LDAP Bind - Major Security Issue?

Not that I'm a security guru, but I was of the impression that "world renown, reputable and respected" is all the more reason for a company to be a target--general users would be more likely to trust information coming from that source. That said, if OCLC were to become compromised, how would you guarantee that your network wouldn't become compromised given your intended setup?

Looks like you need my advice. If you like giving plain-text passwords to the public then use LDAP binding. Consequently this is exactly what you would be doing along with having to allowing directory listing to be enabled.

Considering that there is LDAP SALS(Simple Authentification & Security Layer) for hashing your credentials using Digest-MD5,GSS-SPNEGO, or any other digest hash algorythem. Attempts to secure your credentials in this fashion is by far not a secure method and if your attempting to use LDAP bind in a multi-millionaire arena, be prepared to lose millions if some lucky skiddy gets ahold of that hash and loads his botnet with a distributed 6gig rainbow library. He will have it in no time flat.

If you don't believe me you can ask any other qualified System Penetration specialist or IT Security specialist's for there opinion. Best suggestion is to avoid using any operation that exposes your credentials in a plain text/weak encryption. If you can't find a pluggin that encrypts/decrypts in a more secure state like rijndael 586 then I would just give up on this fight.

Sometimes it takes a visual of this as well as a test application to demonstrate security. As stated above this would be a very bad idea to implement this in a business/confidential environment as I / Others could just sniff your traffic for User Credentials either on your network or remotely. If It was me It would be in a controlled environment showing you results of possible damage's resulting from such insecurity's in a report as compared to a real attacker who wouldn't be nearly as forgiving and understanding of your circumstances.

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.DirectoryServices.Protocols;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Net;

namespace LDAPBind
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private string[] BindedConnect()
        {

            int i = 0;
            int intSearchScope = 0;
            string[] vals = null;
            string key = null;
            string strToDisplay = null;
            string strSearchBase = null;
            string strFilter = null;
            string strmsg = null;

            LdapConnection con = new LdapConnection(new LdapDirectoryIdentifier("LDAPserver.host.com:636", true, false));
            con.SessionOptions.SecureSocketLayer = true;
            // Just for testing purposes
            //string CertificateAddress = "Certificate.cer";
            //X509Certificate cert = new X509Certificate(CertificateAddress);
            //con.ClientCertificates.Add(cert);
            con.SessionOptions.VerifyServerCertificate = new VerifyServerCertificateCallback(ServerCallback); 
            con.SessionOptions.QueryClientCertificate = new QueryClientCertificateCallback(ClientCallback);
            con.Credential = new NetworkCredential("cn=User,ou=partoftree,o=RootOfTree", "userspassword");
            // Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd941832%28WS.10%29.aspx LDAP Signing
            con.AuthType = AuthType.Negotiate; // <--- this is Not clear-text compared to "Basic", but is still suseptible to forged attacks and bruteforce hash attacks.
            con.SessionOptions.SecureSocketLayer = true; // We are using Secure connections though this example.
            con.AuthType = AuthType.Anonymous;

            try
            {
                con.Bind();
                SearchRequest sr = new SearchRequest();
                SearchResultAttributeCollection srattcol = null;
                DirectoryAttribute srattrib = null;

                strSearchBase = ("ou=partoftree,o=RootOfTree");
                strFilter = ("cn=someuser*");
                sr.DistinguishedName = strSearchBase;
                sr.Filter = strFilter;
                sr.Scope = SearchScope.Subtree;
                SearchResponse srp = (SearchResponse)con.SendRequest(sr);
                SearchResultEntryCollection srecol = srp.Entries;
                foreach (SearchResultEntry srpe in srecol)
                {
                    srattcol = srpe.Attributes;
                    foreach (DictionaryEntry DE in srattcol)
                    {
                        key = DE.Key.ToString();
                        vals = (string[])(srpe.Attributes[key].GetValues(typeof(string)));
                        strToDisplay = strToDisplay + key + "," + vals[0] + "\r" + "\n";
                    }
                }

                this.TextBox1.Text = strToDisplay;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                this.TextBox1.Text = ex.Message;
            }
        }

        private static SortedDictionary<DateTime, string> CertServer = new SortedDictionary<DateTime, string>();
        public static bool ServerCallback(LdapConnection connection,  X509Certificate certificate)
        {

            X509Certificate2 newCert = new X509Certificate2(certificate);
            LdapDirectoryIdentifier id = (LdapDirectoryIdentifier)connection.Directory;
            lock (CertServer)
            {
                // Sorted as [Certicate DateTime, Server]  
                CertServer.Add(newCert.NotAfter, id.Servers[0]);
            }
            Debug.WriteLine("Got server " + id.Servers[0]);
            return true;
        }

        public static X509Certificate ClientCallback(LdapConnection connection, byte[][] trustedCAs)
        {
            // Parse Client Certificate response
            LdapDirectoryIdentifier id = (LdapDirectoryIdentifier)connection.Directory;
            Debug.WriteLine("This Server CalledBack [{0}] with:", id.Servers[0]);
            Debug.Write(trustedCAs.ToString());
            return null;
        }

    }
}

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Hopefully this will help change your opinion on LDAP Bind Security.

Yes, Russell, I do need advice.  THAT IS WHY PEOPLE USE THIS SERVICE, OBVIOUSLY.   If I knew all the ins and outs of this I wouldn't need to ask the question, would I?

Sorry, you're response comes off a bit condescending to me.  Not uncommon, though.

Thank you Russell.  Maybe I am just having a bad day?  I will see if they can use the RSA X506 certs.  If not, I guess I'm out of luck....

Make sure you emphasize on encryption over a remote tunnel. They should understand this without a problem. Good luck!