LDAP for Golang

This library provides basic LDAP v3 functionality for the GO programming language.

The client portion is limited, but sufficient to perform LDAP authentication and directory lookups (binds and searches) against any modern LDAP server (tested with OpenLDAP and AD).

The server portion implements Bind and Search from RFC4510, has good testing coverage, and is compatible with any LDAPv3 client. It provides the building blocks for a custom LDAP server, but you must implement the backend datastore of your choice.

LDAP client notes:

A simple LDAP bind operation:

l, err := ldap.Dial("tcp", fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", ldapServer, ldapPort))
// be sure to add error checking!
defer l.Close()
err = l.Bind(user, passwd)
if err==nil {
  // authenticated
} else {
  // invalid authentication
}

A simple LDAP search operation:

search := &SearchRequest{
  BaseDN: "dc=example,dc=com",
  Filter: "(objectclass=*)",
}
searchResults, err := l.Search(search)
// be sure to add error checking!

Implemented:

• Connecting, binding to LDAP server
• Searching for entries with filtering and paging controls
• Compiling string filters to LDAP filters
• Modify Requests / Responses

Not implemented:

• Add, Delete, Modify DN, Compare operations
• Most tests / benchmarks

LDAP client examples:

• examples/search.go: Basic client bind and search
• examples/searchSSL.go: Client bind and search over SSL
• examples/searchTLS.go: Client bind and search over TLS
• examples/modify.go: Client modify operation

Client library by: mmitton, with contributions from: uavila, vanackere, juju2013, johnweldon, marcsauter, and nmcclain

LDAP server notes:

The server library is modeled after net/http - you designate handlers for the LDAP operations you want to support (Bind/Search/etc.), then start the server with ListenAndServe(). You can specify different handlers for different baseDNs - they must implement the interfaces of the operations you want to support:

type Binder interface {
    Bind(bindDN, bindSimplePw string, conn net.Conn) (LDAPResultCode, error)
}
type Searcher interface {
    Search(boundDN string, searchReq SearchRequest, conn net.Conn) (ServerSearchResult, error)
}
type Closer interface {
    Close(conn net.Conn) error
}

A basic bind-only LDAP server

func main() {
  s := ldap.NewServer()
  handler := ldapHandler{}
  s.BindFunc("", handler)
  if err := s.ListenAndServe("localhost:389"); err != nil {
    log.Fatal("LDAP Server Failed: %s", err.Error())
  }
}
type ldapHandler struct {
}
func (h ldapHandler) Bind(bindDN, bindSimplePw string, conn net.Conn) (ldap.LDAPResultCode, error) {
	if bindDN == "" && bindSimplePw == "" {
		return ldap.LDAPResultSuccess, nil
	}
	return ldap.LDAPResultInvalidCredentials, nil
}

• Server.EnforceLDAP: Normally, the LDAP server will return whatever results your handler provides. Set the Server.EnforceLDAP flag to true and the server will apply the LDAP search filter, attributes limits, size/time limits, search scope, and base DN matching to your handler's dataset. This makes it a lot simpler to write a custom LDAP server without worrying about LDAP internals.

LDAP server examples:

• examples/server.go: Basic LDAP authentication (bind and search only)
• examples/proxy.go: Simple LDAP proxy server.
• server_test.go: The _test.go files have examples of all server functions.

Known limitations:

• Golang's TLS implementation does not support SSLv2. Some old OSs require SSLv2, and are not able to connect to an LDAP server created with this library's ListenAndServeTLS() function. If you must support legacy (read: insecure) SSLv2 clients, run your LDAP server behind HAProxy.

Not implemented:

From the server perspective, all of RFC4510 is implemented except:

• 4.5.1.3. SearchRequest.derefAliases
• 4.5.1.5. SearchRequest.timeLimit
• 4.5.1.6. SearchRequest.typesOnly
• 4.14. StartTLS Operation

Server library by: nmcclain