Section: Access Control and Identity Management
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application
protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol
(IP) network. Directory services play an important role in developing intranet and Internet applications by
allowing the sharing of information about users, systems, networks, services, and applications throughout
the network. As examples, directory services may provide any organized set of records, often with a
hierarchical structure, such as a corporate email directory. Similarly, a telephone directory is a list of
subscribers with an address and a phone number.
An entry can look like this when represented in LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) (LDAP itself is a
binary protocol):
dn: cn=John Doe,dc=example,dc=com
cn: John Doe
givenName: John
sn: Doe
telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 6789
telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 1232
mail:
[email protected]manager: cn=Barbara Doe,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: person
objectClass: top
"
dn" is the distinguished name of the entry; it is neither an attribute nor a part of the entry. "cn=John Doe"
is the entry's RDN (Relative Distinguished Name), and "dc=example,dc=com" is the DN of the parent
entry, where "dc" denotes 'Domain Component'. The other lines show the attributes in the entry. Attribute
names are typically mnemonic strings, like "cn" for common name, "dc" for domain component, "mail" for
e-mail address, and "sn" for surname.