[ADMIN] PostgreSQL 9.0 authentication against LDAP/AD

[Michael O'Donnell]

Hello,

I am trying to authenticate PostgreSQL 9.0 login roles against LDAP/Active
directory (AD). PostgreSQL 9.0 is installed on a Windows 2008 R2 64bit. My
pg_hba.conf setting looks like the following:

host <db> <user> samenet ldap ldapserver=<server.domain.net.com>
ldapprefix="DOMAIN\"
I am populating the <db>, <user>, <server.domain.net.com>, and DOMAIN with
real values.

When I use the following psql command I get an error:
C:\Windows\System32>psql -d <db> -U <user> -W
Password for user <user>:
psql: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "<user>"

I have added the <user> to the login role and the user exists in AD.

If I use pyscopg2 (a python module that is commonly used for PostgreSQL
interaction), I can actually connect to the database using the settings
specified in the pg_hba.conf file shown above. If I use a false username,
the script fails. Therefore the script is behaving as I would expect, but
I am confussed why psql is behaving differently.

Questions:
1. Does my pg_hba.conf setting seem correct?
2. If my pg_hba.conf setup is correct, why is psql failing (does not fail
using a second user specified in db that authenticates with password)? I
also tried specifying ldapport, but this was causing a failure in postgres
reading the conf. I am able to use the same command on different databases
and for different users and this works.
3. Is the transfer of the password automatically encrypted? I read in a
blog that using LDAP does not encrypt and I need to use SSL. I tried using
ldaptls=1 but this was causing a failure in postgres reading the conf.
4. There is some documentation I have found online on how to set this up
but most of the examples/blogs were not helping me to work though this.

Thank you for any help you can provide.
mike

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Michael O'Donnell
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Email: ***@usgs.gov

United States Geological Survey/BRD
Fort Collins Science Center
2150 Centre Ave., Bldg C
Fort Collins, CO 80526

[Stephen Frost]

Michael,

Post by Michael O'Donnell
I am trying to authenticate PostgreSQL 9.0 login roles against LDAP/Active
directory (AD). PostgreSQL 9.0 is installed on a Windows 2008 R2 64bit. My

My first reaction to this, to be honest, is to ask why you're using
LDAP-based authentication instead of SSPI/Kerberos-based authentication?
Kerberos is supported and is a much better protocol that would, among
other things, prevent the server from ever seeing an individual user's
password.

Post by Michael O'Donnell
C:\Windows\System32>psql -d <db> -U <user> -W
psql: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "<user>"

Since it works with a different user, I wonder if there's some issue
just passing the username on the command-line; are you sure that the
user shown in the error from psql matches what you're passing in? Have
you checked the PostgreSQL server logs? Do you have anything in
pg_ident.conf?

Post by Michael O'Donnell
I have added the <user> to the login role and the user exists in AD.

Not quite sure what you mean, exactly, by having the user added to the
'login' role, but you definitely want to make sure that the 'LOGIN'
attribute is set for the role; eg: ALTER ROLE user WITH LOGIN;

Post by Michael O'Donnell
If I use pyscopg2 (a python module that is commonly used for PostgreSQL
interaction), I can actually connect to the database using the settings
specified in the pg_hba.conf file shown above. If I use a false username,
the script fails. Therefore the script is behaving as I would expect, but
I am confussed why psql is behaving differently.

This definitely makes me wonder if there's something weird with the user
being passed on the command-line that's causing the issue.

Post by Michael O'Donnell
3. Is the transfer of the password automatically encrypted? I read in a
blog that using LDAP does not encrypt and I need to use SSL. I tried using
ldaptls=1 but this was causing a failure in postgres reading the conf.

More specifics about this would help- the exact pg_hba.conf line, the
exact error from the server logs, etc. Of course, just moving to
Kerberos-based authentication would simplify this whole thing and remove
all the LDAP fun..

Thanks,

Stephen

[Smith, Hazel]

Michael O'Donnell wrote...

host        <db>        <user>        samenet        ldap        ldapserver=<server.domain.net.com> ldapprefix="DOMAIN\"
I am populating the <db>, <user>, <server.domain.net.com>, and DOMAIN with real values.
C:\Windows\System32>psql -d <db> -U <user> -W
psql: FATAL:  password authentication failed for user "<user>"

As far as I can see, that error indicates that it is not even attempting to use LDAP authentication. It would have said "psql: FATAL: LDAP authentication failed for user ..." if it had been using the "ldap" method.


Kind Regards

Hazel Smith
Database Administrator
Cromwell Tools

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