slapo-rwm(5) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | MAPPING | SUFFIX MASSAGING | REWRITING | Passes | Pattern Matching Flags | Action Flags | Pattern Matching | Substitution Pattern Syntax | Rewrite Context | Basic Configuration Syntax | Additional Configuration Syntax | MAPS | REWRITE CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES | MAPPING EXAMPLES | FILES | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

SLAPO-RWM(5)               File Formats Manual              SLAPO-RWM(5)

NAME         top

       slapo-rwm - rewrite/remap overlay to slapd

SYNOPSIS         top

       ETCDIR/slapd.conf

DESCRIPTION         top

       The rwm overlay to slapd(8) performs basic DN/data rewrite and
       objectClass/attributeType mapping.  Its usage is mostly intended
       to provide virtual views of existing data either remotely, in
       conjunction with the proxy backend described in slapd-ldap(5), or
       locally, in conjunction with the relay backend described in
       slapd-relay(5).

       This overlay is experimental.

MAPPING         top

       An important feature of the rwm overlay is the capability to map
       objectClasses and attributeTypes from the local set (or a subset
       of it) to a foreign set, and vice versa.  This is accomplished by
       means of the rwm-map directive.

       rwm-map {attribute | objectclass} [<local name> | *] {<foreign
       name> | *}
              Map attributeTypes and objectClasses from the foreign
              server to different values on the local slapd.  The reason
              is that some attributes might not be part of the local
              slapd's schema, some attribute names might be different
              but serve the same purpose, etc.  If local or foreign name
              is `*', the name is preserved.  If local name is omitted,
              the foreign name is removed.  Unmapped names are preserved
              if both local and foreign name are `*', and removed if
              local name is omitted and foreign name is `*'.

       The local objectClasses and attributeTypes must be defined in the
       local schema; the foreign ones do not have to, but users are
       encouraged to explicitly define the remote attributeTypes and the
       objectClasses they intend to map.  All in all, when remapping a
       remote server via back-ldap (slapd-ldap(5)) or back-meta (‐
       slapd-meta(5)) their definition can be easily obtained by
       querying the subschemaSubentry of the remote server; the problem
       should not exist when remapping a local database.  Note, however,
       that the decision whether to rewrite or not attributeTypes with
       distinguishedName syntax, requires the knowledge of the
       attributeType syntax.  See the REWRITING section for details.

       Note that when mapping DN-valued attributes from local to remote,
       first the DN is rewritten, and then the attributeType is mapped;
       while mapping from remote to local, first the attributeType is
       mapped, and then the DN is rewritten.  As such, it is important
       that the local attributeType is appropriately defined as using
       the distinguishedName syntax.  Also, note that there are DN-
       related syntaxes (i.e. compound types with a portion that is DN-
       valued), like nameAndOptionalUID, whose values are currently not
       rewritten.

       If the foreign type of an attribute mapping is not defined on the
       local server, it might be desirable to have the attribute values
       normalized after the mapping process. Not normalizing the values
       can lead to wrong results, when the rwm overlay is used together
       with e.g. the pcache overlay. This normalization can be enabled
       by means of the rwm-normalize-mapped-attrs directive.

       rwm-normalize-mapped-attrs {yes|no}
              Set this to "yes", if the rwm overlay should try to
              normalize the values of attributes that are mapped from an
              attribute type that is unknown to the local server. The
              default value of this setting is "no".

       rwm-drop-unrequested-attrs {yes|no}
              Set this to "yes", if the rwm overlay should drop
              attributes that are not explicitly requested by a search
              operation.  When this is set to "no", the rwm overlay will
              leave all attributes in place, so that subsequent modules
              can further manipulate them.  In any case, unrequested
              attributes will be omitted from search results by the
              frontend, when the search entry response package is
              encoded.  The default value of this setting is "yes".

SUFFIX MASSAGING         top

       A basic feature of the rwm overlay is the capability to perform
       suffix massaging between a virtual and a real naming context by
       means of the rwm-suffixmassage directive.  This, in conjunction
       with proxy backends, slapd-ldap(5) and slapd-meta(5), or with the
       relay backend, slapd-relay(5), allows one to create virtual views
       of databases.  A distinguishing feature of this overlay is that,
       when instantiated before any database, it can modify the DN of
       requests before database selection.  For this reason, rules that
       rewrite the empty DN ("") or the subschemaSubentry DN (usually
       "cn=subschema"), would prevent clients from reading the root DSE
       or the DSA's schema.

       rwm-suffixmassage [<virtual naming context>] <real naming
       context>
              Shortcut to implement naming context rewriting; the
              trailing part of the DN is rewritten from the virtual to
              the real naming context in the bindDN, searchDN,
              searchFilterAttrDN, compareDN, compareAttrDN, addDN,
              addAttrDN, modifyDN, modifyAttrDN, modrDN, newSuperiorDN,
              deleteDN, exopPasswdDN, and from the real to the virtual
              naming context in the searchEntryDN, searchAttrDN and
              matchedDN rewrite contexts.  By default no rewriting
              occurs for the searchFilter and for the referralAttrDN and
              referralDN rewrite contexts.  If no <virtual naming
              context> is given, the first suffix of the database is
              used; this requires the rwm-suffixmassage directive be
              defined after the database suffix directive.  The
              rwm-suffixmassage directive automatically sets the
              rwm-rewriteEngine to ON.

       See the REWRITING section for details.

REWRITING         top

       A string is rewritten according to a set of rules, called a
       `rewrite context'.  The rules are based on POSIX (''extended'')
       regular expressions with substring matching; basic variable
       substitution and map resolution of substrings is allowed by
       specific mechanisms detailed in the following.  The behavior of
       pattern matching/substitution can be altered by a set of flags.

              <rewrite context> ::= <rewrite rule> [...]
              <rewrite rule> ::= <pattern> <action> [<flags>]

       The underlying concept is to build a lightweight rewrite module
       for the slapd server (initially dedicated to the LDAP backend):

Passes         top

       An incoming string is matched against a set of rewriteRules.
       Rules are made of a regex match pattern, a substitution pattern
       and a set of actions, described by a set of optional flags.  In
       case of match, string rewriting is performed according to the
       substitution pattern that allows one to refer to substrings
       matched in the incoming string.  The actions, if any, are finally
       performed.  Each rule is executed recursively, unless altered by
       specific action flags; see "Action Flags" for details.  A default
       limit on the recursion level is set, and can be altered by the
       rwm-rewriteMaxPasses directive, as detailed in the "Additional
       Configuration Syntax" section.  The substitution pattern allows
       map resolution of substrings.  A map is a generic object that
       maps a substitution pattern to a value.  The flags are divided in
       "Pattern Matching Flags" and "Action Flags"; the former alter the
       regex match pattern behavior, while the latter alter the actions
       that are taken after substitution.

Pattern Matching Flags         top

       `C'    honors case in matching (default is case insensitive)

       `R'    use POSIX ''basic'' regular expressions (default is
              ''extended'')

       `M{n}' allow no more than n recursive passes for a specific rule;
              does not alter the max total count of passes, so it can
              only enforce a stricter limit for a specific rule.

Action Flags         top

       `:'    apply the rule once only (default is recursive)

       `@'    stop applying rules in case of match; the current rule is
              still applied recursively; combine with `:' to apply the
              current rule only once and then stop.

       `#'    stop current operation if the rule matches, and issue an
              `unwilling to perform' error.

       `G{n}' jump n rules back and forth (watch for loops!).  Note that
              `G{1}' is implicit in every rule.

       `I'    ignores errors in rule; this means, in case of error, e.g.
              issued by a map, the error is treated as a missed match.
              The `unwilling to perform' is not overridden.

       `U{n}' uses n as return code if the rule matches; the flag does
              not alter the recursive behavior of the rule, so, to have
              it performed only once, it must be used in combination
              with `:', e.g.  `:U{32}' returns the value `32'
              (indicating noSuchObject) after exactly one execution of
              the rule, if the pattern matches.  As a consequence, its
              behavior is equivalent to `@', with the return code set to
              n; or, in other words, `@' is equivalent to `U{0}'.
              Positive errors are allowed, indicating the related LDAP
              error codes as specified in RFC4511.

       The ordering of the flags can be significant.  For instance:
       `IG{2}' means ignore errors and jump two lines ahead both in case
       of match and in case of error, while `G{2}I' means ignore errors,
       but jump two lines ahead only in case of match.

       More flags (mainly Action Flags) will be added as needed.

Pattern Matching         top

       See regex(7) and/or re_format(7).

Substitution Pattern Syntax         top

       Everything starting with `$' requires substitution;

       the only obvious exception is `$$', which is turned into a single
       `$';

       the basic substitution is `$<d>', where `<d>' is a digit; 0 means
       the whole string, while 1-9 is a submatch, as discussed in
       regex(7) and/or re_format(7).

       a `$' followed by a `{' invokes an advanced substitution.  The
       pattern is:

              `$' `{' [ <operator> ] <name> `(' <substitution> `)' `}'

       where <name> must be a legal name for the map, i.e.

              <name> ::= [a-z][a-z0-9]* (case insensitive)
              <operator> ::= `>' `|' `&' `&&' `*' `**' `$'

       and <substitution> must be a legal substitution pattern, with no
       limits on the nesting level.

       The operators are:

       >      sub-context invocation; <name> must be a legal, already
              defined rewrite context name

       |      external command invocation; <name> must refer to a legal,
              already defined command name (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

       &      variable assignment; <name> defines a variable in the
              running operation structure which can be dereferenced
              later; operator & assigns a variable in the rewrite
              context scope; operator && assigns a variable that scopes
              the entire session, e.g. its value can be dereferenced
              later by other rewrite contexts

       *      variable dereferencing; <name> must refer to a variable
              that is defined and assigned for the running operation;
              operator * dereferences a variable scoping the rewrite
              context; operator ** dereferences a variable scoping the
              whole session, e.g. the value is passed across rewrite
              contexts

       $      parameter dereferencing; <name> must refer to an existing
              parameter; the idea is to make some run-time parameters
              set by the system available to the rewrite engine, as the
              client host name, the bind DN if any, constant parameters
              initialized at config time, and so on; no parameter is
              currently set by either back-ldap or back-meta, but
              constant parameters can be defined in the configuration
              file by using the rewriteParam directive.

       Substitution escaping has been delegated to the `$' symbol, which
       is used instead of `\' in string substitution patterns because
       `\' is already escaped by slapd's low level parsing routines; as
       a consequence, regex escaping requires two `\' symbols, e.g.
       `.*\.foo\.bar' must be written as `.*\\.foo\\.bar'.

Rewrite Context         top

       A rewrite context is a set of rules which are applied in
       sequence.  The basic idea is to have an application initialize a
       rewrite engine (think of Apache's mod_rewrite ...) with a set of
       rewrite contexts; when string rewriting is required, one invokes
       the appropriate rewrite context with the input string and obtains
       the newly rewritten one if no errors occur.

       Each basic server operation is associated to a rewrite context;
       they are divided in two main groups: client -> server and server
       -> client rewriting.

       client -> server:

              (default)            if defined and no specific context
                                   is available
              bindDN               bind
              searchDN             search
              searchFilter         search
              searchFilterAttrDN   search
              compareDN            compare
              compareAttrDN        compare AVA
              addDN                add
              addAttrDN            add AVA (DN portion of "ref" excluded)
              modifyDN             modify
              modifyAttrDN         modify AVA (DN portion of "ref" excluded)
              referralAttrDN       add/modify DN portion of referrals
                                   (default to none)
              renameDN             modrdn (the old DN)
              newSuperiorDN        modrdn (the new parent DN, if any)
              newRDN               modrdn (the new relative DN)
              deleteDN             delete
              exopPasswdDN         password modify extended operation DN

       server -> client:

              searchEntryDN        search (only if defined; no default;
                                   acts on DN of search entries)
              searchAttrDN         search AVA (only if defined; defaults
                                   to searchEntryDN; acts on DN-syntax
                                   attributes of search results)
              matchedDN            all ops (only if applicable; defaults
                                   to searchEntryDN)
              referralDN           all ops (only if applicable; defaults
                                   to none)

Basic Configuration Syntax         top

       All rewrite/remap directives start with the prefix rwm-

       rwm-rewriteEngine { on | off }
              If `on', the requested rewriting is performed; if `off',
              no rewriting takes place (an easy way to stop rewriting
              without altering too much the configuration file).

       rwm-rewriteContext <context name> [ alias <aliased context name>
       ]
              <Context name> is the name that identifies the context,
              i.e. the name used by the application to refer to the set
              of rules it contains.  It is used also to reference sub
              contexts in string rewriting.  A context may alias another
              one.  In this case the alias context contains no rule, and
              any reference to it will result in accessing the aliased
              one.

       rwm-rewriteRule <regex match pattern> <substitution pattern> [
       <flags> ]
              Determines how a string can be rewritten if a pattern is
              matched.  Examples are reported below.

Additional Configuration Syntax         top

       rwm-rewriteMap <map type> <map name> [ <map attrs> ]
              Allows one to define a map that transforms substring
              rewriting into something else.  The map is referenced
              inside the substitution pattern of a rule.

       rwm-rewriteParam <param name> <param value>
              Sets a value with global scope, that can be dereferenced
              by the command `${$paramName}'.

       rwm-rewriteMaxPasses <number of passes> [<number of passes per
       rule>]
              Sets the maximum number of total rewriting passes that can
              be performed in a single rewrite operation (to avoid
              loops).  A safe default is set to 100; note that reaching
              this limit is still treated as a success; recursive
              invocation of rules is simply interrupted.  The count
              applies to the rewriting operation as a whole, not to any
              single rule; an optional per-rule limit can be set.  This
              limit is overridden by setting specific per-rule limits
              with the `M{n}' flag.

MAPS         top

       Currently, few maps are builtin but additional map types may be
       registered at runtime.

       Supported maps are:

       LDAP <URI> [bindwhen=<when>] [version=<version>] [binddn=<DN>]
       [credentials=<cred>]
              The LDAP map expands a value by performing a simple LDAP
              search.  Its configuration is based on a mandatory URI,
              whose attrs portion must contain exactly one attribute
              (use entryDN to fetch the DN of an entry).  If a multi-
              valued attribute is used, only the first value is
              considered.

              The parameter bindwhen determines when the connection is
              established.  It can take the values now, later, and
              everytime, respectively indicating that the connection
              should be created at startup, when required, or any time
              it is used.  In the former two cases, the connection is
              cached, while in the latter a fresh new one is used all
              times.  This is the default.

              The parameters binddn and credentials represent the DN and
              the password that is used to perform an authenticated
              simple bind before performing the search operation; if not
              given, an anonymous connection is used.

              The parameter version can be 2 or 3 to indicate the
              protocol version that must be used.  The default is 3.

       slapd <URI>
              The slapd map expands a value by performing an internal
              LDAP search.  Its configuration is based on a mandatory
              URI, which must begin with ldap:/// (i.e., it must be an
              LDAP URI and it must not specify a host).  As with the
              LDAP map, the attrs portion must contain exactly one
              attribute, and if a multi-valued attribute is used, only
              the first value is considered.

       escape [escape2dn|escape2filter|unescapedn|unescapefilter]...
              The escape map makes it possible use DNs or their parts in
              filter strings and vice versa.  It processes a value
              according to the operations listed in order. Supported
              operations include:

              escape2dn
                     takes a string and escapes it so it can safely be
                     pasted in a DN

              escape2filter
                     takes a string and escapes it so it can safely be
                     pasted in a filter

              unescapedn
                     takes a string and undoes DN escaping

              unescapefilter
                     takes a string and undoes filter escaping

              It is advised that each escape map ends with an escape
              operation as that is the only safe way to handle arbitrary
              strings.

REWRITE CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES         top

       # set to `off' to disable rewriting
       rwm-rewriteEngine on

       # the rules the "suffixmassage" directive implies
       rwm-rewriteEngine on
       # all dataflow from client to server referring to DNs
       rwm-rewriteContext default
       rwm-rewriteRule "(.+,)?<virtualnamingcontext>$" "$1<realnamingcontext>" ":"
       # empty filter rule
       rwm-rewriteContext searchFilter
       # all dataflow from server to client
       rwm-rewriteContext searchEntryDN
       rwm-rewriteRule "(.+,)?<realnamingcontext>$" "$1<virtualnamingcontext>" ":"
       rwm-rewriteContext searchAttrDN alias searchEntryDN
       rwm-rewriteContext matchedDN alias searchEntryDN
       # misc empty rules
       rwm-rewriteContext referralAttrDN
       rwm-rewriteContext referralDN

       # Everything defined here goes into the `default' context.
       # This rule changes the naming context of anything sent
       # to `dc=home,dc=net' to `dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org'

       rwm-rewriteRule "(.+,)?dc=home,[ ]?dc=net$"
                   "$1dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org"  ":"

       # since a pretty/normalized DN does not include spaces
       # after rdn separators, e.g. `,', this rule suffices:

       rwm-rewriteRule "(.+,)?dc=home,dc=net$"
                   "$1dc=OpenLDAP,dc=org"  ":"

       # Start a new context (ends input of the previous one).
       # This rule adds blanks between DN parts if not present.
       rwm-rewriteContext  addBlanks
       rwm-rewriteRule     "(.*),([^ ].*)" "$1, $2"

       # This one eats blanks
       rwm-rewriteContext  eatBlanks
       rwm-rewriteRule     "(.*), (.*)" "$1,$2"

       # Here control goes back to the default rewrite
       # context; rules are appended to the existing ones.
       # anything that gets here is piped into rule `addBlanks'
       rwm-rewriteContext  default
       rwm-rewriteRule     ".*" "${>addBlanks($0)}" ":"

       # Rewrite the search base according to `default' rules.
       rwm-rewriteContext  searchDN alias default

       # Search results with OpenLDAP DN are rewritten back with
       # `dc=home,dc=net' naming context, with spaces eaten.
       rwm-rewriteContext  searchEntryDN
       rwm-rewriteRule     "(.*[^ ],)?[ ]?dc=OpenLDAP,[ ]?dc=org$"
                       "${>eatBlanks($1)}dc=home,dc=net"    ":"

       # Transform a DN value such that it can be used in a filter
       rwm-rewriteMap escape dn2filter unescapedn escape2filter

       # Bind with email instead of full DN: we first need
       # an ldap map that turns attributes into a DN (the
       # argument used when invoking the map is appended to
       # the URI and acts as the filter portion)
       rwm-rewriteMap ldap attr2dn "ldap://host/dc=my,dc=org?dn?sub"

       # Then we need to detect DN made up of a single email,
       # e.g. `mail=someone@example.com'; note that the rule
       # in case of match stops rewriting; in case of error,
       # it is ignored.  In case we are mapping virtual
       # to real naming contexts, we also need to rewrite
       # regular DNs, because the definition of a bindDN
       # rewrite context overrides the default definition.
       #
       # While actual email addresses tend not to contain filter
       # special characters, the provided Bind DN has no such
       # restrictions.
       rwm-rewriteContext bindDN
       rwm-rewriteRule "^(mail=)([^,]+@[^,]+)$"
                       "${attr2dn($1${dn2filter($2)})}" ":@I"

       # This is a rather sophisticated example. It massages a
       # search filter in case who performs the search has
       # administrative privileges.  First we need to keep
       # track of the bind DN of the incoming request, which is
       # stored in a variable called `binddn' with session scope,
       # and left in place to allow regular binding:
       rwm-rewriteContext  bindDN
       rwm-rewriteRule     ".+" "${&&binddn($0)}$0" ":"

       # A search filter containing `uid=' is rewritten only
       # if an appropriate DN is bound.
       # To do this, in the first rule the bound DN is
       # dereferenced, while the filter is decomposed in a
       # prefix, in the value of the `uid=<arg>' AVA, and
       # in a suffix. A tag `<>' is appended to the DN.
       # If the DN refers to an entry in the `ou=admin' subtree,
       # the filter is rewritten OR-ing the `uid=<arg>' with
       # `cn=<arg>'; otherwise it is left as is. This could be
       # useful, for instance, to allow apache's auth_ldap-1.4
       # module to authenticate users with both `uid' and
       # `cn', but only if the request comes from a possible
       # `cn=Web auth,ou=admin,dc=home,dc=net' user.
       rwm-rewriteContext searchFilter
       rwm-rewriteRule "(.*\\()uid=([a-z0-9_]+)(\\).*)"
         "${**binddn}<>${&prefix($1)}${&arg($2)}${&suffix($3)}"
         ":I"
       rwm-rewriteRule "^[^,]+,ou=admin,dc=home,dc=net$"
         "${*prefix}|(uid=${*arg})(cn=${*arg})${*suffix}" ":@I"
       rwm-rewriteRule ".*<>$" "${*prefix}uid=${*arg}${*suffix}" ":"

       # This example shows how to strip unwanted DN-valued
       # attribute values from a search result; the first rule
       # matches DN values below "ou=People,dc=example,dc=com";
       # in case of match the rewriting exits successfully.
       # The second rule matches everything else and causes
       # the value to be rejected.
       rwm-rewriteContext searchEntryDN
       rwm-rewriteRule ".+,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com$" "$0" ":@"
       rwm-rewriteRule ".*" "" "#"

MAPPING EXAMPLES         top

       The following directives map the object class `groupOfNames' to
       the object class `groupOfUniqueNames' and the attribute type
       `member' to the attribute type `uniqueMember':

              map objectclass groupOfNames groupOfUniqueNames
              map attribute uniqueMember member

       This presents a limited attribute set from the foreign server:

              map attribute cn *
              map attribute sn *
              map attribute manager *
              map attribute description *
              map attribute *

       These lines map cn, sn, manager, and description to themselves,
       and any other attribute gets "removed" from the object before it
       is sent to the client (or sent up to the LDAP server).  This is
       obviously a simplistic example, but you get the point.

FILES         top

       ETCDIR/slapd.conf
              default slapd configuration file

SEE ALSO         top

       slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5), slapd-ldap(5), slapd-meta(5),
       slapd-relay(5), slapd(8), regex(7), re_format(7).

AUTHOR         top

       Pierangelo Masarati; based on back-ldap rewrite/remap features by
       Howard Chu, Pierangelo Masarati.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the OpenLDAP (an open source implementation
       of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.openldap.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see ⟨http://www.openldap.org/its/⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://git.openldap.org/openldap/openldap.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2023-12-19.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

OpenLDAP LDVERSION             RELEASEDATE                  SLAPO-RWM(5)

Pages that refer to this page: slapd.backends(5)slapd.conf(5)slapd-config(5)slapd-ldap(5)slapd.overlays(5)slapd-relay(5)