INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga Intended Category: Standard Track OpenLDAP Foundation Date: 20 December 2001 Steven Legg Expires: 20 June 2002 Adacel Technologies Subentries in LDAP 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 Informational document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extension 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 2001, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved. Please see the Copyright section near the end of this document for more information. Abstract In X.500 directories, subentries are special entries used to hold information associated with a subtree or subtree refinement. This document adapts X.500 subentries mechanisms for use with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 Conventions Schema definitions are provided using LDAP description formats [RFC2252]. Definitions provided here are formatted (line wrapped) for readability. Protocol elements are described using ASN.1 [X.680]. The term "BER-encoded" means the element is to be encoded using the Basic Encoding Rules [X.690] under the restrictions detailed in Section 5.1 of [RFC2251]. 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]. 1. Overview From [X.501]: A subentry is a special kind of entry immediately subordinate to an administrative point. It contains attributes that pertain to a subtree (or subtree refinement) associated with its administrative point. The subentries and their administrative point are part of the same naming context. A single subentry may serve all or several aspects of administrative authority. Alternatively, a specific aspect of administrative authority may be handled through one or more of its own subentries. Subentries in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [LDAPTS] SHALL behave in accordance with X.501 unless noted otherwise in this specification. In absence of the subentries control (detailed in Section 3), subentries SHALL NOT be considered in one-level and subtree scope search operations. For all other operations, including base scope search operations, subentries SHALL be considered. 2. Subentry Schema 2.1. Subtree Specification Syntax The Subtree Specification syntax provides a general purpose mechanism for the specification of a subset of entries in a subtree of the Directory Information Tree (DIT). A subtree begins at some base entry and includes the subordinates of that entry down to some identified Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 lower boundary, possibly extending to the leaf entries. A subtree specification is always used within a context or scope which implicitly determines the bounds of the subtree. For example, the scope of a subtree specification for a subschema administrative area does not include the subtrees of any subordinate administrative point entries for subschema administration. Where a subtree specification does not identify a contiguous subset of the entries within a single subtree the collection is termed a subtree refinement. This syntax corresponds to the SubtreeSpecification ASN.1 type described in [X.501], Section 11.3. This ASN.1 data type definition is reproduced here for completeness. SubtreeSpecification ::= SEQUENCE { base [0] LocalName DEFAULT { }, COMPONENTS OF ChopSpecification, specificationFilter [4] Refinement OPTIONAL } LocalName ::= RDNSequence ChopSpecification ::= SEQUENCE { specificExclusions [1] SET OF CHOICE { chopBefore [0] LocalName, chopAfter [1] LocalName } OPTIONAL, minimum [2] BaseDistance DEFAULT 0, maximum [3] BaseDistance OPTIONAL} BaseDistance ::= INTEGER (0 .. MAX) Refinement ::= CHOICE { item [0] OBJECT-CLASS.&id, and [1] SET OF Refinement, or [2] SET OF Refinement, not [3] Refinement } The components of SubtreeSpecification are: base, which identifies the base entry of the subtree or subtree refinement, and specificExclusions, minimum, maximum and specificationFilter, which then reduce the set of subordinate entries of the base entry. The subtree or subtree refinement contains all the entries within scope that are not excluded by any of the components of the subtree specification. When all of the components of SubtreeSpecification are absent (i.e. when a value of the Subtree Specification syntax is the empty sequence, {}), the subtree so specified implicitly includes all the entries within scope. Any particular use of this mechanism MAY impose limitations or Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 constraints on the components of SubtreeSpecification. The LDAP syntax specification is: ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.45 DESC 'SubtreeSpecification' ) The native LDAP encoding of values of this syntax is defined by the Generic String Encoding Rules described in Section 8 of [COMPONENT]. Appendix A provides an equivalent ABNF for this syntax. 2.1.1. Base The base component of SubtreeSpecification nominates the base entry of the subtree or subtree refinement. The base entry may be an entry which is subordinate to the root entry of the scope in which the subtree specification is used, in which case the base component contains a sequence of RDNs relative to the root entry of the scope, or may be the root entry of the scope itself (the default), in which case the base component is absent or contains an empty sequence of RDNs. Entries that are not subordinates of the base entry are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement. 2.1.2. Specific Exclusions The specificExclusions component of a ChopSpecification is a list of exclusions that specify entries and their subordinates to be excluded from the the subtree or subtree refinement. The entry is specified by a sequence of RDNs relative to the base entry (i.e. a LocalName). Each exclusion is of either the chopBefore or chopAfter form. If the chopBefore form is used then the specified entry and its subordinates are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement. If the chopAfter form is used then only the subordinates of the specified entry are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement. 2.1.3. Minimum and Maximum The minimum and maximum components of a ChopSpecification allow the exclusion of entries based on their depth in the DIT. Entries that are less than the minimum number of RDN arcs below the base entry are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement. A minimum value of zero (the default) corresponds to the base entry. Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 4] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 Entries that are more than the maximum number of RDN arcs below the base entry are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement. An absent maximum component indicates that there is no upper limit on the number of RDN arcs below the base entry for entries in the subtree or subtree refinement. 2.1.4. Specification Filter The specificationFilter component is a boolean expression of assertions about the values of the objectClass attribute of the base entry and its subordinates. A Refinement assertion item evaluates to true for an entry if that entry's objectClass attribute contains the OID nominated in the assertion. Entries for which the overall filter evaluates to false are excluded from the subtree refinement. If the specificationFilter is absent then no entries are excluded from the subtree or subtree refinement because of their objectClass attribute values. 2.2. Administrative Role Attribute Type The Administrative Model defined in [X.501], clause 10 requires that administrative entries contain an administrativeRole attribute to indicate that the associated administrative area is concerned with one or more administrative roles. The administrativeRole operational attribute is specified as follows: ( 2.5.18.5 NAME 'administrativeRole' EQUALITY objectIdentifierMatch USAGE directoryOperation SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.38 ) The possible values of this attribute defined in X.501 are: OID NAME -------- ------------------------------- 2.5.23.1 autonomousArea 2.5.23.2 accessControlSpecificArea 2.5.23.3 accessControlInnerArea 2.5.23.4 subschemaAdminSpecificArea 2.5.23.5 collectiveAttributeSpecificArea 2.5.23.6 collectiveAttributeInnerArea Other values may be defined in other specifications. Names associated with each administrative role are Object Identifier Descriptors [LDAPIANA]. Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 5] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 The administrativeRole operational attribute is also used to regulate the subentries permitted to be subordinate to an administrative entry. A subentry not of a class permitted by the administrativeRole attribute cannot be subordinate to the administrative entry. 2.3. Subtree Specification Attribute Type The subtreeSpecification operational attribute is defined as follows: ( 2.5.18.6 NAME 'subtreeSpecification' SINGLE-VALUE USAGE directoryOperation SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.45 ) This attribute is present in all subentries. See [X.501], clause 10. Values of the subtreeSpecification attribute nominate collections of entries within the DIT for one or more aspects of administrative authority. 2.4. Subentry Object Class The subentry object class is a structural object class. ( 2.5.20.0 NAME 'subentry' SUP top STRUCTURAL MUST ( cn $ subtreeSpecification ) ) 3. Subentries Control The subentries control MAY be sent with a searchRequest to control the visibility of subentries which are within scope. Non-visible entries or subentries are not returned in response to the request. The subentries control is an LDAP Control whose controlType is OID.TBD, criticality is TRUE or FALSE (hence absent), and controlValue contains a BER-encoded BOOLEAN indicating visibility. A controlValue containing the value TRUE indicates that normal entries are visible and subentries are not. A controlValue containing the value FALSE indicates that subentries are visible and normal entries are not. The controlValue SHALL NOT be absent. In absence of this control, subentries are not visible to one-level and subtree scope search requests but are visible to base scope search requests. Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 6] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 There is no corresponding response control. This control is not appropriate for non-Search operations. 4. Security Considerations Subentries often hold administrative information or other sensitive information and should be protected from unauthorized access and disclosure as described in [RFC2829][RFC2830]. General LDAP [LDAPTS] security considerations also apply. 5. Acknowledgment This document is based on engineering done by IETF LDUP and LDAPext Working Groups including "LDAP Subentry Schema" by Ed Reed. This document also borrows from a number of ITU documents including X.501. 6. Authors' Addresses Kurt D. Zeilenga OpenLDAP Foundation Email: Kurt@OpenLDAP.org Steven Legg Adacel Technologies Ltd. 405-409 Ferntree Gully Road Mount Waverley, Victoria 3149 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 3 9451 2107 Fax: +61 3 9541 2121 EMail: steven.legg@adacel.com.au 7. Normative References [X.501] ITU-T, "The Directory -- Models," X.501, 1993. [X.680] ITU-T, "Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) - Specification of Basic Notation", X.680, 1994. [X.690] ITU-T, "Specification of ASN.1 encoding rules: Basic, Canonical, and Distinguished Encoding Rules", X.690, 1994. Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 7] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 [RFC2119] S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (was RFC 2119), March 1997. [RFC2251] M. Wahl, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997. [RFC2252] M. Wahl, A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997. [RFC2829] M. Wahl, H. Alvestrand, J. Hodges, R. Morgan, "Authentication Methods for LDAP", RFC 2829, May 2000 [RFC2830] J. Hodges, R. Morgan, M. Wahl, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Extension for Transport Layer Security", RFC 2830, May 2000. [LDAPTS] J. Hodges, R.L. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", draft-ietf-ldapbis-ldapv3-ts-xx.txt, a work in progress. [COMPONENT] S. Legg, "LDAP & X.500 Component Matching Rules", draft-legg-ldapext-component-matching-xx.txt, a work in progress. [LDAPIANA] K. Zeilenga, "IANA Considerations for LDAP", draft-ietf- ldapbis-xx.txt, a work in progress. 8. Informative References [RFC2234] D. Crocker, P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997. [GCE] S. Legg, "Common Elements of GSER Encodings", draft-legg-ldap-gser-abnf-xx.txt, a work in progress. A. Subtree Specification ABNF This appendix is non-normative. The native LDAP (i.e. string) encoding for the Subtree Specification syntax is specified by the Generic String Encoding Rules in Section 8 of [COMPONENT]. The ABNF [RFC2234] in this appendix for this syntax is provided only as a convenience and is equivalent to the encoding specified by the application of [COMPONENT]. Since the SubtreeSpecification ASN.1 type may be extended in future editions of Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 8] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 [X.501], the provided ABNF should be regarded as a snapshot in time. The native LDAP encoding for any extension to the SubtreeSpecification ASN.1 type can be determined from [COMPONENT]. In the event that there is a discrepancy between this ABNF and the encoding determined by [COMPONENT], [COMPONENT] is to be taken as definitive. SubtreeSpecification = "{" [ sp base ] [ sep sp specificExclusions ] [ sep sp minimum ] [ sep sp maximum ] [ sep sp specificationFilter ] sp "}" base = id-base msp LocalName specificExclusions = id-specificExclusions msp SpecificExclusions minimum = id-minimum msp BaseDistance maximum = id-maximum msp BaseDistance specificationFilter = id-specificationFilter msp Refinement id-base = %x62.61.73.65 ; "base" id-specificExclusions = %x73.70.65.63.69.66.69.63.45.78.63.6C.75.73 %x69.6F.6E.73 ; "specificExclusions" id-minimum = %x6D.69.6E.69.6D.75.6D ; "minimum" id-maximum = %x6D.61.78.69.6D.75.6D ; "maximum" id-specificationFilter = %x73.70.65.63.69.66.69.63.61.74.69.6F.6E.46 %x69.6C.74.65.72 ; "specificationFilter" SpecificExclusions = "{" sp SpecificExclusion *( "," sp SpecificExclusion ) sp "}" SpecificExclusion = chopBefore / chopAfter chopBefore = id-chopBefore ":" LocalName chopAfter = id-chopAfter ":" LocalName id-chopBefore = %x63.68.6F.70.42.65.66.6F.72.65 ; "chopBefore" id-chopAfter = %x63.68.6F.70.41.66.74.65.72 ; "chopAfter" Refinement = item / and / or / not item = id-item ":" OBJECT-IDENTIFIER and = id-and ":" Refinements or = id-or ":" Refinements not = id-not ":" Refinement Refinements = "{" [ sp Refinement *( "," sp Refinement ) ] sp "}" id-item = %x69.74.65.6D ; "item" id-and = %x61.6E.64 ; "and" id-or = %x6F.72 ; "or" id-not = %x6E.6F.74 ; "not" Zeilenga draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 9] INTERNET-DRAFT Subentries in LDAP 20 December 2001 BaseDistance = INTEGER The , , , , and rules are defined in [GCE]. Copyright 2001, The Internet Society. 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 implementation 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. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE AUTHORS, THE INTERNET SOCIETY, AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS 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 draft-zeilenga-ldap-subentry-02 [Page 10]