lldap/README.md

lldap - Light LDAP implementation for authentication

LDAP made easy.

About

This project is a lightweight authentication server that provides an opinionated, simplified LDAP interface for authentication. It integrates with many backends, from KeyCloak to Authelia to Nextcloud and more!

The goal is not to provide a full LDAP server; if you're interested in that, check out OpenLDAP. This server is a user management system that is:

• simple to setup (no messing around with slapd),
• simple to manage (friendly web UI),
• low resources,
• opinionated with basic defaults so you don't have to understand the subtleties of LDAP.

It mostly targets self-hosting servers, with open-source components like Nextcloud, Airsonic and so on that only support LDAP as a source of external authentication.

For more features (OAuth/OpenID support, reverse proxy, ...) you can install other components (KeyCloak, Authelia, ...) using this server as the source of truth for users, via LDAP.

Installation

With Docker

The image is available at nitnelave/lldap. You should persist the /data folder, which contains your configuration, the database and the private key file (unless you move them in the config).

Configure the server by copying the lldap_config.docker_template.toml to /data/lldap_config.toml and updating the configuration values (especially the jwt_secret and ldap_user_pass, unless you override them with env variables). Environment variables should be prefixed with LLDAP_ to override the configuration.

Secrets can also be set through a file. The filename should be specified by the variables LLDAP_JWT_SECRET_FILE or LLDAP_USER_PASS_FILE, and the file contents are loaded into the respective configuration parameters. Note that _FILE variables take precedence.

Example for docker compose:

volumes:
  lldap_data:
    driver: local

services:
  lldap:
    image: nitnelave/lldap:stable
    # Change this to the user:group you want.
    user: "33:33"
    ports:
      # For LDAP
      - "3890:3890"
      # For the web front-end
      - "17170:17170"
    volumes:
      - "lldap_data:/data"
      # Alternatively, you can mount a local folder
      # - "./lldap_data:/data"
    environment:
      - LLDAP_JWT_SECRET=REPLACE_WITH_RANDOM
      - LLDAP_LDAP_USER_PASS=REPLACE_WITH_PASSWORD
      - LLDAP_LDAP_BASE_DN=dc=example,dc=com

Then the service will listen on two ports, one for LDAP and one for the web front-end.

From source

To bring up the server, you'll need to compile the frontend. In addition to cargo, you'll need:

• WASM-pack: cargo install wasm-pack
• rollup.js: npm install rollup

Then you can build the frontend files with ./app/build.sh (you'll need to run this after every front-end change to update the WASM package served).

To bring up the server, just run cargo run. The default config is in src/infra/configuration.rs, but you can override it by creating an lldap_config.toml, setting environment variables or passing arguments to cargo run.

Cross-compilation

No Docker image is provided for other architectures, due to the difficulty of setting up cross-compilation inside a Docker image.

Some pre-compiled binaries are provided for each release, starting with 0.2.

If you want to cross-compile, you can do so by installing cross:

cargo install cross
cross build --target=armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf -p lldap --release
./app/build.sh

(Replace armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf with the correct Rust target for your device.)

You can then get the compiled server binary in target/armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf/release/lldap and the various needed files (index.html, main.js, pkg folder) in the app folder. Copy them to the Raspberry Pi (or other target), with the folder structure maintained (app files in an app folder next to the binary).

Client configuration

To configure the services that will talk to LLDAP, here are the values:

• The LDAP user DN is from the configuration. By default, cn=admin,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com.
• The LDAP password is from the configuration (same as to log in to the web UI).
• The users are all located in ou=people, + the base DN, so by default user bob is at cn=bob,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com.
• Similarly, the groups are located in ou=groups, so the group family will be at cn=family,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com.

Testing group membership through memberOf is supported, so you can have a filter like: (memberOf=cn=admins,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com).

The administrator group for LLDAP is lldap_admin: anyone in this group has admin rights in the Web UI.

Sample client configurations

Some specific clients have been tested to work and come with sample configuration files, or guides. See the example_configs folder for help with:

• Authelia
• Bookstack
• KeyCloak
• Jisti Meet

Comparisons with other services

vs OpenLDAP

OpenLDAP is a monster of a service that implements all of LDAP and all of its extensions, plus some of its own. That said, if you need all that flexibility, it might be what you need! Note that installation can be a bit painful (figuring out how to use slapd) and people have mixed experiences following tutorials online. If you don't configure it properly, you might end up storing passwords in clear, so a breach of your server would reveal all the stored passwords!

OpenLDAP doesn't come with a UI: if you want a web interface, you'll have to install one (not that many that look nice) and configure it.

LLDAP is much simpler to setup, has a much smaller image (10x smaller, 20x if you add PhpLdapAdmin), and comes packed with its own purpose-built wed UI.

vs FreeIPA

FreeIPA is the one-stop shop for identity management: LDAP, Kerberos, NTP, DNS, Samba, you name it, it has it. In addition to user management, it also does security policies, single sign-on, certificate management, linux account management and so on.

If you need all of that, go for it! Keep in mind that a more complex system is more complex to maintain, though.

LLDAP is much lighter to run (<100 MB RAM including the DB), easier to configure (no messing around with DNS or security policies) and simpler to use. It also comes conveniently packed in a docker container.

I can't log in!

If you just set up the server, can get to the login page but the password you set isn't working, try the following:

• (For docker): Make sure that the /data folder is persistent, either to a docker volume or mounted from the host filesystem.
• Check if there is a lldap_config.toml file (either in /data for docker or in the current directory). If there isn't, copy lldap_config.docker_template.toml there, and fill in the various values (passwords, secrets, ...).
• Check if there is a users.db file (either in /data for docker or where you specified the DB URL, which defaults to the current directory). If there isn't, check that the user running the command (user with ID 10001 for docker) has the rights to write to the /data folder. If in doubt, you can chmod 777 /data (or whatever the folder) to make it world-writeable.
• Make sure you restart the server.
• If it's still not working, join the Discord server to ask for help.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! Just fork and open a PR. Or just file a bug.

We don't have a code of conduct, just be respectful and remember that it's just normal people doing this for free on their free time.

Make sure that you run cargo fmt from the root before creating the PR. And if you change the GraphQL interface, you'll need to regenerate the schema by running ./export_schema.sh.

Join our Discord server if you have any questions!