to "demand".

              The identity associated to  this  directive  is  also  used  for
              privileged  operations  whenever  idassert-bind  is  defined and
              acl-bind is not.  See acl-bind for details.

              This  directive  obsoletes  idassert-authcDN,   idassert-passwd,
              idassert-mode, and idassert-method.

       idassert-passthru <authz-regexp>
              if  defined,  selects  what local identities bypass the identity
              assertion feature.  Those identities need to  be  known  by  the
              remote  host.   The  string  <authz-regexp>  follows  the  rules
              defined for the authzFrom attribute.  See slapd.conf(5), section
              related  to  authz-policy,  for  details  on  the syntax of this
              field.

       idle-timeout <time>
              This directive causes a  cached  connection  to  be  dropped  an
              recreated after it has been idle for the specified time.

       network-timeout <time>
              Sets  the  network  timeout  value after which poll(2)/select(2)
              following a connect(2) returns in  case  of  no  activity.   The
              value   is   in   seconds,  and  it  can  be  specified  as  for
              idle-timeout.

       norefs <NO|yes>
              If yes, do not return search reference responses.   By  default,
              they are returned unless request is LDAPv2.

       noundeffilter <NO|yes>
              If  yes,  return  success  instead  of  searching if a filter is
              undefined or  contains  undefined  portions.   By  default,  the
              search  is  propagated  after  replacing undefined portions with
              (!(objectClass=*)), which corresponds to the empty result set.

       protocol-version {0,2,3}
              This directive indicates what protocol version must be  used  to
              contact the remote server.  If set to 0 (the default), the proxy
              uses the same protocol version used by the client, otherwise the
              requested    protocol    is    used.     The    proxy    returns
              unwillingToPerform if an operation that is incompatible with the
              requested protocol is attempted.

       proxy-whoami {NO|yes}
              Turns  on  proxying  of  the  WhoAmI extended operation. If this
              option is given, back-ldap will replace slapd's original  WhoAmI
              routine  with its own. On slapd sessions that were authenticated
              by back-ldap, the WhoAmI request will be forwarded to the remote
              LDAP  server. Other sessions will be handled by the local slapd,
              as before. This option is  mainly  useful  in  conjunction  with
              Proxy Authorization.

       quarantine <interval>,<num>[;<interval>,<num>[...]]
              Turns  on  quarantine of URIs that returned LDAP_UNAVAILABLE, so
              that an attempt to reconnect  only  occurs  at  given  intervals
              instead of any time a client requests an operation.  The pattern
              is: retry only after at least  interval  seconds  elapsed  since
              last  attempt, for exactly num times; then use the next pattern.
              If num  for  the  last  pattern  is  "+",  it  retries  forever;
              otherwise,  no more retries occur.  The process can be restarted
              by resetting the olcDbQuarantine attribute of the database entry
              in the configuration backend.

       rebind-as-user {NO|yes}
              If  this  option  is  given,  the  client's bind credentials are
              remembered for rebinds, when trying  to  re-establish  a  broken
              connection,  or  when  chasing a referral, if chase-referrals is
              set to yes.

       session-tracking-request {NO|yes}
              Adds session tracking control for all requests.  The client's IP
              and  hostname,  and  the identity associated to each request, if
              known, are sent to the remote server for informational purposes.
              This  directive is incompatible with setting protocol-version to
              2.

       single-conn {NO|yes}
              Discards current cached connection when the client rebinds.

       t-f-support {NO|yes|discover}
              enable if the  remote  server  supports  absolute  filters  (see
              draft-zeilenga-ldap-t-f  for  details).   If  set  to  discover,
              support is detected by reading the remote server's root DSE.

       timeout [<op>=]<val> [...]
              This directive allows to set per-operation timeouts.  Operations
              can be

              <op> ::= bind, add, delete, modrdn, modify, compare, search

              The  overall  duration  of  the  search  operation is controlled
              either by the timelimit parameter  or  by  server-side  enforced
              time  limits  (see  timelimit  and  limits  in slapd.conf(5) for
              details).  This timeout parameter controls how long  the  target
              can be irresponsive before the operation is aborted.  Timeout is
              meaningless for the remaining operations,  unbind  and  abandon,
              which do not imply any response, while it is not yet implemented
              in currently supported extended operations.  If no operation  is
              specified, the timeout val affects all supported operations.

              Note:  if  the timelimit is exceeded, the operation is cancelled
              (according to the  cancel  directive);  the  protocol  does  not
              provide any means to rollback operations, so the client will not
              be notified  about  the  result  of  the  operation,  which  may
              eventually  succeeded  or  not.  In case the timeout is exceeded
              during a bind operation, the connection is destroyed,  according
              to RFC4511.

              Note: in some cases, this backend may issue binds prior to other
              operations (e.g. to bind anonymously  or  with  some  prescribed
              identity  according  to  the  idassert-bind directive).  In this
              case, the timeout of the operation that resulted in the bind  is
              used.

       tls        {[try-]start|[try-]propagate|ldaps}        [tls_cert=<file>]
              [tls_key=<file>]   [tls_cacert=<file>]    [tls_cacertdir=<path>]
              [tls_reqcert=never|allow|try|demand] [tls_ciphersuite=<ciphers>]
              [tls_crlcheck=none|peer|all]
              Specify the use of TLS when a regular connection is initialized.
              The  StartTLS  extended  operation  will  be used unless the URI
              directive protocol scheme is ldaps://. In that case this keyword
              may  only  be set to "ldaps" and the StartTLS operation will not
              be used.  propagate issues the StartTLS operation  only  if  the
              original connection did.  The try- prefix instructs the proxy to
              continue operations if the StartTLS operation failed; its use is
              not recommended.

              The  TLS  settings  default  to  the  same as the main slapd TLS
              settings, except for tls_reqcert which defaults to "demand".

       use-temporary-conn {NO|yes}
              when  set  to  yes,  create  a  temporary  connection   whenever
              competing  with  other threads for a shared one; otherwise, wait
              until the shared connection is available.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY

       The LDAP backend has been heavily reworked  between  releases  2.2  and
       2.3,  and  subsequently between 2.3 and 2.4.  As a side-effect, some of
       the traditional directives have been deprecated and should be no longer
       used, as they might disappear in future releases.

       acl-authcDN <administrative DN for access control purposes>
              Formerly known as the binddn, it is the DN that is used to query
              the target server for acl checking; it is supposed to have  read
              access  on the target server to attributes used on the proxy for
              acl checking.  There is no risk of giving away such values; they
              are only used to check permissions.

              The  acl-authcDN  identity is by no means implicitly used by the
              proxy when the  client  connects  anonymously.   The  idassert-*
              feature can be used (at own risk) for that purpose instead.

              This  directive  is obsoleted by the binddn arg of acl-bind when
              bindmethod=simple, and will be dismissed in the future.

       acl-passwd <password>
              Formerly known as the bindpw, it is the password used  with  the
              above acl-authcDN directive.  This directive is obsoleted by the
              credentials arg of acl-bind when bindmethod=simple, and will  be
              dismissed in the future.

       idassert-authcDN <administrative DN for proxyAuthz purposes>
              DN  which  is  used  to  propagate  the client's identity to the
              target by means of the proxyAuthz control when the  client  does
              not  belong  to  the DIT fragment that is being proxied by back-
              ldap.   This  directive  is  obsoleted  by  the  binddn  arg  of
              idassert-bind  when  bindmethod=simple, and will be dismissed in
              the future.

       idassert-passwd <password>
              Password used with the idassert-authcDN above.   This  directive
              is  obsoleted  by  the  crendentials  arg  of idassert-bind when
              bindmethod=simple, and will be dismissed in the future.

       idassert-mode <mode> [<flags>]
              defines what type of identity assertion is used.  This directive
              is  obsoleted  by  the  mode  arg  of idassert-bind, and will be
              dismissed in the future.

       idassert-method <method> [<saslargs>]
              This  directive  is  obsoleted  by   the   bindmethod   arg   of
              idassert-bind, and will be dismissed in the future.

       port <port>
              this directive is no longer supported.  Use the uri directive as
              described above.

       server <hostname[:port]>
              this directive is no longer supported.  Use the uri directive as
              described above.

       suffixmassage, map, rewrite*
              These  directives  are  no  longer supported by back-ldap; their
              functionality is now delegated to the rwm overlay.  Essentially,
              add a statement

              overlay rwm

              first, and prefix all rewrite/map statements with rwm- to obtain
              the original behavior.  See slapo-rwm(5) for details.

ACCESS CONTROL

       The ldap backend does not honor  all  ACL  semantics  as  described  in
       slapd.access(5).   In  general,  access  checking  is  delegated to the
       remote server(s).  Only read (=r) access to the entry  pseudo-attribute
       and to the other attribute values of the entries returned by the search
       operation is honored, which is performed by the frontend.

OVERLAYS

       The LDAP  backend  provides  basic  proxying  functionalities  to  many
       overlays.   The  chain  overlay,  described  in slapo-chain(5), and the
       translucent  overlay,  described  in  slapo-translucent(5),  deserve  a
       special mention.

       Conversely,  there  are many overlays that are best used in conjunction
       with the LDAP backend.  The proxycache overlay allows caching  of  LDAP
       search requests (queries) in a local database.  See slapo-pcache(5) for
       details.  The rwm overlay provides DN rewrite and attribute/objectClass
       mapping  capabilities to the underlying database.  See slapo-rwm(5) for
       details.

FILES

       /etc/ldap/slapd.conf
              default slapd configuration file

SEE ALSO

       slapd.conf(5),    slapd-config(5),    slapd-meta(5),    slapo-chain(5),
       slapo-pcache(5), slapo-rwm(5), slapo-translucent(5), slapd(8), ldap(3).

AUTHOR

       Howard Chu, with enhancements by Pierangelo Masarati