ldap.conf - LDAP configuration file/environment variables
/etc/openldap/ldap.conf, ldaprc, .ldaprc, $LDAP<option-name>
LDAP.CONF(5oldap) LDAP.CONF(5oldap)
NAME
ldap.conf, .ldaprc - LDAP configuration file/environment variables
SYNOPSIS
/etc/openldap/ldap.conf, ldaprc, .ldaprc, $LDAP<option-name>
DESCRIPTION
If the environment variable LDAPNOINIT is defined, all defaulting is
disabled.
The ldap.conf configuration file is used to set system-wide defaults to
be applied when running ldap clients.
Users may create an optional configuration file, ldaprc or .ldaprc, in
their home directory which will be used to override the system-wide
defaults file. The file ldaprc in the current working directory is
also used.
Additional configuration files can be specified using the LDAPCONF and
LDAPRC environment variables. LDAPCONF may be set to the path of a
configuration file. This path can be absolute or relative to the cur-
rent working directory. The LDAPRC, if defined, should be the basename
of a file in the current working directory or in the user's home direc-
tory.
Environmental variables may also be used to augment the file based
defaults. The name of the variable is the option name with an added
prefix of LDAP. For example, to define BASE via the environment, set
the variable LDAPBASE to the desired value.
Some options are user-only. Such options are ignored if present in the
ldap.conf (or file specified by LDAPCONF).
Thus the following files and variables are read, in order:
variable $LDAPNOINIT, and if that is not set:
system file /etc/openldap/ldap.conf,
user files $HOME/ldaprc, $HOME/.ldaprc, ./ldaprc,
system file $LDAPCONF,
user files $HOME/$LDAPRC, $HOME/.$LDAPRC, ./$LDAPRC,
variables $LDAP<uppercase option name>.
Settings late in the list override earlier ones.
SYNTAX
The configuration options are case-insensitive; their value, on a case
by case basis, may be case-sensitive.
Blank lines are ignored.
Lines beginning with a hash mark (`#') are comments, and ignored.
Valid lines are made of an option's name (a sequence of non-blanks,
conventionally written in uppercase, although not required), followed
by a value. The value starts with the first non-blank character after
the option's name, and terminates at the end of the line, or at the
last sequence of blanks before the end of the line. The tokenization
of the value, if any, is delegated to the handler(s) for that option,
if any. Quoting values that contain blanks may be incorrect, as the
quotes would become part of the value. For example,
# Wrong - erroneous quotes:
URI "ldap:// ldaps://"
# Right - space-separated list of URIs, without quotes:
URI ldap:// ldaps://
# Right - DN syntax needs quoting for Example, Inc:
BASE ou=IT staff,o="Example, Inc",c=US
# or:
BASE ou=IT staff,o=Example\2C Inc,c=US
# Wrong - comment on same line as option:
DEREF never # Never follow aliases
A line cannot be longer than LINE_MAX, which should be more than 2000
bytes on all platforms. There is no mechanism to split a long line on
multiple lines, either for beautification or to overcome the above
limit.
OPTIONS
The different configuration options are:
URI <ldap[si]://[name[:port]] ...>
Specifies the URI(s) of an LDAP server(s) to which the LDAP
library should connect. The URI scheme may be any of ldap,
ldaps or ldapi, which refer to LDAP over TCP, LDAP over SSL
(TLS) and LDAP over IPC (UNIX domain sockets), respectively.
Each server's name can be specified as a domain-style name or an
IP address literal. Optionally, the server's name can followed
by a ':' and the port number the LDAP server is listening on.
If no port number is provided, the default port for the scheme
is used (389 for ldap://, 636 for ldaps://). For LDAP over IPC,
name is the name of the socket, and no port is required, nor
allowed; note that directory separators must be URL-encoded,
like any other characters that are special to URLs; so the
socket
/usr/local/var/ldapi
must be specified as
ldapi://%2Fusr%2Flocal%2Fvar%2Fldapi
A space separated list of URIs may be provided.
BASE <base>
Specifies the default base DN to use when performing ldap opera-
tions. The base must be specified as a Distinguished Name in
LDAP format.
BINDDN <dn>
Specifies the default bind DN to use when performing ldap opera-
tions. The bind DN must be specified as a Distinguished Name in
LDAP format. This is a user-only option.
DEREF <when>
Specifies how alias dereferencing is done when performing a
search. The <when> can be specified as one of the following key-
words:
never Aliases are never dereferenced. This is the default.
searching
Aliases are dereferenced in subordinates of the base
object, but not in locating the base object of the
search.
finding
Aliases are only dereferenced when locating the base
object of the search.
always Aliases are dereferenced both in searching and in locat-
ing the base object of the search.
HOST <name[:port] ...>
Specifies the name(s) of an LDAP server(s) to which the LDAP
library should connect. Each server's name can be specified as
a domain-style name or an IP address and optionally followed by
a ':' and the port number the ldap server is listening on. A
space separated list of hosts may be provided. HOST is depre-
cated in favor of URI.
NETWORK_TIMEOUT <integer>
Specifies the timeout (in seconds) after which the
poll(2)/select(2) following a connect(2) returns in case of no
activity.
PORT <port>
Specifies the default port used when connecting to LDAP
servers(s). The port may be specified as a number. PORT is
deprecated in favor of URI.
REFERRALS <on/true/yes/off/false/no>
Specifies if the client should automatically follow referrals
returned by LDAP servers. The default is on. Note that the
command line tools ldapsearch(1) &co always override this
option.
SIZELIMIT <integer>
Specifies a size limit (number of entries) to use when perform-
ing searches. The number should be a non-negative integer.
SIZELIMIT of zero (0) specifies a request for unlimited search
size. Please note that the server may still apply any server-
side limit on the amount of entries that can be returned by a
search operation.
TIMELIMIT <integer>
Specifies a time limit (in seconds) to use when performing
searches. The number should be a non-negative integer. TIME-
LIMIT of zero (0) specifies unlimited search time to be used.
Please note that the server may still apply any server-side
limit on the duration of a search operation.
VERSION {2|3}
Specifies what version of the LDAP protocol should be used.
TIMEOUT <integer>
Specifies a timeout (in seconds) after which calls to synchro-
nous LDAP APIs will abort if no response is received. Also used
for any ldap_result(3) calls where a NULL timeout parameter is
supplied.
SASL OPTIONS
If OpenLDAP is built with Simple Authentication and Security Layer sup-
port, there are more options you can specify.
SASL_MECH <mechanism>
Specifies the SASL mechanism to use.
SASL_REALM <realm>
Specifies the SASL realm.
SASL_AUTHCID <authcid>
Specifies the authentication identity. This is a user-only
option.
SASL_AUTHZID <authcid>
Specifies the proxy authorization identity. This is a user-only
option.
SASL_SECPROPS <properties>
Specifies Cyrus SASL security properties. The <properties> can
be specified as a comma-separated list of the following:
none (without any other properties) causes the properties
defaults ("noanonymous,noplain") to be cleared.
noplain
disables mechanisms susceptible to simple passive
attacks.
noactive
disables mechanisms susceptible to active attacks.
nodict disables mechanisms susceptible to passive dictionary
attacks.
noanonymous
disables mechanisms which support anonymous login.
forwardsec
requires forward secrecy between sessions.
passcred
requires mechanisms which pass client credentials (and
allows mechanisms which can pass credentials to do so).
minssf=<factor>
specifies the minimum acceptable security strength factor
as an integer approximating the effective key length used
for encryption. 0 (zero) implies no protection, 1
implies integrity protection only, 56 allows DES or other
weak ciphers, 112 allows triple DES and other strong
ciphers, 128 allows RC4, Blowfish and other modern strong
ciphers. The default is 0.
maxssf=<factor>
specifies the maximum acceptable security strength factor
as an integer (see minssf description). The default is
INT_MAX.
maxbufsize=<factor>
specifies the maximum security layer receive buffer size
allowed. 0 disables security layers. The default is
65536.
SASL_NOCANON <on/true/yes/off/false/no>
Do not perform reverse DNS lookups to canonicalize SASL host
names. The default is off.
GSSAPI OPTIONS
If OpenLDAP is built with Generic Security Services Application Pro-
gramming Interface support, there are more options you can specify.
GSSAPI_SIGN <on/true/yes/off/false/no>
Specifies if GSSAPI signing (GSS_C_INTEG_FLAG) should be used.
The default is off.
GSSAPI_ENCRYPT <on/true/yes/off/false/no>
Specifies if GSSAPI encryption (GSS_C_INTEG_FLAG and
GSS_C_CONF_FLAG) should be used. The default is off.
GSSAPI_ALLOW_REMOTE_PRINCIPAL <on/true/yes/off/false/no>
Specifies if GSSAPI based authentication should try to form the
target principal name out of the ldapServiceName or dnsHostName
attribute of the targets RootDSE entry. The default is off.
TLS OPTIONS
If OpenLDAP is built with Transport Layer Security support, there are
more options you can specify. These options are used when an ldaps://
URI is selected (by default or otherwise) or when the application nego-
tiates TLS by issuing the LDAP StartTLS operation.
TLS_CACERT <filename>
Specifies the file that contains certificates for all of the
Certificate Authorities the client will recognize.
TLS_CACERTDIR <path>
Specifies the path of a directory that contains Certificate
Authority certificates in separate individual files. The
TLS_CACERT is always used before TLS_CACERTDIR. This parameter
is ignored with GnuTLS.
When using Mozilla NSS, <path> may contain a Mozilla NSS
cert/key database. If <path> contains a Mozilla NSS cert/key
database and CA cert files, OpenLDAP will use the cert/key data-
base and will ignore the CA cert files.
TLS_CERT <filename>
Specifies the file that contains the client certificate. This
is a user-only option.
When using Mozilla NSS, if using a cert/key database (specified
with TLS_CACERTDIR), TLS_CERT specifies the name of the certifi-
cate to use:
TLS_CERT Certificate for Sam Carter
If using a token other than the internal built in token, specify
the token name first, followed by a colon:
TLS_CERT my hardware device:Certificate for Sam Carter
Use certutil -L to list the certificates by name:
certutil -d /path/to/certdbdir -L
TLS_ECNAME <name>
Specify the name of the curve(s) to use for Elliptic curve
Diffie-Hellman ephemeral key exchange. This option is only used
for OpenSSL. This option is not used with GnuTLS; the curves
may be chosen in the GnuTLS ciphersuite specification.
TLS_KEY <filename>
Specifies the file that contains the private key that matches
the certificate stored in the TLS_CERT file. Currently, the pri-
vate key must not be protected with a password, so it is of
critical importance that the key file is protected carefully.
This is a user-only option.
When using Mozilla NSS, TLS_KEY specifies the name of a file
that contains the password for the key for the certificate spec-
ified with TLS_CERT. The modutil command can be used to turn
off password protection for the cert/key database. For example,
if TLS_CACERTDIR specifies /home/scarter/.moznss as the location
of the cert/key database, use modutil to change the password to
the empty string:
modutil -dbdir ~/.moznss -changepw 'NSS Certificate DB'
You must have the old password, if any. Ignore the WARNING
about the running browser. Press 'Enter' for the new password.
TLS_CIPHER_SUITE <cipher-suite-spec>
Specifies acceptable cipher suite and preference order.
<cipher-suite-spec> should be a cipher specification for the TLS
library in use (OpenSSL, GnuTLS, or Mozilla NSS). Example:
OpenSSL:
TLS_CIPHER_SUITE HIGH:MEDIUM:+SSLv2
GnuTLS:
TLS_CIPHER_SUITE SECURE256:!AES-128-CBC
To check what ciphers a given spec selects in OpenSSL, use:
openssl ciphers -v <cipher-suite-spec>
With GnuTLS the available specs can be found in the manual page
of gnutls-cli(1) (see the description of the option --priority).
In older versions of GnuTLS, where gnutls-cli does not support
the option --priority, you can obtain the -- more limited --
list of ciphers by calling:
gnutls-cli -l
When using Mozilla NSS, the OpenSSL cipher suite specifications
are used and translated into the format used internally by
Mozilla NSS. There isn't an easy way to list the cipher suites
from the command line. The authoritative list is in the source
code for Mozilla NSS in the file sslinfo.c in the structure
static const SSLCipherSuiteInfo suiteInfo[]
TLS_PROTOCOL_MIN <major>[.<minor>]
Specifies minimum SSL/TLS protocol version that will be negoti-
ated. If the server doesn't support at least that version, the
SSL handshake will fail. To require TLS 1.x or higher, set this
option to 3.(x+1), e.g.,
TLS_PROTOCOL_MIN 3.2
would require TLS 1.1. Specifying a minimum that is higher than
that supported by the OpenLDAP implementation will result in it
requiring the highest level that it does support. This parame-
ter is ignored with GnuTLS.
TLS_RANDFILE <filename>
Specifies the file to obtain random bits from when /dev/[u]ran-
dom is not available. Generally set to the name of the EGD/PRNGD
socket. The environment variable RANDFILE can also be used to
specify the filename. This parameter is ignored with GnuTLS and
Mozilla NSS.
TLS_REQCERT <level>
Specifies what checks to perform on server certificates in a TLS
session, if any. The <level> can be specified as one of the fol-
lowing keywords:
never The client will not request or check any server certifi-
cate.
allow The server certificate is requested. If no certificate is
provided, the session proceeds normally. If a bad cer-
tificate is provided, it will be ignored and the session
proceeds normally.
try The server certificate is requested. If no certificate is
provided, the session proceeds normally. If a bad cer-
tificate is provided, the session is immediately termi-
nated.
demand | hard
These keywords are equivalent. The server certificate is
requested. If no certificate is provided, or a bad cer-
tificate is provided, the session is immediately termi-
nated. This is the default setting.
TLS_REQSAN <level>
Specifies what checks to perform on the subjectAlternativeName
(SAN) extensions in a server certificate when validating the
certificate name against the specified hostname of the server.
The <level> can be specified as one of the following keywords:
never The client will not check any SAN in the certificate.
allow The SAN is checked against the specified hostname. If a
SAN is present but none match the specified hostname, the
SANs are ignored and the usual check against the certifi-
cate DN is used. This is the default setting.
try The SAN is checked against the specified hostname. If no
SAN is present in the server certificate, the usual check
against the certificate DN is used. If a SAN is present
but doesn't match the specified hostname, the session is
immediately terminated. This setting may be preferred
when a mix of certs with and without SANs are in use.
demand | hard
These keywords are equivalent. The SAN is checked against
the specified hostname. If no SAN is present in the
server certificate, or no SANs match, the session is
immediately terminated. This setting should be used when
only certificates with SANs are in use.
TLS_CRLCHECK <level>
Specifies if the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) of the CA
should be used to verify if the server certificates have not
been revoked. This requires TLS_CACERTDIR parameter to be set.
This parameter is ignored with GnuTLS and Mozilla NSS. <level>
can be specified as one of the following keywords:
none No CRL checks are performed
peer Check the CRL of the peer certificate
all Check the CRL for a whole certificate chain
TLS_CRLFILE <filename>
Specifies the file containing a Certificate Revocation List to
be used to verify if the server certificates have not been
revoked. This parameter is only supported with GnuTLS and
Mozilla NSS.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LDAPNOINIT
disable all defaulting
LDAPCONF
path of a configuration file
LDAPRC basename of ldaprc file in $HOME or $CWD
LDAP<option-name>
Set <option-name> as from ldap.conf
FILES
/etc/openldap/ldap.conf
system-wide ldap configuration file
$HOME/ldaprc, $HOME/.ldaprc
user ldap configuration file
$CWD/ldaprc
local ldap configuration file
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------------------+
|Availability | system/network/ldap/openldap |
+---------------+------------------------------+
|Stability | Pass-through uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------------------+
SEE ALSO
ldap(3), ldap_set_option(3), ldap_result(3), openssl(1), sasl(3)
AUTHOR
Kurt Zeilenga, The OpenLDAP Project
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project
<http://www.openldap.org/>. OpenLDAP Software is derived from the Uni-
versity of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from ftp://ftp.openldap.org/pub/OpenLDAP/openl-
dap-release/openldap-2.4.59.tgz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://www.openldap.org/.
OpenLDAP 2.4.59 2021/06/03 LDAP.CONF(5oldap)