INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
Intended Category: Standard Track OpenLDAP Foundation
Expires in six months 30 June 2003
The LDAP No-Op Control
<draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-02.txt>
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and
revision, submitted to the IESG for consideration as a Standard Track
document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical
discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Please see the Full Copyright section near the end of this document
for more information.
Abstract
This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
No-Op control which can be used to disable the normal effect of an
operation. The control can be used to discover how a server might
react to a particular update request without updating the directory.
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1. Overview
It is often desirable to be able to determine if a directory [X.500]
operation would successful complete or not without having the normal
effect of the operation take place. For example, an administrative
client might want to verify that new user could update their entry
(and not other entries) without the directory actually being updated.
The mechanism could be used to build more sophisticated security
auditing tools.
This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
[RFC3377] No-Op control. The presence of the No-Op control in an
operation request message disables the normal effect of the operation.
For example, when present in a LDAP modify operation [RFC2251], the
modify operation will do all processing necessary to perform the
operation but not actually modify the directory.
The No-Op control is not intended to be used by user clients to
determine "effective rights".
1.1. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
DN stands for Distinguished Name.
DSA stands for Directory System Agent.
DSE stands for DSA-specific entry.
2. No-Op Control
The No-Op control is an LDAP Control [RFC2251] whose controlType is
1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.10.2, criticality is TRUE, and controlValue is
absent. Criticality of TRUE is REQUIRED to prevent unintended
modification of the directory. There is no corresponding response
control.
The control is appropriate for LDAP Add, Delete, Modify and ModifyDN
operations [RFC2251].
When the control is attached to an LDAP request, the server SHALL do
all normal processing possible for the operation without modification
of the directory. That is, when the control is attached to an LDAP
request, that operation SHALL NOT return success (0).
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A result code other than noOperation (TBD) means that the server is
not able or willing to complete the processing for the reasons
indicated by the result code. A result code of noOperation (TBD)
indicates that the server found no reason why the operation would fail
if submitted without the No-Op control.
Servers SHOULD indicate their support for this control by providing
1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.10.2 as a value of the supportedControl attribute
type in their root DSE entry. A server MAY choose to advertise this
extension only when the client is authorized to use this operation.
3. Security Considerations
The No-Op control mechanism allows directory administrators (and
users) to verify that access control and other administrative policy
controls are properly configured. The mechanism may also lead to the
development (and deployment) of more sophisticated security auditing
tools.
The No-Op control mechanism is believed not to introduce any security
risks beyond those of the base operation it is attached to. Security
considerations for the base operations, as well as general LDAP
security considerations, are discussed in RFCs comprising the LDAP
Technical Specification [RFC3377].
4. IANA Considerations
4.1 LDAP Protocol Mechanism
Registration of this protocol mechanism is requested [RFC3383].
Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration
Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.10.2
Description: No-Op Control
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
Usage: Control
Specification: RFC XXXX
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: none
This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP Foundation, under its
IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation [PRIVATE], for use in this
specification.
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4.2 LDAP Result Code
Assignment of an LDAP Result Code called 'noOperation' is requested.
Subject: LDAP Result Code Registration
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@OpenLDAP.org>
Result Code Name: noOperation
Specification: RFC XXXX
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: none
5. Author's Address
Kurt D. Zeilenga
OpenLDAP Foundation
<Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>
6. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997.
[RFC2251] Wahl, M., T. Howes and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.
[RFC3377] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
September 2002.
7. Informative References
[X.500] International Telecommunication Union -
Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "The Directory
-- Overview of concepts, models and services,"
X.500(1993) (also ISO/IEC 9594-1:1994).
[RFC3383] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP", BCP 64
(also RFC 3383), September 2002.
[ASSIGN] OpenLDAP Foundation, "OpenLDAP OID Delegations",
http://www.openldap.org/foundation/oid-delegate.txt.
[PRIVATE] IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers",
http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers.
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