Version 33 (modified by 15 years ago) (diff) | ,
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LDAP extensions
Abstract
LDAP support with group management has been added as a Trac extension. This extension enables to use existing LDAP groups to grant permissions rather than defining permissions for every single user on the system. The latest release also permits storage of permissions (both users and groups permissions) in the LDAP directory itself rather than in the SQL backend.
The original proposal for LDAP ACL is documented under ticket Trac#535 on the official web site.
This plugin follows the same license as Trac.
Requirements
This plugin works with Trac 0.10.
Although initial releases of the plugin (up to 0.2.2) have been written against Trac 0.9, they lack many of the latest plugin features and should be considered as experimental at best.
You need the Python LDAP module. It can be retrieved from
python-ldap.
LdapPlugin has been
tested on a Debian Linux Sarge/Sid (2.4.x and 2.6.x) server, a Windows XP SP2 workstation,
as well as on MacBookPro OS 10.4.8, all of them running Python 2.4 with Trac 'development' releases.
To use the egg file you need to have
setuptools, version 0.6+
installed.
Please refer to the
TracPlugins page for
information about plugin installation.
Important note
You need to grab a recent version of Trac from the trunk to make the Ldap permission store extension work as expected.
As the trunk API may vary without notice, the plugin may be broken if you run it with a different release.
Download
- Source code is available from http://trac-hacks.org/svn/ldapplugin.
- You can also find unit tests at the same location - under the
tests
directory -, which may help you deploy the plugin.
Installation
- Build the egg file following the plugin packaging instructions
- Copy the
dist/LdapPlugin-0.y.z-py2.n.egg
file in your plugins project directory.
Authentication
LdapPlugin does not perform authentication: Apache2 does, through the HTTP
protocol, as with any other Trac installation.
LdapPlugin retrieves the groups to which the authenticated user belongs and
checks the TracPermissions
against these groups, along with the regular permissions for the user.
You probably want to use Apache2 LDAP authentication as well.
This topic is out of scope of this document but you may find useful information
on the official Apache2 mod_ldap
web site.
Apache 2.0
Here is an example of a typical LDAP section of an Apache2.0 configuration file:
<Location /trac/project> PythonOption TracEnv "/local/var/trac/project" PythonOption TracUriRoot "/trac/project" AuthType Basic AuthName "Project" Order Allow,Deny Allow from All AuthLDAPURL "ldap://localhost:389/dc=example,dc=org?uid" Require group cn=tracusers,dc=example,dc=org </Location>
Apache 2.2
Since the mod_auth_ldap module has been superseded by the mod_authnz_ldap module for Apache 2.2, the configuration also needs a little tweaking. The above example would now look like:
<Location /trac/project> PythonOption TracEnv "/local/var/trac/project" PythonOption TracUriRoot "/trac/project" AuthType Basic AuthName "Project" AuthBasicProvider ldap Order Allow,Deny Allow from All AuthLDAPURL "ldap://localhost:389/dc=example,dc=org?uid" AuthzLDAPAuthoritative on Require ldap-group cn=tracusers,dc=example,dc=org </Location>
Note that if you just use "Require valid-user" (to allow everybody with a valid LDAP login to access trac) you must set "AuthzLDAPAuthoritative off" according to the Apache documentation.
Configuration
You need to customize the trac.ini
file of your project, then
- Optionally add the path to your plugin directory.
- Enable
ldapplugin
in[components]
section, so that the Trac engine loads and uses this extension. - Create a new section
[ldap]
. - Configure the LDAP directives to fit your LDAP server configuration.
To enable LdapPlugin you must add this line to the [components]
section:
[components] ldapplugin.* = enabled
The [ldap]
section may contain the following options (which are presented down here with their default values)
[ldap] # enable LDAP support for Trac enable = false # enable TLS support use_tls = false # LDAP directory host host = localhost # LDAP directory port (default port for LDAPS/TLS connections is 636) port = 389 # BaseDN basedn = dc=example,dc=com # Relative DN for users (defaults to none) user_rdn = # Relative DN for group of names (defaults to none) group_rdn = # objectclass for groups groupname = groupofnames # dn entry in a groupname groupmember = member # attribute name for a group groupattr = cn # attribute name for a user uidattr = uid # attribute name to store trac permission permattr = tracperm # filter to search for dn with 'permattr' attributes permfilter = objectclass=* # time, in seconds, before a cached entry is purged out of the local cache. cache_ttl = 900 # maximum number of entries in the cache cache_size = 100 # whether to perform an authenticated bind for group resolution group_bind = false # whether to perform an authenticated bind for permision store operations store_bind = false # user for authenticated connection to the LDAP directory bind_user = # password for authenticated connection bind_passwd = # global permissions (vs. per-environment permissions) global_perms = false # group permissions are managed as addition/removal to the LDAP directory groups manage_groups = true # whether a group member contains the full dn or a simple uid groupmemberisdn = true # domain name of LDAP server host = localhost
You probably want to define at least enable=true
and the basedn
The meaning of the options are pretty straightforward for LDAP administrators.
A typical setup for group resolution would look like this:
[ldap] enable = true basedn = dc=example,dc=org
A typical setup for all LDAP support (group resolution and permission store) would look like this:
[ldap] enable = true basedn = dc=example,dc=org user_rdn = ou=people group_rdn = ou=groups store_bind = true bind_user = cn=tracadmin,dc=example,dc=org bind_passwd = mypasswd
Note about group_rdn
and user_rdn
Starting from release v0.4.0, group_basedn
and user_basedn
options have been superseeded with group_rdn
and user_rdn
.
The new settings define the relative DNs respectively for the group and the user subtree, based on the common basedn
trunk. For example:
ou=people,dc=example,dc=org
would require the following settings:basedn = dc=example,dc=org user_rdn = ou=people
ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org
would require the following settings:basedn = dc=example,dc=org group_rdn = ou=groups
Authenticated LDAP connections
If the server requires an authenticated connection to retrieve group permissions,
you want to set group_bind = true
in the [ldap]
section and define
the credentials as follows:
[ldap] group_bind = true bind_user = joeuser bind_passwd = joepassword
If the server requires an authenticated connection to modify group permissions,
you want to set store_bind = true
in the [ldap]
section and define
the credentials as follows:
[ldap] store_bind = true bind_user = joeuser bind_passwd = joepassword
Note: Most LDAP servers require authenticated bind to perform any kind of modifications. Anyway, it would be a bad idea to allow modifications from anybody.
Ldap permission store
If you wish to use the LDAP permission store feature, you need to tell Trac to use the LDAP extension rather than the internal default permission store which relies on the SQL backend.
Note that if you decide to store Trac permissions as a new LDAP attribute, you will need LDAP schema management rights. Furthermore, some LDAP servers (e.g. Active Directory) might not allow the deletion of attribute definitions.
To achieve this setting, add the following line to
the main [trac]
section of your trac.ini
configuration file:
[trac] # ... permission_store = LdapPermissionStore
You also need to enable LdapPermissionStore
for LdapPlugin by adding:
[components] ldapplugin.* = enabled
The extension differentiates group permissions from user permission.
This permits to use distinct objectclasses in the LDAP directory, to store
permission. For example thanks to the groupattr
and uidattr
attributes, you can define group permission to LDAP entries such as
dn: cn=managers,dc=example,dc=org objectclass: groupofnames objectclass: trac member: uid=chandler,dc=example,dc=org member: uid=joey,dc=example,dc=org tracperm: WIKI_ADMIN tracperm: TICKET_ADMIN
and define user permission to LDAP entries such as
dn: uid=courtney,dc=example,dc=org objectclass: user objectclass: trac tracperm: TICKET_VIEW tracperm: REPORT_CREATE tracperm: REPORT_VIEW
It is worth noting that the dn used for groups and for users may be different, which should make things easier to add TracPermissions into your existing LDAP directory.
To differentiate a group name from a user name in trac-admin
, prefix the group
name with the @
characters. This syntax has been borrowed from Samba
and many other software dealing with group management.
One would grant the above permissions using the following trac-admin
commands
permission add @managers WIKI_ADMIN permission add @managers TICKET_ADMIN permission add courtney TICKET_VIEW permission add courtney REPORT_CREATE permission add courtney REPORT_VIEW
Please note that the LDAP permission store never attemps to create a new
entry in the LDAP directory. To grant (or revoke) permissions to/from the LDAP
directory, the targetted LDAP entry should exist in the directory and the
attribute defined by the permattr
option should be writtable for the
store_user
user.
Please have a look at the LdapPluginTests page to get an overview of LDAP ACLs (access control lists) that manages LDAP operations on a directory.
Permissions
Once LDAP support has been activated, you can use trac-admin
as usual to
define TracPermissions.
However, you can now use the existing groups defined in your LDAP directory to
assign permissions.
A LDAP group should start with the '@
' character
Example:
Trac [/var/local/db/trac/public]> permission list User Action ------------------------------- @administrators TRAC_ADMIN @betatesters WIKI_CREATE @betatesters WIKI_MODIFY eblot TRAC_ADMIN anonymous BROWSER_VIEW anonymous CHANGESET_VIEW anonymous FILE_VIEW anonymous LOG_VIEW anonymous SEARCH_VIEW anonymous TIMELINE_VIEW anonymous WIKI_VIEW
Here, people who are declared in the 'administrator' LDAP group have the
TRAC_ADMIN
permission, and people who are declared in the 'betatesters'
LDAP group have the WIKI_CREATE
and WIKI_MODIFY
permission.
You can obviously still use permissions for regular user such as eblot in the example above.
Note: Please remember that anonymous and authenticated are special users
but are considered by the permission backend just like any other regular user.
This means that you need to add both these special users in your LDAP directory
if you wish to assign permission to these joker entries.
The directory configuration proposed in
the test page may give you some hints about how to setup
your LDAP directory.
Group of names
There are usually two flavours to manage group permissions in LDAP:
- The group contains a list of fully qualified dns
dn: cn=fakedoctors,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org cn: fakedoctors objectClass: groupOfNames objectClass: top member: uid=meredith,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org member: uid=georges,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org member: uid=izzie,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org
With such an environment, your [ldap] section would contain[ldap] ... group_rdn = ou=groups groupmemberisdn = true groupname = groupofnames groupmember = member
- The group contains a list of simple uids
dn: cn=fakedoctors,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org cn: fakedoctors objectClass: posixGroup objectClass: top memberUid: uid=meredith memberUid: uid=georges memberUid: uid=izzie
With such an environment, your [ldap] section would contain[ldap] ... group_rdn = ou=groups groupmemberisdn = false groupname = posixgroup groupmember = memberUid
Beware, if you use this second scheme, you should have these lines in your apache configuration:
<Location /trac/project> ... AuthLDAPGroupAttribute memberUid AuthLDAPGroupAttributeIsDN off ... </Location>
Global vs. Environment permissions
Starting from release v0.3.0, permissions are not defined globally (unless global_perms
is set in the environment configuration file), but on per-environment basis.
With environment-wide permissions, it is now possible to define distinct permissions for each Trac environment (as long as their name differ) even if they access the same LDAP directory.
The Trac LDAP permission attribute value are prefixed with the environment name.
Using the previous example, assuming the environment name is named "test", permission attributes would become:
dn: uid=courtney,dc=example,dc=org objectclass: user objectclass: trac tracperm: test:TICKET_VIEW tracperm: test:REPORT_CREATE tracperm: test:REPORT_VIEW
It is still possible to use global permissions by setting in the [ldap]
section of the environment configuration file:
global_perms = true
When a directory contains global permission directives, those permissions apply on every Trac environment accessing the LDAP directory, whichever the global_perms
value. However, permissions are always created using the current environment permission setting.
From the administrative point of view (trac-admin
, WebAdmin, ...), there are no changes: permission are defined and retrieved as usual.
Note: The environment name is based on the root directory of the Trac environment. This means that if you use different environment with the same name, such as:
/var/local/trac/test
and /var/db/test
, they are both named "test" and share the same permissions. This is a known limitation of the current implementation.
Group management
Starting from release v0.4.1, the LdapPlugin permission store offers two ways to store group membership:
- Permission-based management (default setting):
In this configuration, the plugin mimics the original Trac membership management, but does not follow the LDAP way: group membership is defined as permission actions, which leads to manage permissions concurrently from the permission actions and the existing LDAP groups - Ldap group management (recommended settings):
In this configuration, the plugin only uses the LDAP groups to manage group membership. The plugin adds or removes group members from existing LDAP groups
Activation
The new group management scheme can be activated using the manage_groups
option.
Example
The following permission command
permission add eblot @developers
would lead to a very modification in the LDAP directory
- The permission-based setting would add a
tracperm
attribute to the user entry# eblot, people, example.org dn: uid=eblot,ou=people,dc=example.org objectClass: tracuser tracperm: @developers ...
- The LDAP group setting would add a new
member
attribute to the group entry# developers, groups, example.org dn: cn=developers,ou=groups,dc=example.org objectClass: groupOfNames objectClass: tracgroup member: uid=eblot,ou=people,dc=example.org ...
Important notes
- The LDAP plugin is not able to create new groups or new users from scratch. Users and groups must already exist in the LDAP directory. It would be difficult to create a new LDAP group or a new LDAP user from Trac, as the creation of a LDAP resource usually requires properties which are not made available to the LDAP plugin.
The above point means that the Trac administrator should probably creates the users and the groups from outside the Trac administration console (or WebAdmin). LdapPlugin is designed to integrate Trac with an existing LDAP directory, not to manage the directory. - Default LDAP group policy usually requires that each group contains at least one member. If the administrator tries to remove the last member of a LDAP group, the LdapPlugin may refuse to perform this action (depending on the LDAP server setup).
- Note that LDAP group management only deals with explicit groups, i.e. any word that starts with a
@
character. You can therefore mix aliases and LDAP directory groups:permission add eblot devteam
is a group alias, managed as any Trac permissionpermission add devteam @developers
is managed as a LDAP directory group (ifmanage_groups
option is enabled)
Known limitations
- Only LDAP v3 protocol is supported. This extension may work with v2 protocol as well, if the v3 specifier is removed from the code.
ToDo list
- Add user detail support so that the full name and email address are
retrieved from the LDAP server. It would require a new extension point in
Trac engine, which might be called
IUserDirectory
(not before Trac 0.11 at best) - There's probably a lot of room for improvement (and debugging) ;-)
Testing
The LdapPluginTests page gives some hints about how to test the Ldap extension for Trac
History
- v0.0: First attempt to write a LDAP bridge for Trac based on Trac 0.8, which required some hacks into the Trac engine.
- v0.1: A new implementation has started on September, 1st '05, to profit from the new TracPlugins module architecture introduced in Trac 0.9-pre.
This implementation should bring the following improvements:- includes a cache to dramatically reduce LDAP requests
- better handling of LDAP errors
This extension works with Trac 0.9-pre1 and requires the setuptools, version 0.5a13
- v0.2: This new release fixes up a couple of bugs and works with Trac 0.9-pre2. It requires the setuptools, version 0.6+.
It introduces support for LDAP permission store: TracPermissions can now be stored into the LDAP directory, rather than in the SQL backend.
Each feature (LDAP as a provider of group permissions, LDAP as a permission store) are independent and can be enabled or disabled on demand. - v0.2.1: Bug fixing
- v0.2.2: Introduce support for disting DN for users and groups (implemented suggestion described in #75)
- v0.2.3: Update to support the new boolean parsing introduced in the official Trac trunk (requires Trac 0.10)
- v0.3.0: Introduce per-environment permissions: permissions are defined to the current environment and do not overlap with other Trac environments using the same LDAP directory, unless the
global_perms
configuration parameters is set. - v0.4.0: Major rewrite of the LdapPlugin to support Trac trunk 3419, including better support for groups (user dns may be part of a different subtree than group dns, such as
ou=people
vs.ou=groups
), improved cache management, as well as many bug fixes and code clean up. - v0.4.1: Introduce a new feature: group management is done as addition and removal to the LDAP groups of names: instead of storing groups as trac permissions (as the default permission store does), the plugin is not able to add and remove members to the LDAP group of names.
- v0.4.2: Fix up an important issue with the management of the caches. The plugin has also been tested with the WebAdmin plugin.
- v0.4.3: Fix up two issues with authentication (an invalid user identifier was sent to the LDAP server)
- v0.4.4: Enable support for posix groups (and group members w/o distinguish name)
- v0.5.0: Add basic support for LDAPS/TLS connections
- v0.5.1: Update the Egg configuration file and the author contact details
Author/Contributors
Author: eblot
Contributors: wichert#wiggy.net, nguyen.antoine#wanadoo.fr