INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga Intended Category: Standard Track Isode Limited Expires in six months 31 August 2007 The LDAP No-Op Control Status of this Memo This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and revision, submitted to the IESG for consideration as a Standard Track document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions mailing list . Please send editorial comments directly to the author . By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. 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 http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). All Rights Reserved. Please see the Full Copyright section near the end of this document for more information. Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-11 31 August 2007 Abstract This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) No-Op control which can be used to disable the normal effect of an operation. The control can be used to discover how a server might react to a particular update request without updating the directory. 1. Overview It is often desirable to be able to determine if a directory operation [RFC4511] would successful complete or not without having the normal effect of the operation take place. For example, an administrative client might want to verify that new user could update their entry (and not other entries) without the directory actually being updated. The mechanism could be used to build more sophisticated security auditing tools. This document defines the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC4510] No-Op control extension. The presence of the No-Op control in an operation request message disables its normal effect upon the directory which operation would otherwise have. Instead of updating the directory and returning the normal indication of success, the server does not update the directory and indicates so by returning the noOperation resultCode (introduced below). For example, when the No-Op control is present in a LDAP modify operation [RFC4511], the server is do all processing necessary to perform the operation without actually updating the directory. If it detects an error during this processing, it returns a non-success (other than noOperation) resultCode as it normally would. Otherwise, it returns the noOperation. In either case, the directory is left unchanged. This No-Op control is not intended to be to an "effective access" mechanism [RFC2820, U12]. 1.1. 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]. DN stands for Distinguished Name. DSA stands for Directory System Agent. DSE stands for DSA-specific entry. Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-11 31 August 2007 2. No-Op Control The No-Op control is an LDAP Control [RFC4511] whose controlType is IANA-ASSIGNED-OID and controlValue is absent. Clients MUST provide a criticality value of TRUE to prevent unintended modification of the directory. The control is appropriate for request messages of LDAP Add, Delete, Modify and ModifyDN operations [RFC4511]. The control is also appropriate for requests of extended operations which update the directory (or other data stores), such as Password Modify Extended Operation [RFC3062]. There is no corresponding response control. When the control is attached to an LDAP request, the server does all normal processing possible for the operation without modification of the directory. That is, when the control is attached to an LDAP request, the directory SHALL NOT be updated and the response SHALL NOT have a resultCode of success (0). A result code other than noOperation (IANA-ASSIGNED-CODE) means that the server is unable or unwilling to complete the processing for the reason indicated by the result code. A result code of noOperation (IANA-ASSIGNED-CODE) indicates that the server discovered no reason why the operation would fail if submitted without the No-Op control. It is noted that there may be reasons why the operation may fail which are only discoverable when submitting without the No-Op control. Servers SHOULD indicate their support for this control by providing IANA-ASSIGNED-OID as a value of the 'supportedControl' attribute type [RFC4512] in their root DSE entry. A server MAY choose to advertise this extension only when the client is authorized to use this operation. 3. Security Considerations The No-Op control mechanism allows directory administrators and users to verify that access control and other administrative policy controls are properly configured. The mechanism may also lead to the development (and deployment) of more effective security auditing tools. Implementors of this LDAP extension should be familiar with security considerations applicable to the LDAP operations [RFC4511] extended by this control, as well as general LDAP security considerations [Roadmap]. Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-11 31 August 2007 4. IANA Considerations 4.1. Object Identifier It is requested that IANA assign an LDAP Object Identifier [RFC4520] to identify the LDAP No-Op Control defined in this document. Subject: Request for LDAP Object Identifier Registration Person & email address to contact for further information: Kurt Zeilenga Specification: RFC XXXX Author/Change Controller: IESG Comments: Identifies the LDAP No-Op Control 4.2 LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration of this protocol mechanism is requested [RFC4520]. Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration Object Identifier: IANA-ASSIGNED-OID Description: No-Op Control Person & email address to contact for further information: Kurt Zeilenga Usage: Control Specification: RFC XXXX Author/Change Controller: IESG Comments: none 4.3 LDAP Result Code Assignment of an LDAP Result Code called 'noOperation' is requested. Subject: LDAP Result Code Registration Person & email address to contact for further information: Kurt Zeilenga Result Code Name: noOperation Specification: RFC XXXX Author/Change Controller: IESG Comments: none 5. Author's Address Kurt D. Zeilenga Isode Limited Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 4] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-11 31 August 2007 Email: Kurt.Zeilenga@Isode.COM 6. References [[Note to the RFC Editor: please replace the citation tags used in referencing Internet-Drafts with tags of the form RFCnnnn where possible.]] 6.1. Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997. [RFC4510] Zeilenga, K. (editor), "LDAP: Technical Specification Road Map", RFC 4510, June 2006. [RFC4511] Sermersheim, J. (editor), "LDAP: The Protocol", RFC 4511, June 2006. [RFC4512] Zeilenga, K. (editor), "LDAP: Directory Information Models", RFC 4512, June 2006. 6.2. Informative References [X.500] International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "The Directory -- Overview of concepts, models and services," X.500(1993) (also ISO/IEC 9594-1:1994). [RFC2820] Stokes, E., et. al., "Access Control Requirements for LDAP", RFC 2820, May 2000. [RFC3062] Zeilenga, K., "LDAP Password Modify Extended Operation", RFC 3062, February 2000. [RFC4520] Zeilenga, K., "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Considerations for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)", RFC 4520, BCP 64, June 2006. Intellectual Property The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 5] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-noop-11 31 August 2007 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Full Copyright Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Zeilenga LDAP No-Op Control [Page 6]