8.9 KiB
AGENTS.md
What this is
A standalone LDAPv3 read-only bridge in front of a NetAuth server
(github.com/netauth/netauth). It translates LDAP bind/search operations into
NetAuth RPC calls via the netauth/protocol protobuf types. It is not a full
LDAP server and never stores data; it only reshapes and serves live NetAuth
data. Single static binary (ldapd), intended to run bound to localhost.
Commands
go build ./...
go vet ./...
go test ./... # or: go test -race ./internal/ldap/
go run . # needs a config file or NETAUTH_LDAP_DOMAIN
go mod vendor # repo vendors deps; vendor/ and dist/ are gitignored
# Production-style build (matches Dockerfile)
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -a -ldflags '-extldflags "-static"' -o ldapd .
CI (.github/workflows/test.yml) runs build, vet
and go test -race (Go 1.25) on pushes to master and on PRs. Release is via
goreleaser triggered by v* tags in
.github/workflows/release.yml; its before-hooks
run go mod vendor and scripts/prepare.sh (regenerates NOTICE from vendored
license files via scripts/vendor-licenses, which needs the vendor tree
present). Note dist/config.yaml is a stale generated artifact, not the config
actually used — the real one is .goreleaser.yml at the repo root.
Layout
main.go # wiring only: config, logging, client, serve
internal/ldap/ # the LDAP server (package ldap)
ldap.go # New(), route (re)building, Serve/ServeTLS, SetDomain
handler.go # panic guard wrapper + per-op failure responders
conn.go # per-connection bind state (bound/markBound/markUnbound)
type.go # server struct + naClient interface (the seam for fakes)
option.go # functional options: WithLogger, WithNetAuth, WithAnonBind
bind.go # bind handler (auth against NetAuth)
search.go # RootDSE, entity & group search handlers
attributes.go # RFC 4511 attribute selection matching
bleve_mapper.go # LDAP filter -> Bleve query string translation
util.go # DN parsing (entityIDFromDN)
*_test.go # tests; see "Testing" below
internal/buildinfo/ # Version var, advertised in RootDSE; set by goreleaser
Architecture: main builds a viper config + netauth client, constructs the
server with functional options, and calls Serve/ServeTLS. The underlying
LDAP engine is a RouteMux (net/http-style routing on LDAP ops) with handlers
keyed by base DN and scope. Every handler is wrapped by server.guard so a
panic cannot take the process down (the vendored server dispatches requests in
goroutines with no recovery of its own).
Non-obvious gotchas
- Forked LDAP libraries: the server stack is
github.com/vjeantet/ldapserver+github.com/vjeantet/goldap(MIT, actively maintained upstream of the oldps78674fork). Import asldap "github.com/vjeantet/ldapserver". Check the vendored API before assuming upstream signatures. Limits that remain: no panic recovery in the request path (that is whatserver.guardis for),Server.Handlepanics on double registration, and it logs through one process-global stdlib-styleLoggervariable, whichWithLoggerswaps once and then routes through an atomic sink (seeprotocolSinkinoption.go) to stay race-free while connections outlive a server instance. - Shutdown:
Stop()is only safe onceServe/ServeTLShas returned (the listener is bound synchronously before Serve returns, which is what makes bind errors reportable). Tests closes.Listenerinstead of callingStop, because the library's done channel has no synchronisation edge and the race detector flags it. - TLS is configured here, not in the library:
ServeTLSbuilds atls.ConfigwithMinVersion: TLS 1.2and wraps the listener itself; the library does not enforce a minimum version. - Per-connection state: use
GetData/SetDataon the connection (theconnectioninterface inconn.go). - The server struct is its own Handler:
New()registers*serveronce (the fork forbids re-registration), andServeLDAPdelegates to whatevers.routesmux is current.SetDomainrebuilds the mux in place, which is why it is safe to call repeatedly. Never callx.Handle()again. - SetDomain is required and validated: returns an error for an empty
domain or empty labels; searches do not route until it succeeds. Naming
context is always
dc=netauth,dc=<label>,.... Tree layout under it is fixed:uid=<id>,ou=entities,<base>andcn=<name>,ou=groups,<base>. - Bind state is per connection: searches (except RootDSE) are refused with
insufficientAccessRightsuntil a successful bind on the same connection (conn.go). A failed bind clears the state per RFC 4511. Anonymous binds succeed only whenWithAnonBind(true)and also mark the connection bound. - Filter support (
bleve_mapper.go): equality, present, AND, OR, NOT (nested only) and simple substrings (js*,*smith,a*th) are supported; onlyuid(→ID) andcn(→Name). Everything else errors rather than returning wrong results. Rules worth knowing before touching this file:- Plain values are quoted; wildcard values must match
^[\w.\-*]+$to prevent Bleve query injection. - A top-level (or all-negative) filter errors instead of silently returning
zero results, because Bleve cannot anchor a query made only of
-clauses. - AND branches become
+term; negated branches stay-termun-prefixed.
- Plain values are quoted; wildcard values must match
- DN parsing:
entityIDFromDNsplits on,without handling escaped commas (accepted defect: NetAuth IDs cannot contain commas). It validates the DN has enough components and that the naming context matches exactly. - Search fan-out: entity results include
memberOfand group results includemember, each costing one extra NetAuth RPC per entry. These are only fetched when the client's attribute selection asks for them (attributes.go); an empty selection or*means all. - Logging is dual-library: app logging uses
hashicorp/go-hclog; the vendored ldapserver logs through a small stdlib-style interface (ldap.Logger), whichWithLoggerreplaces with an adapter that funnels protocol traces into hclog at Trace level viaNETAUTH_LOGLEVEL. Uses.l(hclog, keyed with"key", valuepairs) inside the server package. - NetAuth dependency seam: server code talks to NetAuth only through the
naClientinterface intype.go. If you add a NetAuth call, add it to that interface, not directly to the concrete client.
Testing
Tests live in internal/ldap/*_test.go. Two constraints shape them:
- goldap types are unconstructible from outside: the message/filter types
have unexported fields and no exported constructors. Tests hand-encode BER
and run it through the real decoder; see the
ber*helpers intestutil_test.go(berBindRequest,berSearchRequestWithAttrs,berEqualityFilter,berSubstringFilter, ...). Follow that pattern rather than trying to build request structs directly. - Result codes have no getters: the result types expose setters only, so
resultCode()inresult_test.gore-encodes a response and parses the code back out of the DER. - Fakes: implement
naClient(fakeClientinbind_test.gorecords calls and returns canned protobuf data). Per-connection state is faked by settings.connto return afakeConn(boundTestServerinsearch_test.go). Search tests must bind before searching. - Handlers take the
ldap.ResponseWriterinterface, so assertions userecordingWriter(handler_test.go), which captures the exact response sequence. - Serve/TLS tests use
freeAddr(serve_test.go) to reserve a port and closes.Listenerfor cleanup; see the Shutdown gotcha for why they do not callStop.
Configuration
viper-driven; config file config.{yaml,...} searched in /etc/netauth/,
$HOME/.netauth/, .. A missing config file is tolerated (env-only
deployments); a corrupt one is fatal (exit 5). Env vars use the NETAUTH_
prefix with _ replacing . (e.g. NETAUTH_LDAP_BIND,
NETAUTH_LDAP_DOMAIN, NETAUTH_LOGLEVEL). Known keys (defaults in
main.go): ldap.bind (localhost:389), ldap.tls (false), ldap.key,
ldap.cert, ldap.allow_anon (false), ldap.domain (no default — required;
startup exits with 3 if invalid).
Style notes
- Commit message convention:
component: Capitalized description(e.g.internal/ldap: Add option to bind anonmyously). - Handlers are methods on
*servernamedhandle<X>; response pattern is construct response →w.Write(res)on every exit path. - Loop style favors
for i := range xthroughout. - Errors returned to LDAP clients go in diagnostic messages; keep them non-technical, they are shown verbatim by LDAP browsers.