Network Working Group M. Wahl
Internet-Draft Informed Control Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track September 6, 2007
Expires: March 9, 2008
LDAP Administrators Address Attribute
draft-wahl-ldap-adminaddr-05
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).
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Internet-Draft LDAP Administrators Address Attribute September 2007
Abstract
Organizations with multiple or outsourced directory servers need the
ability for administrators to determine who is responsible for a
particular directory server. This document defines an attribute with
contact information for a directory server's responsible party,
conceptually similar to the 'sysContact' object of SNMP, which can be
retrieved from the directory server using the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol.
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1. Introduction
This document defines an attribute type, administratorsAddress, for
use in LDAP [1] directory deployments.
The values of attributes of this attribute type are used to provide
contact information of the responsible party for an LDAP server, or
of the responsible party for a naming context (or other directory
administrative division) within a LDAP server.
This attribute is intended to be used by management tools that are
LDAP clients. For example, a management tool for checking the state
of a replication or referral topology might use this attribute to
send email to the manager of a particular server when it detects an
error.
(This attribute type was originally defined in the mid-1990s for
inclusion in the LDAPv3 data model, but was omitted from the LDAPv3
root DSE specification as there was only one implementation of a
server supporting that attribute at that time.)
The words "MUST", "SHOULD" and "MAY" are used as defined in RFC 2119
[2].
Please send comments to the author at mark.wahl@informed-control.com.
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2. The administratorsAddress attribute
The attribute type is defined as follows (with lines wrapped for
readability):
( 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.101.120.1 NAME 'administratorsAddress'
EQUALITY caseExactIA5Match
SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.26
USAGE directoryOperation )
Attributes of this type can contain one or more values, and each
value is a URI [3]. Each URI is encoded using the IA5 string syntax
[4].
Unlike the labeledURI attribute [6], these values do not have a
label.
In existing practice, this URI can be of the 'mailto:' form
identifying a personal or role email address, such as
"mailto:helpdesk@example.com".
To obtain the responsible party for a directory server, the attribute
is read from the root DSE, using a baseObject search requesting the
attribute of this type be returned, as described in RFC 4512 [5].
To obtain the responsible party for a naming context, the attribute
is read from the entry at the base of the naming context, using a
baseObject search requesting the attribute of this type be returned.
Note that these addresses need not be the same as that of the
directory server administrator, or of a data administrator.
An attribute of this type MAY be present in other entries and
subentries in a directory information tree. For example, an
attribute might be present in a collective attribute subentry.
(Collective attribute subentries are defined in RFC 3671 [7] and RFC
3672 [8]).
A client SHOULD treat values of this attribute type which do not
contain a valid URI as non-resolvable.
This document only specifies how a client can read this attribute.
Some servers MAY support updating this attribute over protocol,
subject to access control. Other servers might instead provide this
value read only, if it is configured through the server's out-of-band
management interface, such as in a configuration file.
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3. Security Considerations
Generally, the information provided by this attribute in a particular
organization's directory service is intended to be visible to all the
directory service administrators and to all the administrators of
directory-enabled applications in the organization. Since one use of
this attribute is to find who is responsible for a directory server
that is not making authentication decisions properly, in some
deployments it might be appropriate to allow any user, including
anonymous (unauthenticated) users, to read the values of an attribute
of this type from the root DSE. Thus, it is good practice that the
email addresses chosen for use in this attribute avoid revealing
personal information. Applications setting values of this attribute
SHOULD NOT encode passwords or other secret information within the
URIs, and MUST allow the administrator to choose not to provide a
value for this attribute.
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4. IANA Considerations
The LDAP Parameter registration for this attribute type has already
been reviewed by the Directorate and processed by IANA. This
attribute type object identifier is registered as follows:
Descriptor: administratorsAddress
Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.101.120.1
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Mark Wahl <Mark.Wahl@informed-control.com>
Usage: attribute type
Author/Change Controller: Mark Wahl
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5. Changes from previous versions
In an earlier Internet-Draft of the ASID working group, the
administratorsAddress attribute was defined to only be present in the
root DSE, the definition did not specify an equality matching rule
and had usage "dSAOperation", and the values of the attribute were
limited to being URLs of the mailto form.
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6. Acknowledgments
The contents of this document is based on earlier work of the ASID
Working Group of the IETF. The contributions of its members is
greatly appreciated.
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7. References
7.1. Normative References
[1] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Technical Specification Road Map", RFC 4510, June 2006.
[2] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", RFC 2119, BCP 14, March 1997.
[3] Berners-Lee, T., "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic
Syntax", RFC 1738, STD 66, January 2005.
[4] Legg, S., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Syntaxes and Matching Rules", RFC 4517, June 2006.
[5] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Directory Information Models", RFC 4512, June 2006.
7.2. Informative References
[6] Smith, M., "Definition of an X.500 Attribute Type and Object
Class to Hold Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)", RFC 2079.
[7] Zeilenga, K., "Collective Attributes in the Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)", RFC 3671.
[8] Zeilenga, K. and S. Legg, "Subentries in the Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)", RFC 3672.
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Appendix A. Copyright
Copyright (C) The Internet Society 2007. This document is subject to
the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except
as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This
document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS
IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR
IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Author's Address
Mark Wahl
Informed Control Inc.
PO Box 90626
Austin, TX 78709
US
Email: mark.wahl@informed-control.com
Wahl Expires March 9, 2008 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft LDAP Administrators Address Attribute September 2007
Full Copyright Statement
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Wahl Expires March 9, 2008 [Page 12]
