INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation Expires in six months 30 June 2003 LDAP: Requesting Attributes by Object Class 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 an Informational document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions Working Group mailing list . Please send editorial comments directly to the author . Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.'' The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at . The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at . Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved. Please see the Full Copyright section near the end of this document for more information. Abstract The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) search operation provides mechanisms for clients to request all user application attributes, all operational attributes, or attributes selected by their description. This document extends LDAP to provide a mechanism for LDAP clients to request the return of all attributes of an object class. Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-05 30 June 2003 1. Overview In the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC3377], the search operation [RFC2251] support requesting a sets of attributes. This set is determined by a list of attribute descriptions. Two special descriptors are defined to request all user attributes ("*") [RFC2251] and all operational attributes ("+") [OPATTRS]. However, there is no convenient mechanism for requesting pre-defined sets of attributes. This document extends LDAP to allow an object class identifier to be specified in search request attributes list to request the return all attributes allowed by object class. A plus sign ("+", U+002B) is used to distinguish an object class identifier from an attribute descriptions. For example, the attribute list of "+country" is equivalent to the attribute list of 'c', 'searchGuide', 'description', and 'objectClass'. This object class and its attributes are described in [RFC2256]. This extension is intended to be used where the user is in direct control of the parameters of the LDAP search operation. 2. Terminology The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119]. DSA stands for Directory System Agent (or server) DSE stands for DSA-specific Entry 3. Return of all Attributes of an Object Class This extension allows object class identifiers is to be provided in the attributes field of the LDAP SearchRequest [RFC2251]. For each object class identified in the attributes field, the request is to be treated as if each attribute allowed by that class (by "MUST" or "MAY", directly or by SUPerior) was itself listed. If the object class identifier is unrecognized, it is be treated an an unrecognized attribute description. This extension redefines the attributes field of the SearchRequest to be a DescriptionList described by the following ASN.1 [X.680] data type: Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-05 30 June 2003 DescriptionList ::= SEQUENCE OF Description Description ::= LDAPString The Description is string conforming to the ABNF [RFC2234]: Description = AttributeDescription | ObjectClassDescription. ObjectClassDescription = "+" ObjectClass *( ";" options ) where and productions are as defined in Section 4.1.5 of [RFC2251] and an is an object identifier, in either or form [RFC2252], of an object class. are provided for extensibility. This document only defines semantics of s with zero options in the attributes field of a SearchRequest. Other uses may be defined in future specifications. Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the object identifier (OID) 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures' [FEATURES] attribute in the root DSE. Clients supporting this feature SHOULD NOT use the feature unless they have knowledge the server supports it. 3. Security Considerations This extension provides a shorthand for requesting all attributes of an object class. As these attributes which could have been listed individually, this short hand is not believed to raise additional security considerations. Implementors of this (or any) LDAP extension should be familiar with general LDAP security considerations [RFC3377]. 4. IANA Considerations The OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 is used to identify the LDAP "OC AD List" feature. This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP Foundation, under its IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation [PRIVATE], for use in this specification. Registration of this protocol mechanism is requested per BCP 64 [RFC3383]. Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.2 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-05 30 June 2003 Description: OC AD Lists Person & email address to contact for further information: Kurt Zeilenga Usage: Feature Specification: RFC XXXX Author/Change Controller: Kurt Zeilenga Comments: none 5. Author's Address Kurt D. Zeilenga OpenLDAP Foundation 6. Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997. [RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997. [RFC2251] Wahl, M., T. Howes and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997. [RFC2252] Wahl, M., A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997. [RFC3377] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377, September 2002. [FEATURES] Zeilenga, K., "Feature Discovery in LDAP", draft-zeilenga-ldap-features-xx.txt, a work in progress. [X.680] International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) - Specification of Basic Notation", X.680(1997) (also ISO/IEC 8824-1:1998). 7. Informative References [RFC2256] Wahl, M., "A Summary of the X.500(96) User Schema for use with LDAPv3", RFC 2256, December 1997. Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 4] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-05 30 June 2003 [RFC3383] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP", BCP 64 (also RFC 3383), September 2002. [ASSIGN] OpenLDAP Foundation, "OpenLDAP OID Delegations", http://www.openldap.org/foundation/oid-delegate.txt. [PRIVATE] IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers", http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers. Full Copyright Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 5]