2.2 What Is an Attribute?

The concepts of attribute types and attribute syntax were mentioned briefly in the previous chapter. Attribute types and the associated syntax rules are similar to variable and data type declarations found in many programming languages. The comparison is not that big of a stretch. Attributes are used to hold values. Variables in programs perform a similar task�they store information.

When a variable is declared in a program, it is defined to be of a certain data type. This data type specifies what type of information can be stored in the variable, along with certain other rules, such as how to compare the variable's value to the data stored in another variable of the same type. For example, declaring a 16-bit integer variable in a program and then assigning it a value of 1,000,000 would make no sense (the maximum value represented by a signed 16-bit integer is 32,767). The data type of a 16-bit integer determines what data can be stored. The data type also determines how values of like type can be compared. Is 3 < 5? Yes, of course it is. How do you know? Because there exists a set of rules for comparing integers with other integers. The syntax of LDAP attribute types performs a similar function as the data type in these examples.

Unlike variables, however, LDAP attributes can be multivalued. Most procedural programming languages today enforce "store and replace" semantics of variable assignment, and so my analogy falls apart. That is, when you assign a new value to a variable, its old value is replaced. As you'll see, this isn't true for LDAP; assigning a new value to an attribute adds the value to the list of values the attribute already has. Here's the LDIF listing for the ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org entry from Figure 2-1; it demonstrates the purpose of multivalued attributes:

# LDIF listing for dn: ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org
dn: ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org
objectclass: organizationalUnit
ou: devices
telephoneNumber: +1 256 555-5446
telephoneNumber: +1 256 555-5447
description: Container for all network enabled 
 devices existing within the plainjoe.org domain

Note that the description attribute spans two lines. Line continuation in LDIF is implemented by leaving exactly one space at the beginning of a line. LDIF does not require a backslash (\) to continue one line to the next, as is common in many Unix configuration files.

The LDIF file lists two values for the telephoneNumber attribute. In real life, it's common for an entity to be reachable via two or more phone numbers. Be aware that some attributes can contain only a single value at any given time. Whether an attribute is single- or multivalued depends on the attribute's definition in the server's schema. Examples of single-valued attributes include an entry's country (c), displayable name (displayName), or a user's Unix numeric ID (uidNumber).

2.2.1 Attribute Syntax

An attribute type's definition lays the groundwork for answers to questions such as, "What type of values can be stored in this attribute?", "Can these two values be compared?", and, if so, "How should the comparison take place?"

Continuing with our telephoneNumber example, suppose you search the directory for the person who owns the phone number 555-5446. This may seem easy when you first think about it. However, RFC 2252 explains that a telephone number can contain characters other than digits (0-9) and a hyphen (-). A telephone number can include:

• a-z

• A-Z

• 0-9

• Various punctuation characters such as commas, periods, parentheses, hyphens, colons, question marks, and spaces

555.5446 or 555 5446 are also correct matches to 555-5446. What about the area code? Should we also use it in a comparison of phone numbers?

Attribute type definitions include matching rules that tell an LDAP server how to make comparisons�which, as we've seen, isn't as easy as it seems. In Figure 2-3, taken from RFC 2256, the telephoneNumber attribute has two associated matching rules. The telephoneNumberMatch rule is used for equality comparisons. While RFC 2552 defines telephoneNumberMatch as a whitespace-insensitive comparison only, this rule is often implemented to be case-insensitive as well. The telephoneNumberSubstringsMatch rule is used for partial telephone number matches�for example, when the search criteria includes wildcards, such as "555*5446".

Figure 2-3. telephoneNumber attribute type definition

The SYNTAX keyword specifies the object identifier (OID) of the encoding rules used for storing and transmitting values of the attribute type. The number enclosed by curly braces ({ }) specifies the minimum recommended maximum length of the attribute's value that a server should support.

Object Identifiers (OIDs) LDAPv3 uses OIDs such as those used in SNMP MIBs. SNMP OIDs are allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) under the mgmt(2) branch of the number space displayed in Figure 2-4. Newly created LDAPv3 OIDs generally fall under the private(4), enterprise(1) branch of the tree. However, it is also common to see numbers under the joint-ISO-ccitt(2) branch of the number tree. OIDs beginning with 2.5.4 come from the user attribute specifications defined by X.500. An OID is a string of dotted numbers that uniquely identifies items such as attributes, syntaxes, object classes, and extended controls. The allocation of enterprise numbers by IANA is similar to the central distribution of IP address blocks; once you have been assigned an enterprise number by the IANA, you can create your own OIDs underneath that number. Unlike the IP address space, there is no limit to the number of OIDs you can create because there's no limit to the length of an OID. For example, assume that you were issued the enterprise number 55555. Therefore, all OIDs belonging to your branch of the OID tree would begin with 1.3.6.1.4.1.55555. How this subtree is divided is at your discretion. You may choose to allocate 1.3.6.1.4.1.55555.1 to department A and 1.3.5.1.4.1.55555.2 to department B. Each allocated branch of your OID is referred to as an arc. The local administrators of these departments could then subdivide their arcs according to the needs of their network. OID assignments must be unique worldwide. If you ever need to make custom schema files for your directory (a common practice), go to http://www.iana.org/cgi-bin/enterprise.pl and request a private enterprise number. The form is short and normally takes one to two weeks to be processed. Once you have your own enterprise number, you can create your own OIDs without worrying about conflicts with OIDs that have already been assigned. RFC 3383 describes some best practices for registering new LDAP values with IANA.

Figure 2-4. Private enterprise OID number space

2.2.2 What Does the Value of the objectClass Attribute Mean?

All entries in an LDAP directory must have an objectClass attribute, and this attribute must have at least one value. Multiple values for the objectClass attribute are both possible and common given certain requirements, as you shall soon see. Each objectClass value acts as a template for the data to be stored in an entry. It defines a set of attributes that must be present in the entry and a set of optional attributes that may or may not be present.

Let's go back and reexamine the LDIF representation of the ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org entry:

# LDIF listing for dn: ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org
dn: ou=devices,dc=plainjoe,dc=org
objectclass: organizationalUnit
ou: devices
telephoneNumber: +1 256 555-5446
telephoneNumber: +1 256 555-5447
description: Container for all network enabled 
 devices existing within the plainjoe.org domain

In this case, the entry's objectClass is an organizationalUnit. (The schema definition for this is illustrated by two different representations in Figure 2-5.) The listing on the right shows the actual definition of the objectClass from RFC 2256; the box on the left summarizes the required and optional attributes.

Figure 2-5. organizationalUnit object class

Here's how to understand an objectClass definition:

• An objectClass possesses an OID, just like attribute types, encoding syntaxes, and matching rules.

• The keyword MUST denotes a set of attributes that must be present in any instance of this object. In this case, "present" means "possesses at least one value."

  To represent a zero-length attribute value in LDIF syntax, the attribute name must be followed by a colon and zero or more spaces, and then a CR or CF/LF. For example, the following LDIF line stores a zero-length description: description:<ENTER>

• The keyword MAY defines a set of attributes whose presence is optional in an instance of the object.

• The keyword SUP specifies the parent object from which this object was derived. A derived object possesses all the attribute type requirements of its parent. Attributes can be derived from other attributes as well, inheriting the syntax of its parent as well as matching rules, although the latter can be locally overridden by the new attribute. LDAP objects do not support multiple inheritance; they have a single parent object, like Java objects.

• It is possible for two object classes to have common attribute members. Because the attribute type namespace is flat for an entire schema, the telephoneNumber attribute belonging to an organizationalUnit is the same attribute type as the telephoneNumber belonging to some other object class, such as a person (which is covered later in this chapter).

Object Class Types Three types of object class definitions are used in LDAP directory servers: Structural object classes Represent a real-world object, such as a person or an organizationalUnit. Each entry within an LDAP directory must have exactly one structural object class listed in the objectClass attribute. According to the LDAP data model, once an entry's structural object class has been instantiated, it cannot be changed without deleting and re-adding the entire entry. Auxiliary object classes Add certain characteristics to a structural class. These classes cannot be used on their own, but only to supplement an existing structural object. There is a special auxiliary object class referred to in RFC 2252 named extensibleObject, which an LDAP server may support. This object class implicitly includes all attributes defined in the server's schema as optional members. Abstract object classes Act the same as their counterparts in object-oriented programming. These classes cannot be used directly, but only as ancestors of derived classes. The most common abstract class relating to LDAP (and X.500) that you will use is the top object class, which is the parent or ancestor of all LDAP object classes. Note that the type of an object cannot be changed by a derived class.