How to retrieve password for an LDAP user

[madhan.ak]

Hi,

I'm working for a tool which will enforce password complliance to the system.

I have a situation to enforce password compliance check for UNIX users, NIS users and also LDAP users. FOR UNIX and NIS users, I'm able to retrieve the password. I would like to know whether any functions in LDAP C SDK provided by LDAP_UX Clients or any system calls in HP_UNIX can support my problem.

Thanks in advance and Regards,
Madhan.A.K.

mail: madhan.ak@hp.com

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

If the LDAP master server is Windows, Windows has a gui tool for setting password standards which will be enforced all across the LDAP domain.

if the server is HP-UX, there is a file called /etc/defaults/security which lets you set standards which are also enforced organization wide.

Linux has a GUI if you use the Red Hat LDAP server product.

SEP

[Bob Neal-Joslin]

Hi Madhan,

This is one of those, it depends questions... Yes, most directory servers store a password in a userPassword attribute. And with appropriate administrative priviledges, it is possible to retrive that attribute with a normal ldap_search operation. However, depending on the installation, version of directory server, etc, the password may be either unavailable, hashed using SHA, SSHA, SSHA-2, Unix Crypt (DES-hash) etc... In addition, ADS to my knowledge, does not make the password available through LDAP.

Bob