Authentication-related extended operations

The "Who am I?" extended request is defined in RFC 4532. It behaves much like the authorization identity request control in that it returns the authorization identity associated with the connection and it should always be in dn: form in the PingDirectory server, but this request can be issued at any time on a connection to retrieve the current authorization identity for that connection.

Use the proprietary get password quality requirements extended operation to request that the PingDirectory server provide a list of the requirements that the server enforces when setting a password.

The request control allows you to indicate the context in which the password is provided (for example, whether it’s an add request, a self password change, or an administrative password reset) because the requirements can vary in different circumstances.

The extended result includes a list of the requirements the server will impose, including a human readable description for each and an optional name and set of properties that can allow for some client-side validation. The result might also indicate whether the user is required to provide their current password, whether they are required to choose a new password after the add or administrative reset, and how long a new password is valid before it expires.

The proprietary generate password extended operation is used to request that PingDirectory server generate one or more suggested passwords and return them to the client.

This is intended for use by applications that allow a user to change their password or allow an administrator to reset user passwords and want to allow the server to suggest several strong options that the user can choose from or use as examples when choosing their own password.

As with the generate password request control, this extended operation relies on a password generator to create the passwords. While it might optionally try multiple times to generate passwords that pass validation, it can ultimately return passwords that do not satisfy all of the configured password validators. For each generated password included in the extended response, the server indicates whether that password passed validation, and if not, it might include a list of errors that explain the reasons it was not considered acceptable.

There is an extended operation to verify a user’s password. Read carefully before enabling this operation.

For security reasons, PingDirectory provides vague responses to bind requests. If an authentication attempt is unsuccessful, the server doesn’t communicate the reason for the failure. Additionally, for both security and performance reasons, the server doesn’t attempt to verify the provided credentials if it can determine that the target account is not in a usable state (for example, if it has been administratively disabled, or if it has been locked as a result of too many previous authentication failures).

The verify-password extended operation enables you to differentiate the authentication response to the client with respect to certain kinds of failures. For example, if you can determine that a user’s account has been locked as a result of too many failed authentication attempts, you can present the user with a means of resetting the password if and only if you can verify that the provided password was correct.

The verify-password extended operation determines if a provided password is correct for a specified user without performing any other password policy processing for that user. This verification is available even if the target account isn’t currently allowed to authenticate, and it won’t cause any updates to the user’s entry as a result of the determination.

Because of the security risks associated with using verify-password, there are a number of restrictions in place to ensure that it can only be used by authorized clients, including: