Network Working Group                                        M. Meredith
Request for Comments: 3045                                   Novell Inc.
Category: Informational                                     January 2001


           Storing Vendor Information in the LDAP root DSE

Status of this Memo

  This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
  not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
  memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

  This document specifies two Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
  (LDAP) attributes, vendorName and vendorVersion that MAY be included
  in the root DSA-specific Entry (DSE) to advertise vendor-specific
  information.  These two attributes supplement the attributes defined
  in section 3.4 of RFC 2251.

  The information held in these attributes MAY be used for display and
  informational purposes and MUST NOT be used for feature advertisement
  or discovery.

Conventions used in this document

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
  document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2219]

1. Overview

  LDAP clients discover server-specific data--such as available
  controls, extensions, etc.--by reading the root DSE.  See section 3.4
  of [RFC2251] for details.

  For display, information, and limited function discovery, it is
  desirable to be able to query an LDAP server to determine the vendor
  name of that server and also to see what version of that vendor's
  code is currently installed.






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1.1 Function discovery

  There are many ways in which a particular version of a vendor's LDAP
  server implementation may be functionally incomplete, or may contain
  software anomalies.  It is impossible to identify every known
  shortcoming of an LDAP server with the given set of server data
  advertisement attributes.  Furthermore, often times, the anomalies of
  an implementation are not found until after the implementation has
  been distributed, deployed, and is in use.

  The attributes defined in this document MAY be used by client
  implementations in order to identify a particular server
  implementation so that it can 'work around' such anomalies.

  The attributes defined in this document MUST NOT be used to gather
  information related to supported features of an LDAP implementation.
  All LDAP features, mechanisms, and capabilities--if advertised--MUST
  be advertised through other mechanisms, preferably advertisement
  mechanisms defined in concert with said features, mechanisms, and
  capabilities.

2. Attribute Types

  These attributes are an addition to the Server-specific Data
  Requirements defined in section 3.4 of [RFC2251].  The associated
  syntaxes are defined in section 4 of [RFC2252].

  Servers MAY restrict access to vendorName or vendorVersion and
  clients MUST NOT expect these attributes to be available.

2.1 vendorName

  This attribute contains a single string, which represents the name of
  the LDAP server implementer.

  All LDAP server implementations SHOULD maintain a vendorName, which
  is generally the name of the company that wrote the LDAP Server code
  like "Novell, Inc."

     ( 1.3.6.1.1.4 NAME 'vendorName' EQUALITY
       1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.109.114.1 SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15
       SINGLE-VALUE NO-USER-MODIFICATION USAGE dSAOperation )

2.2 vendorVersion

  This attribute contains a string which represents the version of the
  LDAP server implementation.




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  All LDAP server implementations SHOULD maintain a vendorVersion.
  Note that this value is typically a release value--comprised of a
  string and/or a string of numbers--used by the developer of the LDAP
  server product (as opposed to the supportedLDAPVersion, which
  specifies the version of the LDAP protocol supported by this server).
  This is single-valued so that it will only have one version value.
  This string MUST be unique between two versions, but there are no
  other syntactic restrictions on the value or the way it is formatted.

     ( 1.3.6.1.1.5 NAME 'vendorVersion' EQUALITY
       1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.109.114.1 SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15
       SINGLE-VALUE NO-USER-MODIFICATION USAGE dSAOperation )

  The intent behind the equality match on vendorVersion is to not allow
  a less than or greater than type of query.  Say release "LDAPv3 8.0"
  has a problem that is fixed in the next release "LDAPv3 8.5", but in
  the mean time there is also an update release say version "LDAPv3
  8.01" that fixes the problem.  This will hopefully stop the client
  from saying it will not work with a version less than "LDAPv3 8.5"
  when it would also work with "LDAPv3 8.01".  With the equality match
  the client would have to exactly match what it is looking for.

3. Notes to Server Implementers

  Server implementers may consider tying the vendorVersion attribute
  value to the build mechanism so that it is automatically updated when
  the version value changes.

4. Notes to Client Developers

  As mentioned in section 2.1, the use of vendorName and vendorVersion
  MUST NOT be used to discover features.

  It should be noted that an anomalies often on affect subset of
  implementations reporting the same version information.  Most
  implementations support multiple platforms, have numerous
  configuration options, and often support plug-ins.

  Client implementations SHOULD be written in such a way as to accept
  any value in the vendorName and vendorVersion attributes.  If a
  client implementation does not recognize the specific vendorName or
  vendorVersion as one it recognizes, then for the purposes of 'working
  around' anomalies, the client MUST assume that the server is complete
  and correct.  The client MUST work with implementations that do not
  publish these attributes.






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5. Security Considerations

  The vendorName and vendorVersion attributes are provided only as
  display or informational mechanisms, or as anomaly identifying
  mechanisms.  Client and application implementers must consider that
  the existence of a given value in the vendorName or vendorVersion
  attribute is no guarantee that the server was actually built by the
  asserted vendor or that its version is the asserted version and
  should act accordingly.

  Server implementers should be aware that this information could be
  used to exploit a security hole a server provides either by feature
  or flaw.

6. IANA Considerations

  This document seeks to create two attributes, vendorName and
  vendorVersion, which the IANA will primarily be responsible.  This is
  a one time effort; there is no need for any recurring assignment
  after this stage.

7. References

  [RFC2219]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [RFC2026]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
             3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

  [RFC2251]  Wahl, M., Howes, T. and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory
             Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.

  [RFC2252]  Wahl, M., Coulbeck, A., Howes, T. and S. Kille,
             "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute
             Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997.

8. Acknowledgments

  The author would like to thank the generous input and review by
  individuals at Novell including but not limited to Jim Sermersheim,
  Mark Hinckley, Renea Campbell, and Roger Harrison.  Also IETF
  contributors Kurt Zeilenga, Mark Smith, Mark Wahl, Peter Strong,
  Thomas Salter, Gordon Good, Paul Leach, Helmut Volpers.








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9. Author's Address

  Mark Meredith
  Novell Inc.
  1800 S. Novell Place
  Provo, UT 84606

  Phone: 801-861-2645
  EMail: [email protected]










































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10. Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

  Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
  Internet Society.



















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