openldap/doc/drafts/draft-zeilenga-ldap-opattrs-xx.txt

INTERNET-DRAFT                                      Kurt D. Zeilenga
Intended Category: Standard Track                   OpenLDAP Foundation
Expires: 26 December 2001                           26 June 2001



                    LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes
                   <draft-zeilenga-ldap-opattrs-01.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 RFC Editor as a Standard Track document.
  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.  Technical discussion of this
  document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions 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 2001, The Internet Society.  All Rights Reserved.

  Please see the Copyright section near the end of this document for
  more information.


1.  Overview

  X.500 [X.500] provides a mechanism for clients to request all
  operational attributes be returned with entries provided in response
  to a search operation.   This mechanism is often used by clients to
  discover which operational attributes are present in an entry.




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  This documents updates LDAP [RFC2251] to provide a simple mechanism
  which clients may use to request the return of all operation
  attributes.  The mechanism is designed for use with existing general
  purpose LDAP clients (including web browsers which support LDAP URLs)
  and existing LDAP API.

  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].


2.  All Operational Attributes

  The presence of the attribute description "+" (ASCII 43) in the list
  of attributes in a Search Request SHALL signify a request for the
  return of all operational attributes.

  As with all search requests, client implementors should note that
  results may not include all requested attributes due to access
  controls or other restrictions.  Clients implementors should also note
  that certain operational attributes may be returned only if requested
  by name even when "+" is present.  This is because some operational
  attributes are very expensive to return.

  Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the Object Identifier
  1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.1 as a value of supportedFeatures [FEATURES]
  attribute in the root DSE.


3.  Interoperability Considerations

  This mechanism is specifically designed to allow users to request all
  operational attributes using existing LDAP clients.  In particular,
  the mechanism is designed to be compatible with existing general
  purpose LDAP clients includes web browsers which support LDAP URLs
  [RFC2255].

  The addition of this mechanism to LDAPv3 is believed not to cause any
  significant interoperability issues (this has been confirmed through
  testing).   Servers which have yet to implement this specification
  should ignore the "+" as an unrecognized attribute description per
  [RFC2251, Section 4.5.1].  From the client's perspective, a server
  which does not return all operational attributes when "+" is requested
  should be viewed as having other restrictions.

  It is also noted that this mechanism is believed to require no
  modification of existing LDAP APIs.



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4.  Security Considerations

  This document provides a mechanism which clients may use to discover
  operational attributes.  Those relying on security by obscurity SHOULD
  implement appropriate access controls to restricts access to
  operational attributes per local policy.


5.  Acknowledgment

  The "+" mechanism is believed to have been first suggested by Bruce
  Greenblatt in a November 1998 post to the IETF LDAPext Working Group
  mailing list.


7.  Author's Address

  Kurt D. Zeilenga
  OpenLDAP Foundation
  <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>


References

  [RFC2219] S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
            Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [RFC2251] M. Wahl, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access
            Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.

  [RFC2255] T. Howes and M. Smith, "The LDAP URL Format", RFC 2255,
            December 1997.

  [FEATURES] K. Zeilenga, "Feature Discovery in LDAP", draft-zeilenga-
            ldap-features-xx.txt (a work in progress).

  [X.500]   ITU-T Rec. X.500, "The Directory: Overview of Concepts,
            Models and Service",  1993.


Copyright 2001, The Internet Society.  All Rights Reserved.

            This document and translations of it may be copied and
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            above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on



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