RFC 3673 (rfc3673) - Page 2 of 5

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol version 3 (LDAPv3): All Operational Attributes

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RFC 3673           LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes      December 2003


2.  All Operational Attributes

   The presence of the attribute description "+" (ASCII 43) in the list
   of attributes in a Search Request [RFC 2251] SHALL signify a request
   for the return of all operational attributes.

   As with all search requests, client implementors should note that
   results may not include all requested attributes due to access
   controls or other restrictions.  Client implementors should also note
   that certain operational attributes may be returned only if requested
   by name even when "+" is present.  This is because some operational
   attributes are very expensive to return.

   Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the Object Identifier
   1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.1 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures'
   [RFC 3674] attribute in the root DSE.

3.  Interoperability Considerations

   This mechanism is specifically designed to allow users to request all
   operational attributes using existing LDAP clients.  In particular,
   the mechanism is designed to be compatible with existing general
   purpose LDAP clients including those supporting LDAP URLs [RFC 2255].

   The addition of this mechanism to LDAP is not believed to cause any
   significant interoperability issues (this has been confirmed through
   testing).  Servers which have yet to implement this specification
   should ignore the "+" as an unrecognized attribute description per
   [RFC 2251, Section 4.5.1].  From the client's perspective, a server
   which does not return all operational attributes when "+" is
   requested should be viewed as having other restrictions.

   It is also noted that this mechanism is believed to require no
   modification of existing LDAP APIs.

4.  Security Considerations

   This document provides a general mechanism which clients may use to
   discover operational attributes.  Prior to the introduction of this
   mechanism, operational attributes were only returned when requested
   by name.  Some might have viewed this as obscurity feature.  However,
   this feature offers a false sense of security as the attributes were
   still transferable.

   Implementations SHOULD implement appropriate access controls
   mechanisms to restricts access to operational attributes.





Zeilenga                    Standards Track
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