A Simple node Library that Authenticates a User Against an LDAP/AD Server

Goal

Make authentication with an LDAP server easy.

Description

This library use ldapts as the underneath library. It has three modes of authentications:

1. Admin authenticate mode. If an admin user is provided, the library will login (ldap bind) with the admin user, then search for the user to be authenticated, get its DN (distinguish name), then use the user DN and password to login again. If every thing is ok, the user details will be returned.

2. Self authenticate mode. If the admin user is not provided, then the userDn and userPassword must be provided. If any of userSearchBase or usernameAttribute is missing, then the lib simply does a login with the userDn and userPassword (ldap bind), and returns true if succeeds.

   Otherwise, the lib does a login with the userDn and userPassword (ldap bind), then does a search on the user and return the user's details.

3. Verify user exists. If an verifyUserExists : true is provided, the library will login (ldap bind) with the admin user, then search for the user to be verified. If the user exists, user details will be returned (without verifying the user's password).

In addition, the fetchUsers() function can be used to fetch all users under a search base, using the admin account to search (without any username or password of the individual users). The search always uses LDAP paged results, so the common server-side limit of 1000 entries per search does not apply.

Features

• Can use an admin to search and authenticate a user
• Can also use a regular user and authenticate the user itself
• Supports ldap, ldaps, and STARTTLS
• Async/Await Promise

Usage

Installation

npm install ldap-authentication --save

Examples

• An example on how to use with Passport is passport-ldap-example

• Another simple library express-passport-ldap-mongoose provide turn key solution

User authenticate without getting user details

let authenticated = await authenticate({
  ldapOpts: { url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com' },
  userDn: 'uid=gauss,dc=example,dc=com',
  userPassword: 'password',
})

User authenticate and return user details

let authenticated = await authenticate({
  ldapOpts: { url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com' },
  userDn: 'uid=gauss,dc=example,dc=com',
  userPassword: 'password',
  userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
  usernameAttribute: 'uid',
  username: 'gauss',
  attributes: ['dn', 'sn', 'cn'],
})

User exists verification and return user details (without user's password)

let authenticated = await authenticate({
  ldapOpts: { url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com' },
  userDn: 'uid=gauss,dc=example,dc=com',
  verifyUserExists: true,
  userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
  usernameAttribute: 'uid',
  username: 'gauss',
})

User authenticate and return user details with groups

let authenticated = await authenticate({
  ldapOpts: { url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com' },
  userDn: 'uid=gauss,dc=example,dc=com',
  userPassword: 'password',
  userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
  usernameAttribute: 'uid',
  username: 'gauss',
  groupsSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
  groupClass: 'groupOfUniqueNames',
  groupMemberAttribute: 'uniqueMember',
  // groupMemberUserAttribute: 'dn'
})

Fetch all users (admin search, without user passwords)

const { fetchUsers } = require('ldap-authentication')

let users = await fetchUsers({
  ldapOpts: { url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com' },
  adminDn: 'cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com',
  adminPassword: 'password',
  userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
  // userFilter: '(objectClass=person)',  // default: (|(uid=*)(sAMAccountName=*))
  // attributes: ['uid', 'sn', 'mail'],   // omitted = all attributes
  // pageSize: 500,                       // default: 1000
})

Complete example

The library works with both CommonJS and ES modules:

import { authenticate } from 'ldap-authentication'
// or
const { authenticate } = require('ldap-authentication')

const { authenticate } = require('ldap-authentication')

async function auth() {
  // auth with admin
  let options = {
    ldapOpts: {
      url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com',
      // tlsOptions: { rejectUnauthorized: false }
    },
    adminDn: 'cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com',
    adminPassword: 'password',
    userPassword: 'password',
    userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
    usernameAttribute: 'uid',
    username: 'gauss',
    // starttls: false
  }

  let user = await authenticate(options)
  console.log(user)

  // auth with regular user
  options = {
    ldapOpts: {
      url: 'ldap://ldap.forumsys.com',
      // tlsOptions: { rejectUnauthorized: false }
    },
    userDn: 'uid=einstein,dc=example,dc=com',
    userPassword: 'password',
    userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
    usernameAttribute: 'uid',
    username: 'einstein',
    // starttls: false
  }

  user = await authenticate(options)
  console.log(user)
}

auth()

Example with StartTLS

import { authenticate } from 'ldap-authentication'

async function auth() {
  // auth with admin
  let options = {
    ldapOpts: {
      url: 'ldap://ldap.example.com',
      tlsOptions: {
        rejectUnauthorized: false, // For self-signed certificates
        minVersion: 'TLSv1.2',
        servername: 'ldap.example.com' // For SNI (Server Name Indication)
      }
    },
    starttls: true, // Enable StartTLS
    adminDn: 'cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com',
    adminPassword: 'password',
    userPassword: 'password',
    userSearchBase: 'dc=example,dc=com',
    usernameAttribute: 'uid',
    username: 'testuser'
  }

  let user = await authenticate(options)
  console.log(user)
}

auth()

Important Notes for StartTLS:

• Use ldap:// URLs with starttls: true (not ldaps://)
• For ldaps:// URLs, omit starttls and the connection will use TLS from the start
• TLS options like rejectUnauthorized, minVersion, and servername can be specified in ldapOpts.tlsOptions

Runnable examples

The example/ directory contains complete, runnable scripts: admin auth, self auth, group lookup, fetchUsers, verifyUserExists, and StartTLS. They run against the bundled seeded test server (start it via docker compose up -d, or point LDAP_URL at your own server):

docker compose up -d               # seeded OpenLDAP on localhost:1389 / 1636
node example/fetch-users.mjs       # or any other script in example/
docker compose down

Parameters

• ldapOpts: This is passed to ldapts client directly
  • url: url of the ldap server. Example: ldap://ldap.forumsys.com
  • tlsOptions: options to pass to node tls. Example: { rejectUnauthorized: false }
  • connectTimeout: Int. Default: 5000. Connect timeout in ms
• adminDn: The DN of the admistrator. Example: cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com,
• adminPassword: The password of the admin.
• userDn: The DN of the user to be authenticated. This is only needed if adminDn and adminPassword are not provided. Example: uid=gauss,dc=example,dc=com
• userPassword: The password of the user
• verifyUserExists : if true user existence will be verified without password
• userSearchBase: The ldap base DN to search the user. Example: dc=example,dc=com
• usernameAttribute: The ldap search equality attribute name corresponding to the user's username. It will be used with the value in username to construct an ldap filter as ({attribute}={username}) to find the user and get user details in LDAP. In self authenticate mode (userDn and userPassword are provided, but not adminDn and adminPassword), if this value is not set, then authenticate will return true right after user bind succeed. No user details from LDAP search will be performed and returned. Example: uid
• usernameFilter: Prioritized alternative to usernameAttribute, allows you to provide a filter where {{username}} will be replaced with the username provided Example: (|(uid={{username}})(mail={{username}}))
• username: The username to authenticate with. It is used together with the name in usernameAttribute to construct an ldap filter as ({attribute}={username}) to find the user and get user details in LDAP. Example: some user input
• userFilter: (used by fetchUsers()) The ldap search filter to select the users to return. By default it is (|(uid=*)(sAMAccountName=*)), which matches both POSIX (uid) and Active Directory (sAMAccountName) users. Example: '(objectClass=person)', or '(objectClass=*)' to match everything
• pageSize: (used by fetchUsers()) The number of entries to fetch per page for the paged search. Default: 1000
• attributes: A list of attributes of a user details to be returned from the LDAP server. If is set to [] or ommited, all details will be returned. Example: ['sn', 'cn']
• starttls: Boolean. Use STARTTLS or not. When true, the connection will be upgraded to TLS using the STARTTLS extended operation. TLS options can be specified in ldapOpts.tlsOptions. Note: Use starttls: true with ldap:// URLs, not ldaps:// URLs
• groupsSearchBase: if specified with groupClass, will serve as search base for authenticated user groups
• groupClass: if specified with groupsSearchBase, will be used as objectClass in search filter for authenticated user groups
• groupMemberAttribute: if specified with groupClass and groupsSearchBase, will be used as member name (if not specified this defaults to member) in search filter for authenticated user groups
• groupMemberUserAttribute: if specified with groupClass and groupsSearchBase, will be used as the attribute on the user object (if not specified this defaults to dn) in search filter for authenticated user groups

Which options for which mode?

Mode (call)	Required	Commonly used in addition
Admin authenticate (authenticate)	ldapOpts, adminDn, adminPassword, userPassword, userSearchBase, usernameAttribute or usernameFilter, username	attributes, groupsSearchBase, groupClass, starttls
Self authenticate (authenticate)	ldapOpts, userDn, userPassword	userSearchBase, usernameAttribute, attributes, groupsSearchBase, starttls
Verify user exists (authenticate with verifyUserExists: true)	ldapOpts, adminDn, adminPassword, userSearchBase, usernameAttribute or usernameFilter, username	attributes, groupsSearchBase, starttls
Fetch all users (fetchUsers)	ldapOpts, adminDn, adminPassword, userSearchBase	userFilter, attributes, pageSize, starttls

Returns

The user object if authenticate() is success.

In version 4, a new function is added: authenticateResult(). It has the same call signature as authenticate() but returns an object AuthenticationResult with more details.

authenticate() and fetchUsers() throw a LdapAuthenticationError on failure:

• authenticate(): when the failure corresponds to a known outcome, the error's code property holds the matching AUTH_RESULT_* constant (the same value authenticateResult() reports).
• Missing required options throw a LdapAuthenticationError too, with all missing fields listed in the message in a single error.

fetchUsers() returns an array of user objects, one per matched LDAP entry (each with its dn and the returned attributes), or an empty array if no user matches the filter.

AuthenticationResult Object

AuthenticationResult object has the following fields:

• code: number. constants:
  • AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE = 0
  • AUTH_RESULT_SUCCESS = 1
  • AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_IDENTITY_NOT_FOUND = -1
  • AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_IDENTITY_AMBIGUOUS = -2
  • AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_CREDENTIAL_INVALID = -3
  • AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_UNCATEGORIZED = -4
• identity: identity supplied as string
• user: user object if authentication is successful, otherwise null
• message: authentication message array, which contains server messages
• client: ldapClient instance

Active Directory notes

• A typical admin bind DN is a service or admin account, e.g. cn=Administrator,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com, or a dedicated LDAP sync account.
• Username attributes: sAMAccountName for logins like jdoe, userPrincipalName for jdoe@example.com. To look a user up by either at once, use usernameFilter: '(|(sAMAccountName={{username}})(userPrincipalName={{username}}))'.
• Set userSearchBase to the OU containing the users (e.g. ou=users,dc=example,dc=com): the search is faster and avoids AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_IDENTITY_AMBIGUOUS.
• fetchUsers() uses LDAP paged results, so Active Directory's usual 1000-entry limit per search is not an issue (adjust the page size with pageSize if needed).
• Binary attributes such as thumbnailPhoto should be requested as thumbnailPhoto;binary; they are returned as base64-encoded strings.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause / fix
ECONNREFUSED, ETIMEDOUT, or other connect errors	ldapOpts.url is wrong or the server is unreachable. Check the URL, the network/firewall, and connectTimeout.
LdapAuthenticationError with admin bind failed / user bind failed	Wrong adminDn/adminPassword, or userDn/userPassword in self mode. Verify the bind manually, e.g. ldapsearch -b dc=example,dc=com -D <dn> -w <password> dn.
identity not found (AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_IDENTITY_NOT_FOUND)	The user does not exist under userSearchBase, or usernameAttribute/username/usernameFilter does not match the attribute(s) stored on the server.
identity ambiguous (AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_IDENTITY_AMBIGUOUS)	The search matched multiple entries - narrow userSearchBase or make the filter more specific.
Invalid credentials (AUTH_RESULT_FAILURE_CREDENTIAL_INVALID)	The user was found but the password is wrong.
TLS certificate errors	For self-signed certificates use tlsOptions: { rejectUnauthorized: false }; add servername for SNI. Use ldaps:// (without starttls) or ldap:// with starttls: true.

Old Stuff

In version 2, The user object has a raw field that has the raw data from the LDAP/AD server. It can be used to access buffer objects (profile pics for example).

Buffer data can now be accessed by user.raw.profilePhoto, etc, instead of user.profilePhoto.

In version 3, the raw field is no longer used. Instead, append ;binary to the attributes you want to get back as base64-encoded string. Check the following example on how to get a user's profile photo:

export async function verifyLogin(email: string, password: string) {

  const options = {
   //...other config options
    userPassword: password,
    username: email,
    attributes: ['thumbnailPhoto;binary', 'givenName', 'sn', 'sAMAccountName', 'userPrincipalName', 'memberOf' ]
  };

  try {
    const ldapUser = await authenticate(options);

    if (!ldapUser) {
      return { error: "user not found" };
    }

    // accessing the image
    const profilePhoto = ldapUser['thumbnailPhoto;binary'];

    /* using the image
 <img src={`data:image/*;base64,${profilePhoto}`} />
    */
    return { user: ldapUser };
  }
}

Supported Node Versions

Version 2 supports Node version 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.

Version 3 supports Node version 16, 17, 18, 20 and 22.

Version 4 supports Node version 22 and above.