INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation
Expires: 19 June 2000 19 December 1999
LDAP Password Modify Extended Operation
<draft-zeilenga-ldap-passwd-exop-00.txt>
1. Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
This draft document will be submitted to the RFC Editor as a
Informational document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Technical discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP
Extension Working Group mailing list <ietf-ldapext@netscape.com>.
Please send editorial comments directly to the author
<Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task
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Copyright 1999, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved.
Please see the Copyright section near the end of this document for
more information.
2. Abstract
The integration of LDAP [RFC2251] and external authentication services
has introducted non-DN authentication identities and allowed for non-
directory storage of passwords. As such, mechanisms which update the
directory, such as Modify operation, cannot be used to change a user's
password. This document describes an LDAP extended operation to allow
allow modification of user passwords which is not dependent upon the
password storage mechanism used.
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The key words ``MUST'', ``MUST NOT'', ``REQUIRED'', ``SHALL'', ``SHALL
NOT'', ``SHOULD'', ``SHOULD NOT'', ``RECOMMENDED'', and ``MAY'' in
this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119
[RFC2119].
3. Background and Intent of Use
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC2251] is designed to
support an number of authentication mechanisms including simple user
name/password pairs. Traditionally LDAP users where identified by the
Distinguished Name [RFC2253] of a directory entry and this entry
contained a userPassword [RFC2256] attribute containing one or more
passwords.
The protocol does not mandate that passwords associated with a user be
stored in the directory. Implementation are free to use alternative
storage and some implementations do support non-directory storage of
passwords.
The integration of application neutral SASL [RFC2222] services which
support simple username/password mechanisms (such as DIGEST-MD5) has
introduced non-LDAP DN authentication identity forms and made storage
of passwords the responsibility of the SASL service provider.
LDAP update operations are designed to act upon attributes of an entry
within the directory. LDAP update operations cannot be used to modify
a user's password when the user is not represented by a DN, does not
have a entry, and that password used by the server is not stored as an
attribute of an entry. Alternative mechanism are needed.
This document describes an LDAP Extended Operation intended to be
allow directory clients to update user passwords. The user may or may
not have be associated with a directory entry and may or may not be
represented as an LDAP DN. The user's password may or may not be
stored in the directory.
The operation SHOULD NOT be used used when adequate security
protection is not provided.
4. Password Modify Request and Response
The Password Modify operation is an LDAPv3 Extended Operation
[RFC2251, Section 4.12] and is identified by the OBJECT IDENTIFIER
passwdModifyOID. This section details the syntax of the protocol
request and response.
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passwdModifyOID OBJECT IDENTIFER ::= 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.666.6.1
[Editor's Note: this OID is temporary. A permanent OID
will be assigned to this object before this document is
progressed as an RFC.]
PasswdModifyRequestValue ::= SEQUENCE {
userIdentity [0] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL
oldPasswd [1] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL
newPasswd [2] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL }
PasswordModifyResponseValue ::= SEQUENCE {
genPasswd [0] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL }
4.1. Password Modify Request
A Password Modify request is an ExtendedRequest with the requestName
field containing passwdModifyOID OID and optionally provides a
requestValue field. If the requestValue field is provided, it MUST
contain a PasswdModifyRequestValue with one or more fields present.
The userIdentity field, if present, MUST contain an octet string
representation of the user associated with the request. This string
may or may not be an LDAPDN [RFC2253]. If no userIdentity field is
present, the request acts up upon the password of the user currently
associated with the LDAP session.
The oldPasswd field, if present, MUST contain the user's current
password.
The newPasswd field, if present, MUST contain the desired password for
this user.
4.2. Password Modify Response
A Password Modify response is an ExtendedResponse where the
responseName field is absent and the response field is optional. The
response field, if present, MUST containing a
PasswdModifyResponseValue with genPasswd field present.
The genPasswd field, if present, MUST contain a generated password for
the user.
If an resultCode other than success (0) is indicated in the response,
the response field MUST be absent.
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5. Operation Requirements
Upon successfully changing the user's password, the server SHALL
return success. The server SHALL NOT return success if the user
password has not be changed.
The server SHALL NOT change the user password if it does not supports
the combination of fields provided in the request.
The server SHALL NOT change the user password if the provided
oldPasswd value is incorrect.
The server MAY generate a password on behalf of the client if and only
if newPassword is not present. The server MUST provide the generated
password upon success as the value of the genPasswd field.
The server MAY return a referral.
6. Other requirements
A server which supports this operation SHOULD provide a
supportedExtension attribute in the ROOT DSE which contains as one of
its values the passwdModifyOID OID. A server MAY advertise the
extension only when the client is authorized and/or has established
the necessary security protections to use this operation. Client
SHOULD verify the server has advertised the extension before
attempting the operation.
The operation SHOULD NOT be used without adequate security protection,
such as offerred by TLS and IPSEC. This operation SHOULD NOT be used
by "anonymous" clients.
7. Security Considerations
The operation described by this document does not provide any security
protection to ensure integrity and/or confidientiality.
8. Copyright
Copyright 1999, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
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distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed,
or as required to translate it into languages other than English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE AUTHORS, THE INTERNET SOCIETY, AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS 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.
9. Bibliography
[RFC2219] S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2222] J. Myers, "Simple Authentication and Security
Layer (SASL)", RFC 2222, October 1997.
[RFC2251] M. Wahl, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251,
December 1997.
[RFC2252] M. Wahl, A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, S. Kille,
"Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3):
Attribute Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252,
December 1997.
[RFC2253] M. Wahl, S. Kille, T. Howes, "Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (v3): UTF-8 String
Representation of Distinguished Names", RFC 2253,
December 1997.
[RFC2256] M. Wahl, "A Summary of the X.500(96) User Schema
for use with LDAPv3", RFC 2256, December 1997.
10. Acknowledgement
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This document borrows from a number of IETF documents and is based
upon input from the IETF LDAPext working group.
11. Author's Address
Kurt D. Zeilenga
OpenLDAP Foundation
<Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>
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