Securely Implementing LDAP

LDAP Directories are increasingly prevalent in corporate environments. They are used as public sources of information, much like telephone books, and as storage for authentication credentials. Some directories are also being used to manage network resources. Risk is a product of threat, vulnerability, and cost. However, always keep in mind that anything times zero is zero. Even though the level of confidentiality of the data in a public directory may be very low, the integrity of that data always needs to be protected. Thus, we always need to factor in security considerations in our LDAP implementations. This paper will discuss the various security exposures and possible solutions when implementing LDAP directories.