Securing Connections With SSL

Security design involves more than an authentication scheme for identifying users and an access control scheme for protecting information. You must also protect the integrity of information between servers and client applications while it is being sent over the network.

To provide secure communications over the network, you can use both the LDAP and DSML protocols over the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). When SSL is configured and activated, clients connect to a dedicated secure port where all communications are encrypted after the SSL connection is established. Directory Server and Directory Proxy Server also support the Start Transport Layer Security (Start TLS) control. Start TLS allows the client to initiate an encrypted connection over the standard LDAP port.

For an overview of SSL and TLS in Directory Server, see Directory Server, see Chapter 2, Directory Server Security, in Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.0 Reference.