The Directory Server supports the Proxied Authorization Control (RFC 4370) to allow an authorized LDAP client to authenticate to the server as another user. Typically, LDAP servers are deployed as backend authentication systems that store user credentials and authorization privileges necessary to carry out an operation. Single sign-on (SSO) systems can retrieve user credentials from the Directory Server and then issue permissions that allow the LDAP client to request operations under the identity as another user. The use of the proxied authorization control provides a means for client applications to securely process requests without the need to bind or re-authenticate to the server for each and every operation.

The Directory Server supports the proxied authorization V1 and V2 request controls. The proxied authorization V1 request control is based on early versions of the draft-weltman-ldapv3-proxy Internet draft and is available primarily for legacy systems. It is recommended that deployments use the proxied authorization V2 request control based on RFC 4370.

The proxied authorization V2 control is used to request that the associated operation be performed as if it has been requested by some other user. This control may be used in conjunction with add, delete, compare, extended, modify, modify DN, and search requests. In that case, the associated operation will be processed under the authority of the specified authorization identity rather than the identity associated with the client connection (i.e., the user as whom that connection is bound). The target authorization identity for this control is specified as an "authzid" value, which should be either "dn:" followed by the distinguished name of the target user, or "u:" followed by the user name.

Note that because of the inherent security risks associated with the use of the proxied authorization control, most directory servers that support its use enforce strict restrictions on the users that are allowed to request this control. If a user attempts to use the proxied authorization V2 request control and does not have sufficient permission to do so, then the server will return a failure response with the AUTHORIZATION_DENIED result code.