What Is LDAP

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∟LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

∟What Is LDAP

Describes what is LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) - a communication protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

What Is LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)? LDAP is a communication protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. LDAP is specified in RFC 4511: "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): The Protocol" at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4511.

Main features of LDAP are:

It is simpler than DAP (Directory Access Protocol), with duplicate, rarely used and esoteric features removed.
It uses strings to represent data, easier to understand and implement.

LDAP supports 4 models:

Information Model - This model describes structure of information stored in an LDAP Directory.In this basic information is stored in directory is called an entity. Entries here represents object of interest in real world such as people, server, organization, etc. Entries contain collection of attributes that contain information about object.Every attribute has a type and one or more values. Here types of attribute is associated with syntax and syntax specifies what kind of values can be stored.

Naming Model - This model describes how information in an LDAP Directory is organized and identified. In this entries are organized in a Tree-Like structure called Directory Information Tree (DIT). Entries are arranged within DIT based on their distinguished name DN. DN is a unique name that unambiguously identifies a single entry.

Functional Model - This model describes operations for accessing and modifying directory entries in 3 categories: Query, Update, and Authentication.

Security Model - This model describes how information in LDAP directory can be protected from unauthorized access. It is based on BIND operation. There are several bind operation can be performed.