Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book

I understand from another posting that it is the R2 ADAMSync that will
create bindproxies for me. I have been using the ADAM/SP1. I hope the
documentation is updated!

Since we want to provide an ADAM as a secure alternative to punching holes
in the firewall for AD, we are really playing to all platforms that have
their own address book-like application. I would expect to serve many WAB
users too, of course.

Our AD is the repository for all employee accounts, whether they be for
Windows, Macintosh, or linux/unix. Most platforms have email systems that
utilize an LDAP lookup. If I couldn't make it work for WAB, how could I
serve the others.

My experience with one or two other address book applications is that they
do well for anonymous lookups and not so well for authenticated lookups.
WAB is like that too. ;-)

However, with the proxied authentication that you refer to here, I would
expect that the authentication will work better like WAB and we will use
SSL/636 to protect the password and data stream.

Should I understand it that the new R2 ADAMSync will do the proxy setup for
each account - avoiding the incredibly difficult process described in the
ADAM/SP1 system? That would be great! (I don't appreciate what DirSync
is.) :-(

I knew I had a good reason to move to the R2 ADAM. We just recently
installed the R2 schema extensions in production! This is great news! :-)

"Lee Flight" <lef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uELwthv2GHA.4164@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have little to add to that other than:

ADAMSync will do AD user to ADAM bindproxy transforms
for you (it just does DirSync under the hood).

Do you really need WAB as opposed to writing your own address
book application. Spending some time with a copy of JoeK's book and
rolling your own app might be a better investment than increasing your
reliance on WAB at this time.

Lee Flight


"Joe Kaplan" <joseph.e.kaplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eMN2NgQ2GHA.1288@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lee is a better guy to ask on sync options. I haven't done this yet.
The bottom line is that you could write a program to do this for you and
ADSI can support this, although not really well with script or VB6. You
are looking at C++ or .NET 2.0, as you really need the DirSync control to
do this well, and script doesn't (and won't) have access to this.

Most people would suggest you get a product that does this, but I'm not
sure about the status of things like ADAMSync with respect to
bindProxies. Last I remember, that wasn't supported but was maybe coming
soon.

Basically, the bind proxy allows your users to hard code their AD
credentials in the WAB settings in order to authenticate. The advantage
here is not having to give out the password to a fixed account, but there
are disadvantages too. If users change passwords in AD and forget to
update WAB, WAB will stop working and will lock out their account if they
try repeatedly (and you enforce pwd lockout). That creates a potentially
costly support nightmare.

Another potential option to avoid the whole problem is changing ADAM to
allow anonymous searches and ACLing the stuff in ADAM appropriately such
that the anonymous user can see only the things you want them to in the
address book. This is obviously less secure, but has a big upside in
terms of both of the other two scenarios in terms of desktop management
nightmares. Your particular requirements will have to guide you here.
:)

Joe K.

--
Joe Kaplan-MS MVP Directory Services Programming
Co-author of "The .NET Developer's Guide to Directory Services
Programming"
http://www.directoryprogramming.net
--
"Rich Raffenetti" <raffenetti@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uSrnfPQ2GHA.5048@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I read about the bindProxy objects and setting one up for each user and
keeping them synchronized scares me a bit. Has anyone written an ADSI
program (or equivalent) to create the bind objects? Of course, this
wouldn't be necessary if WAB was fixed.

"Joe Kaplan" <joseph.e.kaplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eIzZu5M2GHA.480@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes, the issue appears to be with the implementation of WAB and not a
problem with ADAM or SSPI per say. SSPI is certainly capable of using
the current thread's credentials OR using specific credentials, but WAB
is not taking advantage of the latter for some reason, even though the
UI would seem to indicate that it would.

If specific credentials need to be used, it seems to me that the ony
solution for Rich is to create a service account in ADAM and use that
(or create bindProxy objects for each user if it is important that each
user use their own passwords). This would accomodate the simple bind
case, which WAB seems to work with. Since SSL is in use, this would be
secure.

Joe K.

--
Joe Kaplan-MS MVP Directory Services Programming
Co-author of "The .NET Developer's Guide to Directory Services
Programming"
http://www.directoryprogramming.net
--
"Lee Flight" <lef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uuGW43J2GHA.4484@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi

inline below...

"Rich Raffenetti" <raffenetti@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OtYwK%23G2GHA.4108@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I really appreciate your testing and results.

So let me see if I understand it.

Since I need a Windows login, the simple bind is of little interest.

If I want a Windows login to ADAM from Address Book, I must be logged
into a domain account.

That is because the SSPI logon uses the credentials of the logged on
account. If the logged on account is not a domain account, then no
authentication can take place because ADAM does not authenticate
accounts that are not either ADAM accounts or Windows accounts for
the domain that ADAM is in.

The bind method distinguishes for ADAM between windows accounts
(domain or
local to the ADAM instance) and native ADAM accounts. An SSPI
connection
must be a windows account from ADAM perspective and the only
authorities
ADAM can appeal to for auth of the account are domain (joined to or
trusted)
and the OS ADAM server is running on. If the only credentials WAB can
offer
over SSPI are those of the logged on account that runs WAB and if that
account
is not auth'ed by an authority ADAM has access to then there's no
access.


A conclusion is: The username/password supplied to the Address Book
properties pages is not used for authentication to the ADAM
instance - ever! If I report this to MS, will it be considered a bug?
Are any hotfixes known for this?

The username/password in WAB can be used for a simple bind (with or
without
SSL) using credentials of an account that is native to ADAM. SPA must
be
unchecked for this to work. WAB is clunky, the real problem is as JoeK
pointed
out that the use of credentials and the selection of "SPA" in the
interface should
be mutually exclusive (and also no one knows what "SPA" means).
IMO WAB and the Outlook LDAP Address Book could both do with a
refresh;
googling around it seems like WAB may be replaced in vista.

I believe Address Book fails the same way when pointed directly at an
Active Directory domain rather than an ADAM LDAP instance!

Pointing WAB at a DC the only authority is the domain (or trusted
domain)
no local windows SAM auth, clearly any non domain account will fail to
auth.
However unchecking SPA and entering domain credentials (in appropriate
form)
will work against AD (SSL may be required depending on policy) as the
simple
bind with windows credentials will be authenticated by AD.

Lee Flight











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Relevant Pages

  • Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book
    ... wouldn't be necessary if WAB was fixed. ... problem with ADAM or SSPI per say. ... current thread's credentials OR using specific credentials, ... into a domain account. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book
    ... credentials instead of a fixed service account. ... it is a special LDAP control supported by AD and ADAM ... If I couldn't make it work for WAB, ... credentials in the WAB settings in order to authenticate. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book
    ... If I couldn't make it work for WAB, ... I knew I had a good reason to move to the R2 ADAM. ... credentials in the WAB settings in order to authenticate. ... account, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book
    ... If I couldn't make it work for WAB, ... I knew I had a good reason to move to the R2 ADAM. ... credentials in the WAB settings in order to authenticate. ... account, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: ADAM and Windows Address Book
    ... Since we want to provide an ADAM as a secure alternative to punching holes ... If I couldn't make it work for WAB, ... for each account - avoiding the incredibly difficult process described in ... credentials in the WAB settings in order to authenticate. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)