Authenticating against an LDAP server
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Symfony provides different means to work with an LDAP server.
The Security component offers:
- The
ldap
user provider, using the LdapUserProvider class. Like all other user providers, it can be used with any authentication provider. - The
form_login_ldap
authentication provider, for authenticating against an LDAP server using a login form. Like all other authentication providers, it can be used with any user provider. - The
http_basic_ldap
authentication provider, for authenticating against an LDAP server using HTTP Basic. Like all other authentication providers, it can be used with any user provider.
This means that the following scenarios will work:
- Checking a user's password and fetching user information against an LDAP server. This can be done using both the LDAP user provider and either the LDAP form login or LDAP HTTP Basic authentication providers.
- Checking a user's password against an LDAP server while fetching user information from another source (database using FOSUserBundle, for example).
- Loading user information from an LDAP server, while using another authentication strategy (token-based pre-authentication, for example).
Ldap Configuration Reference
See Security Configuration Reference (SecurityBundle) for the full LDAP
configuration reference (form_login_ldap
, http_basic_ldap
, ldap
).
Some of the more interesting options are explained below.
Configuring the LDAP client
All mechanisms actually need an LDAP client previously configured.
The providers are configured to use a default service named ldap
,
but you can override this setting in the security component's
configuration.
An LDAP client can be simply configured using the built-in LDAP PHP extension with the following service definition:
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# app/config/services.yml
services:
Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap:
arguments: ['@Symfony\Component\Ldap\Adapter\ExtLdap\Adapter']
Symfony\Component\Ldap\Adapter\ExtLdap\Adapter:
arguments:
- host: my-server
port: 389
encryption: tls
options:
protocol_version: 3
referrals: false
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<!-- app/config/services.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">
<services>
<service id="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap">
<argument type="service" id="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Adapter\ExtLdap\Adapter"/>
</service>
<service id="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Adapter\ExtLdap\Adapter">
<argument type="collection">
<argument key="host">my-server</argument>
<argument key="port">389</argument>
<argument key="encryption">tls</argument>
<argument key="options" type="collection">
<argument key="protocol_version">3</argument>
<argument key="referrals">false</argument>
</argument>
</argument>
</service>
</services>
</container>
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// app/config/services.php
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Adapter\ExtLdap\Adapter;
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap;
$container->register(Ldap::class)
->addArgument(new Reference(Adapter::class));
$container
->register(Adapter::class)
->setArguments([
'host' => 'my-server',
'port' => 389,
'encryption' => 'tls',
'options' => [
'protocol_version' => 3,
'referrals' => false
],
]);
Fetching Users Using the LDAP User Provider
If you want to fetch user information from an LDAP server, you may want to
use the ldap
user provider.
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# app/config/security.yml
security:
# ...
providers:
my_ldap:
ldap:
service: Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap
base_dn: dc=example,dc=com
search_dn: "cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com"
search_password: password
default_roles: ROLE_USER
uid_key: uid
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<!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">
<config>
<provider name="my_ldap">
<ldap service="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap"
base-dn="dc=example,dc=com"
search-dn="cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com"
search-password="password"
default-roles="ROLE_USER"
uid-key="uid"/>
</provider>
</config>
</srv:container>
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// app/config/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'providers' => [
'ldap_users' => [
'ldap' => [
'service' => Ldap::class,
'base_dn' => 'dc=example,dc=com',
'search_dn' => 'cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com',
'search_password' => 'password',
'default_roles' => 'ROLE_USER',
'uid_key' => 'uid',
],
],
],
];
Caution
The Security component escapes provided input data when the LDAP user provider is used. However, the LDAP component itself does not provide any escaping yet. Thus, it's your responsibility to prevent LDAP injection attacks when using the component directly.
Caution
The user configured above in the user provider is only used to retrieve data. It's a static user defined by its username and password (for improved security, define the password as an environment variable).
If your LDAP server allows to retrieve information anonymously, you can
set the search_dn
and search_password
options to null
.
The ldap
user provider supports many different configuration options:
service
type: string
default: ldap
This is the name of your configured LDAP client. You can freely choose the name, but it must be unique in your application and it cannot start with a number or contain white spaces.
search_dn
type: string
default: null
This is your read-only user's DN, which will be used to authenticate against the LDAP server in order to fetch the user's information.
search_password
type: string
default: null
This is your read-only user's password, which will be used to authenticate against the LDAP server in order to fetch the user's information.
default_roles
type: array
default: []
This is the default role you wish to give to a user fetched from the LDAP server. If you do not configure this key, your users won't have any roles, and will not be considered as authenticated fully.
uid_key
type: string
default: sAMAccountName
This is the entry's key to use as its UID. Depends on your LDAP server implementation. Commonly used values are:
sAMAccountName
userPrincipalName
uid
filter
type: string
default: ({uid_key}={username})
This key lets you configure which LDAP query will be used. The {uid_key}
string will be replaced by the value of the uid_key
configuration value
(by default, sAMAccountName
), and the {username}
string will be
replaced by the username you are trying to load.
For example, with a uid_key
of uid
, and if you are trying to
load the user fabpot
, the final string will be: (uid=fabpot)
.
In order to prevent LDAP injection, the username will be escaped.
The syntax for the filter
key is defined by RFC4515.
Authenticating against an LDAP server
Authenticating against an LDAP server can be done using either the form login or the HTTP Basic authentication providers.
They are configured exactly as their non-LDAP counterparts, with the addition of two configuration keys and one optional key:
service
type: string
default: ldap
This is the name of your configured LDAP client. You can freely choose the name, but it must be unique in your application and it cannot start with a number or contain white spaces.
dn_string
type: string
default: {username}
This key defines the form of the string used in order to compose the
DN of the user, from the username. The {username}
string is
replaced by the actual username of the person trying to authenticate.
For example, if your users have DN strings in the form
uid=einstein,dc=example,dc=com
, then the dn_string
will be
uid={username},dc=example,dc=com
.
query_string
type: string
default: null
This (optional) key makes the user provider search for a user and then use the
found DN for the bind process. This is useful when using multiple LDAP user
providers with different base_dn
. The value of this option must be a valid
search string (e.g. uid="{username}"
). The placeholder value will be
replaced by the actual username.
When this option is used, query_string
will search in the DN specified by
dn_string
and the DN resulted of the query_string
will be used to
authenticate the user with their password. Following the previous example, if
your users have the following two DN: dc=companyA,dc=example,dc=com
and
dc=companyB,dc=example,dc=com
, then dn_string
should be
dc=example,dc=com
.
Bear in mind that usernames must be unique across both DN, as the authentication provider won't be able to select the correct user for the bind process if more than one is found.
Examples are provided below, for both form_login_ldap
and
http_basic_ldap
.
Configuration example for form login
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# app/config/security.yml
security:
# ...
firewalls:
main:
# ...
form_login_ldap:
# ...
service: Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap
dn_string: 'uid={username},dc=example,dc=com'
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<!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">
<config>
<firewall name="main">
<form-login-ldap service="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap"
dn-string="uid={username},dc=example,dc=com"/>
</firewall>
</config>
</srv:container>
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// app/config/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'firewalls' => [
'main' => [
'form_login_ldap' => [
'service' => Ldap::class,
'dn_string' => 'uid={username},dc=example,dc=com',
// ...
],
],
]
];
Configuration example for HTTP Basic
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# app/config/security.yml
security:
# ...
firewalls:
main:
stateless: true
http_basic_ldap:
service: Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap
dn_string: 'uid={username},dc=example,dc=com'
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<!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">
<config>
<!-- ... -->
<firewall name="main" stateless="true">
<http-basic-ldap service="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap"
dn-string="uid={username},dc=example,dc=com"/>
</firewall>
</config>
</srv:container>
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// app/config/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
// ...
'firewalls' => [
'main' => [
'http_basic_ldap' => [
'service' => Ldap::class,
'dn_string' => 'uid={username},dc=example,dc=com',
],
'stateless' => true,
],
],
];
Configuration example for form login and query_string
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# app/config/security.yml
security:
# ...
firewalls:
main:
# ...
form_login_ldap:
service: Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap
dn_string: 'dc=example,dc=com'
query_string: '(&(uid={username})(memberOf=cn=users,ou=Services,dc=example,dc=com))'
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<!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">
<config>
<firewall name="main">
<!-- ... -->
<form-login-ldap service="Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap"
dn-string="dc=example,dc=com"
query-string="(&(uid={username})(memberOf=cn=users,ou=Services,dc=example,dc=com))"/>
</firewall>
</config>
</srv:container>
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// app/config/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Ldap\Ldap;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'firewalls' => [
'main' => [
// ...
'form_login_ldap' => [
'service' => Ldap::class,
'dn_string' => 'dc=example,dc=com',
'query_string' => '(&(uid={username})(memberOf=cn=users,ou=Services,dc=example,dc=com))',
],
],
]
]);