Protocol - LDAP

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.

The LDAP application is often the master piece of the authentication process for the software in a centralized security management. The software which is configured with LDAP authentication send to it the user and the password given in the login screen and wait a response (positive of negative) from it.

You can get more information from the LDAP directory as :

• email,
• title,
• telephone,
• address….

This kind of data objects are name attributes and are organized in a logical and hierarchical manner.

An LDAP directory tree often reflects various political, geographic, and/or organizational boundaries, depending on the model chosen. LDAP deployments today tend to use Domain name system (DNS) names for structuring the topmost levels of the hierarchy. Deeper inside the directory might appear entries representing people, organizational units, printers, documents, groups of people or anything else that represents a given tree entry (or multiple entries).

You can query a ldap directory with the help of ldap client tool such as:

• ldp.
• ldapsearch