Configure SSL/TLS mutual authentication with OpenLDAP

The goal is to be able to authenticate against OpenLDAP with a X509 client certificate and map identity of client certificate to an LDAP entry.

Certificates and test values

We use these variable names in the tutorial:

CA_SERVER:

Certificate Authority that signed the CERT_SERVER

CERT_SERVER:

Server certificate. Its Common Name must be the DNS name of OpenLDAP server

KEY_SERVER:

Server key.

CA_CLIENT:

Certificate Authority that signed the CERT_CLIENT

CERT_CLIENT:

Client certificate. Its Common Name must be related to a user, with a least a field that exists in the corresponding LDAP entry

KEY_CLIENT:

Client key.

Note

Remove password on KEY_CLIENT as it’s not managed by LDAP client utilities (ldapsearch,…)

We also use these test values:

LDAP DNS name: ldap.example.com

Client certificate Common Name: email=dwho@badwolf.org,cn=dwho,o=SFL,l=Lyon,st=Rhone,c=FR

User LDAP entry: uid=dwho,ou=users,dc=example,dc=com

OpenLDAP server configuration

In cn=config entry [1], use these parameters:

olcAuthzRegexp: {0}"EMAIL=([^,]*)," ldap:///ou=users,dc=example,dc=com??one?(MAIL=$1)
olcTLSCACertificateFile: /path/to/CA_CLIENT
olcTLSCertificateFile: /path/to/CERT_SERVER
olcTLSCertificateKeyFile: /path/to/KEY_SERVER
olcTLSCipherSuite: HIGH:MEDIUM:-SSLv2
olcTLSCRLCheck: none
olcTLSVerifyClient: allow

Client configuration

You can configure some LDAP client settings in $HOME/.ldaprc file:

TLS_REQCERT try
TLS_CACERT /path/to/CA_SERVER
TLS_CERT /path/to/CERT_CLIENT
TLS_KEY /path/to/KEY_CLIENT
SASL_MECH external

Test

You can now connect with client certificate and be identifed as the corresponding LDAP entry.

With STARTTLS:

$ ldapwhoami -H ldap://ldap.example.com -Z
SASL/EXTERNAL authentication started
SASL username: email=dwho@badwolf.org,cn=dwho,o=SFL,l=Lyon,st=Rhone,c=FR
SASL SSF: 0
dn:uid=dwho,ou=users,dc=example,dc=com

With LDAPS:

$ ldapwhoami -H ldaps://ldap.example.com
SASL/EXTERNAL authentication started
SASL username: email=dwho@badwolf.org,cn=dwho,o=SFL,l=Lyon,st=Rhone,c=FR
SASL SSF: 0
dn:uid=dwho,ou=users,dc=example,dc=com

Footnotes