Testing SSL

The following demonstrates the use of ldapsearch to communicate with a directory server using LDAP over SSL:

$ ldapsearch --hostname directory.example.com --port 1636 \
--useSSL --baseDN "" --searchScope base "(objectClass=*)"

In this case, no trust store was specified, and the --trustAll argument was also not given. Therefore, when the server presents its certificate to the client, the user will be prompted about whether that certificate should be trusted. The entire sequence might look something like:

$ ldapsearch --hostname directory.example.com --port 1636 \
--useSSL --baseDN "" --searchScope base "(objectClass=*)"

The server is using the following certificate:
Subject DN: CN=directory.example.com, O=Example Corp, C=US
Issuer DN: CN=directory.example.com, O=Example Corp, C=US
Validity: Fri Mar 02 16:48:17 CST 2007 through Thu might 31 17:48:17 CDT 2007
Do you want to trust this certificate and continue connecting to the server?
Please enter "yes" or "no":
dn:
objectClass: ds-rootDSE
objectClass: top

If the client simply wants to always trust any certificate that the server presents without being prompted, then the --trustAll argument might be provided. For example:

$ ldapsearch --hostname directory.example.com --port 1636 \
--useSSL --trustAll --baseDN "" --searchScope base \
"(objectClass=*)"

If the client has a trust store and wants to use that to determine whether to trust the server certificate, then the --trustStorePath argument might also be given. For example:

$ ldapsearch --hostname directory.example.com --port 1636 \
--useSSL --trustStorePath client.truststore --baseDN "" \
--searchScope base "(objectClass=*)"