Building an X.500 Directory Service in the US
draft-ietf-ids-jennings-00
The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
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| Author | Barbara Jennings | ||
| Last updated | 2013-03-02 (Latest revision 1995-09-30) | ||
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draft-ietf-ids-jennings-00
INTERNET-DRAFT
September1995
Barbara Jennings
Sandia National Laboratory
Building a Directory Service in the US
Filename: draft-ietf-ids-jennings-00.txt
Status of this Memo
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This Internet Draft expires 1 January 1996.
Abstract
This document provides definition and recommends considerations that must be
undertaken to operate a X.500 Directory Service in the United States. This
project is the work performed for the Integrated Directory Services Working
Group within the Internet Engineering Task Force, for establishing an
electronic White Pages Directory Service within an organization in the US
and for connecting it to a wide-area Directory infrastructure.
Establishing a successful White Pages Directory Service within an
organization requires a collaborative effort between the technical, legal
and data management components of an organization. It also helps if there is a
strong commitment from the higher management to participate in a wide-area
Directory Service.
The recommendations presented in the document are the result of experience
from participating in the Internet White Pages project.
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose of this Document 1
1.2 Introduction to Directory Services 1
2.0 The X.500 Protocol
2.1 Introduction 3
2.2 Directory Model 3
2.3 Information Model 3
2.4 Benefits and Uses for X.500 Directory Service 5
2.5 Other Applications of X.500 5
3.0 Legal Issues
3.1 Introduction 6
3.2 Purpose of the Directory 6
3.3 User Rights 6
3.4 Data Integrity 7
3.5 Protection of the Data 7
3.6 Conclusions 7
4.0 Infrastructure
4.1 Introduction 9
4.2 A Well Maintained Infrastructure 9
4.3 DUA Interfaces for End Users 10
5.0 Datamanagement & Pilot Projects
5.1 Simple Internet White Pages Service 11
5.2 InterNIC 11
5.3 ESnet 11
6.0 Recommendations
6.1 General 12
6.2 Getting Started 12
6.3 Who are the Customers 12
6.4 What are the Contents of the Directory 13
6.5 What are the Rights of the Individuals 13
6.6 Data Integrity 13
6.7 Data Security 13
6.8 Data Administration 13
6.9 Conclusion 14
7.0 References 15
8.0 Glossary 17
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose of this Document
This document provides an introduction for individuals planning to build a directory service for an organization in the US. It presents an introduction to the technical, legal, and organizational aspects of a directory service. It describes various options to organizations who want to operate an X.500 Directory service and illustrates these with examples of current
X.500 service providers.
1.2 Introduction to Directory Services
An electronic directory server is an electronic process that provides a list
of information provided via electronic access. This information is variable
in content, however it should be explicitly defined by the directory
purpose. Information about people, organizations, services, network
hardware are just a few examples of data content that a directory service
can provide. The aim of an X.500 Directory service is to make using the
directory intuitive and as easy to use as calling for directory assistance.
The X.500 Directory service is an international standard ratified by the
International organization for Standardization (IS) and the ITU-T
International Telecommunication Union formerly (CCITT) in 1988 [1].
The Directory is intended to be global service comprised of independently
operated and distributed Directory Service Agents (DSAs), that provide
information in the form of a White Pages Phone Directory.
Electronic mail communication benefits from the existence of a global
electronic White Pages to allow network users to retrieve addressing
information in an intuitive fashion. Manual searching for names and
addresses, specifically electronic addresses, can take a great deal of
time. A White Pages directory service can enable network users to retrieve
the addresses of communication partners in a user friendly way, using known
variables such as common name, surname, and organization to facilitate
various levels of searches.
In order to make global communication over computer networks work efficiently,
a global electronic White Pages service is indispensable. Such a directory
service could also contain telephone and fax numbers, postal addresses as well
as platform type to facilitate in translation of documents between users on
different systems. An electronic White Pages may prove to be useful for
specific local purposes; replacing paper directories or improving quality of
personnel administration for example. An electronic directory is much
easier to produce and more timely than paper directories which are often out
of date as soon as they are printed.
The Internet White Pages Project provides many companies in the US with an
opportunity to pilot X.500 in their organizations. Operating as a globally
distributed directory service, this project allows organizations in a wide
variety of industry type to make themselves known on the Internet and to
provide access to their staff as desired.
Some organizations, such as ESnet agreed to manage directory information for
other organizations. ESnet maintains data at their site for all the
national laboratories. They provide assistance to organizations in defining
their directory information tree (DIT) structure. They also provide free
access to the X.500 Directory via Gopher, WWW, DUAs, whois and finger
protocols.
The InterNIC is another directory services provider on the Internet. To date
[June 1995] they hold X.500 directory data for 52 organizations and provide
free access to this data via various protocols: X.500 DUA, E-Mail, whois,
Gopher and WWW.
To find the most current listing of X.500 providers see RFC 1632 - Catalog
of Available X.500 Implementations [2].
2.0 The X.500 Protocol
2.1 Introduction
This chapter provides the basic technical information necessary for an
organization to begin deploying an X.500 Directory Service. It provides a
brief introduction to the X.500 protocol and the possibilities that X.500
offers.
2.2 The Directory Model
X.500 Directory Model is a distributed collection of independent systems which
cooperate to provide a logical data base of information to provide a global
Directory Service. Directory information about a particular organization is
maintained locally in a Directory System Agent (DSA). This information is
structured within specified standards. Adherence to these standards makes the
distributed model possible. It is possible for one organization to keep
information about other organizations, and it is possible for an
organization to operate independently from the global model as a stand alone
system. DSAs that operate within the global model have the ability to exchange
information with other DSAs by means of the X.500 protocol.
DSAs that are interconnected form the Directory Information Tree (DIT). The
DIT is a virtual hierarchical data structure. An X.500 pilot using QUIPU
software introduced the concept of a "root" DSA which represents the world;
below which "countries" are defined. Defined under the countries are
"organizations". The organizations further define "organizational units" and/
or "people". This DIT identifies the DIT for the White Pages X.500 services.
Each DSA provides information for the global directory. Directories are
able to locate in the hierarchical structure discussed above, which DSA
holds a certain portion of the directory. Each directory manages information
through a defined set of attributes and in a structure defined as the
Directory Information Base (DIB).
A DSA is accessed by means of a Directory User Agent (DUA). A DUA interacts
with the Directory by communicating with one or more DSAs as necessary to
respond to a specific query. DUAs can be an IP protocol such as whois or
finger, or a more sophisticated application which may provide Graphical User
Interface (GUI) access to the DSA. Access to a DSA can be accomplished by an
individual or automated by computer application.
2.3 The Information Model
In addition to the Directory Model, the X.500 standard defines the information
model used in the Directory Service. All information in the Directory is
stored in "entries", each of which belong to at least one "object class".
In the White Pages application of X.500 object classes are defined as country,
organization, organizational unit and person.
The object classes to which an entry belongs defines the attributes associated
with a particular entry. Some attributes are mandatory others are
optional. System administrators may define their own attributes and
register these with regulating authorities, which will in turn make these
attributes available on a large scale.
Every entry has a Relative Distinguished Name (RDN), which uniquely identifies
the entry. A RDN is made up of the DIT information and the actual entry.
The Directory operates under a set of rules know as the Directory schema.
This defines correct utilization of attributes, and ensures an element of
sameness throughout the global Directory Service.
Under the White Pages object class "Person" there are three mandatory
attributes:
objectClass
commonName
surName
These attributes along with the DIT structure above, define the RDN.
An example of an entry under Sandia National Laboratory is shown here:
@c=US@o=Sandia National Laboratory@ou=Employees@cn=Barbara Jennings
root
/ \
/ \
c=US c=CA
/ \
/ \
o=Sandia National Laboratory o=ESnet
/ \
/ \
ou=Employees ou=Guests
/ \
/ \
cn=Barbara Jennings cn=Paul Brooks
Organizations may define the best structure suited for their DIT. Typically
an organizations DIT will look very much like the organizations structure
itself. A DIT structure is determined by naming rules and as such, becomes the
elements unique Relative Distinguished Name (RDN). The DIT structure may
also be dependent on whether the DSA information is administered by a flat
file or a database. Extra consideration to designing of the DIT structure
should be taken when using flat files versus a database, as it takes longer to
search through a flat file if the tree structure becomes too complex or
intricate. To obtain information on recommended schema for DIT structuring see
RFC1274[3].
2.4 Benefits and Uses for X.500 Directory Service
The nature of the X.500 Directory makes it suitable for independently
operated segments that can be expanded to global distribution. The benefits
for local directory use are:
- with the distributed nature of the service, an organization may separate
the
responsibility for management of many DSAs and still retain the overall
structure;
- the robustness of this service allows it to provide information to a wide
range of applications. Whereas globally integrated projects must conform to
a specific DIT, independent X.500 operations may define unique DITs, object
classes and attributes as per their specific needs;
- X.500 is a good alternative for paper directories, offering the ability to
update and modify in an interactive mode. This allows a company to provide
the most current information with less cost and effort;
- because of the electronic base of X.500, other electronic applications may
interact with the application without human intervention.
The benefits for global directory use are:
- the distributed nature of X.500 is well suited for large global applications
such as the White Pages Directory. Maintenance can be performed in a
distributed manner;
- X.500 offers good searching capabilities from any level in the DIT. Also
with "User Friendly Naming" in place, searches are very intuitive;
- there are DUA interfaces for the White Pages service available for all types
of workstations. For an overview of X.500 software reference RFC1632.
- X.500 is an international standard. Using such a standard ensures
interoperability within the worldwide base.
2.5 Other Applications of X.500
In addition to the White Pages, X.500 can be used as a source for any type
of information that needs a distributed storage base.
The University of Michigan is using X.500 for electronic mail routing. Any
mail coming to the university domain, umich.edu; gets expanded out to a
local address that is stored in the rfc822Mailbox attribute. The University
also operates a standard X.500 name server which provides name lookup
service of over 200,000 names. They use the Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP)[11].
An implementation of the X.500 Standard directory service has been
incorporated into the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). This
component, known as the Global Directory Service (GDS), provides an area where
distributed application clients can find their application servers. The GDS,
in response to requests made by other clients, provides the unique network
address for a particular DCE resource. Because it is based on a
international standard, GDS can offer access to resources among users and
organizations worldwide. This scalable service can be performed in DCE
environments that range in size from the very small to the very large.
Lookup services can be implemented into a variety of applications. Cambridge
University in Great Britain implemented the X.500 directory service into an
employee locator application. Based on badge sensors at strategic locations,
this application can determine the whereabouts of an employee on the campus.
As the individual moves about, the sensors register their location in an X.500
Directory.
Digital Signature Service (DSS) and Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) work on the
principal of a directory key server which generates and provide users with
"public" codes that match previously registered "private" codes. Only the
recipient can decipher messages sent in this fashion. The X.509[4] standard
for key certificates easily fits within the structure of the X.500 Directory
Service.
3.0 Legal Issues
3.1 Introduction
Currently in the United States, there are no specific legal rules for the
information that is provided via an electronic directory service. Various
organizations and groups associated with usage of the Internet, noting a
need to address privacy and data integrity issues, have prepared directives to
address this issue. Two such areas addressed are those of the rights of
registrants included in the directory and the responsibility of administrators
to guarantee the integrity of such data.
Registries containing information that is related to an individual is freely
transferred and unregulated in the US, unless the provider of the data is an
agency or an holder of sensitive information as defined by federal
legislation and further may differ for each state. An agency is defined as:
any executive department, military department, Government corporation,
Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive
branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or
any independent regulatory agency. Sensitive data can be financial records,
medical records, and certain legal documents. As previously noted, each
state has their own legislation on sensitive or private data.The registered
persons have little recourse to control list information short of filing a
lawsuit against the information provider.
For individuals who transfer data across country boundaries, it is important
to understand that other countries may have legislation to regulate data.
Prior to requesting list information from these countries, an administrator
should review applicable legislation and have some mechanism in place to
ensure how data will be handled once it is crosses the border. Policy
Statements for some countries have been prepared and are provided for via Code
of Conduct papers.
3.2 Purpose of the Directory
The operational intent including presentation data and list registrants and
access rights must be clearly defined and stated. Initially this provides the
skeleton of the DIT. Eventually a statement such as this may provide a
basis legally justifying the directory.
All data presented must be defined in the purpose. If for example, a
directory is for the sole purpose of providing professional addressing
information - an entry would include name, postal address, office telephone,
facsimile number, electronic mail address and company name. Private address
information listing the home address or phone would be prohibited as would any
other information not directly related to addressing.
3.3 User Rights
The North American Directory Forum (NADF) has published a document that
defines the User Bill of Rights[5]. This document defines an individuals
rights regarding the public release of personal or private information.
Among other issues stated, the user has the right to be notified regarding the
inclusion of their information in a data registry as well as the right to
examine and have incorrect information changed.
This paper is specifically written for the North American Directory Forum
and recommends compliance with US or Canadian laws regulating privacy and
access information.
Although current US legislation does not include all the suggestions in this
document, it is the responsibility of the controller of the data to respect
the rights of the individuals. These recommended rules can be seen as respect
for the individual and the considerate controller will follow these guidelines
within any boundaries that they may be mandated by.
3.4 Data Integrity
An information provider has the responsibility to guarantee the data that they
make available to users. The integrity of a data source is heavily weighted by
the accuracy and timeliness of the contents. Interoperable data sources must
have concurrence of these factors as well. The degree to which an
information provider can guarantee the validity of the data that they present,
reflects on the validity of the provider in general. RFC 1355[6], suggests
that a data source enable accuracy statements describing the process that
the individual NIC will use to maintain accuracy in the database.
In the European community, it is a legal requirement that the information
provider guarantee accurate data.
The controller of the information needs to be certain of the primary source of
data. When possible, the controller should develop routines of random
checks to validate the registry data for correctness.
3.5 Data Security
A Directory Service with non-authenticated access from the Internet is
difficult to protect from unauthorized use. Unauthorized use being defined
by each organization within the directory purpose statement. Typical misuse
being by individuals who attempt to duplicate the directory for unauthorized
purposes. Other security measures include: Access Control Lists (ACLs),
limitations on number of entries returned to a query, and time to search
flags. The result of such controls will affect the legitimate user as well
as the user they are intended to block.
An alternative that may provide protection from misuse is to create and
display an attribute with each entry stating non-approved usage. This
feature will also provide evidence of restricted use in the event that a legal
case is necessary to stop unauthorized access.
The responsibility again falls on the data provider/implementor of the
directory service. Astute programmers will create or make use of existing
tools to protect against data destruction, falsification, and misuse.
3.6 Conclusions
User Rights, Data Integrity and Protection of data should not be considered
merely in an effort to abide by legal rulings; they should be the intention of
a good data source. A successful Directory Service must be aware of the
requirements of those individuals inclusive in the list as well as those of
the directory users.
In general, at the minimum the following conditions should be observed:
1. Define the purpose of the Directory.
2. Initially inform all registrants of their inclusion in
a Directory.
3. Prevent the use of data beyond the stated purpose.
4. Limit the attributes associated to an entry within
boundaries of the purpose.
5. Work towards a suitable level of security.
6. Develop a mechanism to correct/remove faulty data or
information that should not be in the Directory.
4.0 Infrastructure
4.1 Introduction
The White Pages Project, currently operated by Performance Systems
International (PSI) provides a reliable QUIPU infrastructure for sites
wishing to provide their own X.500 directory. Started in 1989 as the NYSERNet
White Pages Pilot Project it was the first production-quality field test of
the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) technology running on top of TCP/IP
suite of protocols[7]. This pilot X.500 Directory, provided a real-time
testbed for a variety of administrative and usage issues that arise. Today,
more than 30 countries participate in the globally distributed project with
over 1 million entries. The White Pages pilot is one of 37 other pilots
cooperating to provide information in the Nameflow-PARADISE directory; an
European project.
Initially the software was public domain, QUIPU X.500[8]. This "shareware"
application in conjunction with administrative services provided free of
charge by PSI, allowed for a truly distributed X.500 Directory Service to
operate.
In keeping with the Internet rules of operation, the lack of the US
regulations, the suggestions of North American Directory Forum and the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the complications that arise from
multi-distributed data as a service can be overwhelming. PSI took on the
challenge to provide such a service, and continues to ensure operations today.
4.2 A Well Maintained Infrastructure
This distributed information service involves the cohesive effort of all of
the participating organizations. The ISO Development Environment (ISODE)
implementation of the OSI Directory, provided the attributes and
uniformity to facilitate this effort.
The primary DSA for the PSI Project is named Alpaca. Operating on a Sun
Sparc 10 with 120 megabytes of memory, this host serves as the Master for
the DSAs of 117 organizations under c=US. Redundancy for Alpaca is provided by
two sources, Fruit Bat operated by PSI and Pied Tamarin operated by the
InterNIC. Slave updates to this host are provided on a nightly basis
from the individual DSAs.
The data presentation is hierarchical in nature and emulates the common
white pages telephone book. The information provided contains at minimum: a
common name, voice phone listing, and electronic mail addressing. Each entry
has a uniqueness associates with it; the relative distinguished name which
is comprised of the entire directory information tree. The DITs may vary
slightly, but each must contain an organization, and a person. The nature
of the directory and the structure of the actual organization for whom the
directory is being provided contribute to the overall DIT structure. The
following is a list of commonly used attributes:
commonName stateOrProvinceName physicalDeliveryOfficeName
description photo streetAddress
userid postOfficeBox surName
favouriteDrink postalAddress telephoneNumber
title rfc822Mailbox facsimileTelephoneNumber
4.3 DUA Interfaces for End Users
There are a variety of user interfaces on the market today that will provide
Directory User Agent access to the X.500 Directory. Standard protocols such
as fred, whois, whois++, finger, are used widely. Interfaces are also
available via World-wide Web browsers and electronic mail.
Vendors providing DUAs include ISODE Consortium, NeXor, and Control Data Corporation. These applications operate in conjunction with the vendor provided DSAs.
Historically DUA interfaces were difficult to implement and required the
entire OSI stack. Implementing such a product on a PC or Apple platform
required skillful programming. The executable for these platforms were usually
very large. The IETF has since defined and standardized the Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)[11]; a protocol for accessing on-line
Directory services which offers comparable functionality to the Directory
Access Protocol (DAP). It runs directly over TCP and is used by nearly all
X.500 clients. LDAP does not have the overhead of the various OSI layers and
runs on top of TCP/IP.
The functionality varies by specific DUA. Each offers access to the X.500
Directory. Most offer the ability to make modifications to entries. There are
a few that offer Kerberos authentication.
Further information on LDAP clients for specific platforms can be found on the
University of Michigan WWW server: http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/ldap.
Another interface that has been tested and recommended for users by our
Dutch (Surfnet) colleagues is Directory Enquiry (DE). Originally developed by University College London for the Paradise project in Europe, the engineers at Surfnet have selected DE as the best interface for "dumb" terminals. They
have also translated the interface into Dutch for their local users[12].
Ideally, users should be able to access X.500 directly from their electronic
mail applications. Vendors (other than the ones mentioned above) have been
slow to incorporate the X.500 Standards into their electronic mail
applications.
5.0 Datamanagement & Pilot Projects
5.1 Simple Internet White Pages Service
A wide variety of directory services retrieval protocols has emerged in the
time since the original Internet White Pages was begun in 1989. To ensure
that decentralized implementations will have interoperability with other
providers, the IETF Integrated Directory Services Working Group, is working to create a draft focusing on the common information and operational modeling issues to which all Internet White Pages Services
(IWPS) must conform to.
Utilizing current information servers, the conceptual model described includes
issues regarding naming, schema, query and response issues for a narrowly
defined subset of directory services. The goal of this paper is to
establish a simple set of information objects, coupled with a basic set of
process requirements that will form a basis which can lead to ubiquitous
IWPS. With this goal in mind, it will be easier to proved a consistent User
view of the various directory services.
5.2 InterNIC
The InterNIC[9] is a collaborative project of two organizations working together to offer the Internet community a full scope of network information services. Established in January 1993 by the National Science Foundation, the InterNIC provides registration services and directory and database services to the Internet. (Internet a global network of more than 13,000 computers networks, connecting over 1.7 million computers and used by an estimated 13 million people.) In keeping up with the exponential growth of the Internet, the InterNIC provides a guide to navigate the maze of available resources.
InterNIC provides two types of services; InterNIC directory and database services and registration services. AT&T provides the directory and database services, acting as the pointer to numerous resources on the network offering X.500 to help users easily locate other users and organizations on the Internet.
5.3 ESnet
The Energy Sciences Network[10], is a nationwide computer data
communications network whose primary purpose is support multiple program,
open scientific research. As part of this support, ESnet offers networking
services including information access and retrieval, directory services, group
communications series, remote file access services and infrastructure
services. As a early member of the White-Pages Pilot Project, ESnet
continues to be a part of the worldwide distributed directory service based
on the ISO/OSI X.500 standard. There are over nineteen ESnet organization
represented in the directory, comprising over 120,000 entries. ESnet provides
access to seven other sites via the X.500 DSAs.
6.0 Recommendations
6.1 General
The X.500 Directory technology is available through several options. Vendors
can provide consultation for schema design as well as supply, install, and
support the software to perform the operations required. For smaller
organizations or companies who do not want to administer their own DSA,
there are providers available who will maintain the DSAs remotely and
provide this service to the Internet. Those with network and management
expertise, can either operate independently or join one of several white
pages directory projects. Careful consideration must be given to the initial
investment required and the required maintenance process.
6.2 Getting Started
Successful initialization of a directory service requires a systematic
approach. The complexity of offering this type of service becomes more
apparent as implementation progresses. Several aspects must be considered
as this service becomes a cooperative effort among the technical,
administrative, organizational, and legal disciplines. Procedures must be
defined and agreed to at the initial phase of implementing an X.500
Directory service.[13] The following are issues that should be addressed in these procedures.
6.3 Who are the Customers?
Defining the customer and the customer requirements will determine the scope
of service to offer. What is the primary purpose for the directory service?
A company may find it desirable to do away with a paper directory while
simultaneously providing the current directory information. The directory
may be for internal use only or expanded to any users with Internet access.
Will the customer use the directory for e-mail address only or is other
locational information such as postal address and telephone number a
requirement?
The directory may provide information to electronic customers such as
distributed computing applications as well. In this case, the data must be
provided in machine readable format.
Will the customers extend across country boundaries? Information may be
considered private by one country and not by another. It is necessary to be
aware of the legalities and restrictions for the locality using the data.
Some counties have published a Code of Conduct with the IETF, explicitly
stating the legal restrictions on directory and list data. Check the
archives to determine if the country with whom information will be shared
has presented such information.
6.4 What are the contents of the Directory?
The information presented in the directory is tightly coupled with the
purpose. If the purpose is to provide addressing information for individuals,
then customary information would include: Name, address, phone, e-mail
address, facsimile number, pager, etc. If the use of the directory is to
facilitate electronic mail routing then the destination mail address needs
to be included for each user. No other information should be presented in
the directory if it is not directly related to the purpose.
If the directory is internal only, it may be desirable to include the
registrants title as well. Remember that information available on the
Internet is generally open to anyone who wants to access it. Individuals
wishing to target a specific market may access directories to create
customer mailing lists.
The structure or schema of the X.500 Directory must be an initial
consideration. Will the hierarchy follow the company structure or is a
different approach more practical? How many entries will there be in the
directory five or 50,000? A complex hierarchy for thousands of users may
affect the efficiency of queries.
6.5 What are the rights of the individuals?
The subjects included in the directory shall have well defined rights.
These may be mandated by company policy, legal restrictions, and the
ultimate use of the directory. For a basic Internet White Pages Service
these rights may include:
1. the option of inclusion in the directory
2. the right of access to the information
3. the right to have inaccurate entries corrected
The terms and conditions for employees of an organization may affect these
rights. On becoming an employee of any organization, an individual inevitably
agrees to forego certain personal privacies and to accept restrictions.
Every organization should develop and publish the "rights" that can be
expected by the list registrants.
6.6 Data Integrity
Information that needs to be included in the directory may come from various
sources. Demographic information may originate from the human resources
department. Electronic mail addresses may be provided by the computer
network department. To guarantee data integrity, it is advised that the
data be identified and maintained as corporate information.
The required timeliness of the data is unique for each DSA. Updates to the
data may be a frequent as once a day or once a month. Updates to the data must
be provided on a regular basis. In cases where data is time sensitive, an
attribute should be included to display the most recent maintenance date.
A regular check for data accuracy should be included in the directory
administration. Faulty information may put an organization in breach of any
data protection laws and possibly render the company as unreliable.
6.7 Data Security
Securing networked information resources is inherently complex. Attempts must
be made to preserve the security of the data. These may include access
control lists (ACLs), limiting the number or responses allowed to queries,
or internal/external access to the directory.
The 1993 recommendations for X.500 include much more complex ACLs than the
1988 version. They allow restriction on those requesting access as well as
the information that is accessed. Local protection is configured by the
implementor. A secure X.500 Directory should provide tools to protect
against destruction, falsification, and loss of data.
There is not a tool yet that will protect against the misuse of data. There
are flags and limits that can be set from within the application that will
serve somewhat as a barrier to such unwanted use. Any restrictions however,
also will affect the legitimate users. One suggestion is to post a notice of
illegitimate use within each entry. This of course will only serve as a
deterrent and as an asset should legal action be required.
Again, caution must be taken when transferring data between country and
state borders. In the US data regulations differ from state to state.
6.8 Data Administration
The decentralized nature of the X.500 Directory service means that each
organization has complete control over the data. As part of a global
service however, it is important that the operation of the DSA be monitored
and maintained in a consistent manner. Authorization must be given to the
local manager of the information and in some cases, the subjects included in
the directory may also have modification privileges.
Once the service is running, the importance of guaranteed operation can not
be overstated. Maintenance of the local Directory will be an integral part of
normal administrative procedures within the organization and must be defined
and agreed upon in the initial stages of development.
6.9 Conclusion
Establishing a Directory service within an organization will involve a great
deal of cooperative effort. It is essential to get commitment from the
integral parties of an organization at the onset. This includes the technical, legal, and data managements components of the organization. Executive level commitment will make it much easier to get the cooperation necessary.
Operational procedures must be clearly defined, as the inclusion in a globally
distributed service has wide visibility. Adherence to these procedures must be
maintained to the highest degree possible as misinformation may result in
unintentional legal violations and unreliable access or data can adversely
affect on a companys reputation.
An X.500 Directory can be extremely useful for an organization if it
operates as designed. It may serve as the "hub" of the information routing
and the basis for several everyday activities. A successful service will be
one of the most important tools for communication in the computer network
environment. For people to make use of the service, they must be able to
rely on consistent and accurate information.
References
1. CCITT Blue Book, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII.8, November 1988
2. RFC 1632; A Revised Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations. A. Getchell; ESnet, S. Sataluri; AT&T.
3. RFC 1274; The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema. P. Barker & S. Kille.
4. CCITT Blue Book, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII - Rec. X.509, November 1988.
5. RFC 1295; User Bill of Rights for entries and listing in the Public Directory. Networking Working Group; IETF, January 1992.
6. RFC 1355; Privacy and Accuracy Issues in Network Information Center Databases. Curran, Marine, August 1992.
7. RFC 1006, ISO Transport Class 2 Non-use of Explicit Flow Control over TCP RFC 1006 extension. Y. Pouffary, June 1995.
8. Colin Robbins, NEXOR Ltd., Nottingham, London. c.robbins@nexor.co.uk
9. InterNIC; Collaborative effort of General Atomics, AT&T and Network Solutions; info@internic.net
10. ESnet; Managed and funded by the US Department of Energys Energy
Research Office in Scientific Computing (DOE/ER/OSC).
11. RFC 1777; Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, W. Yeong, T. Howes, S. Kille, March 1995.
12. Building a Directory Service, Final Report test phase SURFnet X.500 pilot project, June 1995.
13. The X.500 Directory Services: a discussion of the concerns raised by the existence of a global Directory, Julia M. Hill, Vol.2/No.1 Electronic
Networking, Spring 1992.
14. Directory Services and Privacy Issues, E. Jeunik and E. Huizer.
15. The Little Black Book; Mail Bonding with OSI Directory Services,
Marshall T. Rose, Simon & Schuster Company, 1992.
16. NYSERNet White Pages Pilot Project: Status Report; NYSERNet Technical Report #89-12-31-1, Marshall T. Rose, December 1989
17. RFC 1798, Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, A. Young, June 1995.
18. RFC 1781; Using the OSI Directory to Achieve User Friendly Naming, S. Kille, March 1995.
19. draft-ietf-pds-iwps-design-spec-01.txt, Tony Genovese; Microsoft, July 1995.
20. draft-ietf-ids-privacy-00.txt, B. Jennings; Sandia National Laboratories, S. Sataluri; AT&T, November 1994.
Glossary
ACL Access Control List; a mechanism to restrict access to data stored
in an X.500 Directory Service
Attribute A collection of attributes belong to an entry in the Directory
Service, and contain information belonging to that entry.
c= countryName; Object class definition, specifies a country. When
used as part of the directory name, it identifies the country in which the
named object is physically located.
cn= commonName; Attribute defining common name for individuals
included in a directory. In 1988 standards can be up to 64 characters.
CCITT The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee.
DAP Directory Access Protocol; the protocol between a DUA and a DSA.
DIB Directory Information Base; a collection of information objects in
the Directory.
DIT Directory Information Tree; the hierarchy of the distributed
database that makes up an X.500 service.
DSA Directory System Agent; an application that offers the Directory
service, this is the database for the Directory.
DUA Directory User Agent; an application that facilitates User
access to a DSA
E-Mail Electronic Mail.
Entry A Directory Service contains entries on people, organizations,
countries, etc. Entries belong to a certain class, and information on entries
is stored in attributes.
ESnet Energy Sciences Network; nationwide computer data communications
network.
GUI Graphical User Interface.
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force; an internationally represented
task force of Internet Activities Board charged with solving the short-term
needs of the Internet
Internet A collection of connected networks, international, running the
Internet suite of protocols.
InterNIC Directory of Directories, a collaborative project between AT&T,
General Atomics, and Network Solutions, Inc.
IP Internet Protocol; the network protocol offering a cone4ctionless-
mode network service in the Internet suite of protocols.
ISODE ISO Development Environment, a research tool developed to study
the upper-layers of OSI and deploy network applications according to the ISO
OSI standards and ITU X series of recommendations.
ITU International Telecommunication Union; formerly the CCITT.
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, an Internet Standard for
a lightweight version of DAP running over TCP/IP.
Object Entries in a Directory Service belong to an Object Class to
Class indicate the type and characteristic; e.g. Object Class "person".
OSI Open Standards Interconnection, An international standardization
program, facilitated by ISO and ITU to develop standards for data networking.
o= organization; An attribute defining the company or organization
that the person works for.
ou= organizational unit; An attribute found under organization.
Denotes the department, division, or other such sub-unit of the organization
that the person works in.
PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail; and Internet Standard for sending secure
Electronic mail.
PSI Performance Systems International, Inc.; operator of the
Internet White Pages Project
QUIPU X.500 Directory implementation developed by Colin Robbins while at
the University College of London.
RDN Relative Distinguished Name; a unique identifier for each list
subject, defined by the hierarchy of the DSA.
RFC Request For Comments; Internet series publications
sn= surname; Attribute defining the surname of the person in the
directory.
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol; two
internet protocols.
White- Electronic directory, accessible via Internet suite of protocols.
Pages
Whois An Internet standard protocol
Whois++ An Internet Directory Services protocol; a possible alternative
for X.500
WPS White Pages Service; a Directory Service that contains information
on people and organizations.
X.500 A series of recommendations as defined by the ITU, that specify
a Directory Services protocol.