ActiveDirectory for Node

ActiveDirectory is an ldapjs client for authN (authentication) and authZ (authorization) for Microsoft Active Directory with range retrieval support for large Active Directory installations. This code was a port of an existing C# library (not published) that I had written a few years ago. Here are the key features

• Authenticate
• Authorization (via group membership information)
• Nested groups support
• Range specifier / retrieval support (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd358433.aspx)
• Automatic paging support (Active Directory results (MaxPageSize) limited to 1000 per request by default)
• Recycle bin (tombstone) query support
• Referral support

Required Libraries

ActiveDirectory uses the following additional node modules:

• underscore - a utility-belt library for JavaScript that provides a lot of the functional programming support
• async - Async utilities for node and the browser
• ldapjs - A pure JavaScript, from-scratch framework for implementing LDAP clients and servers in Node.js

Installation

npm install activedirectory

Usage

var ActiveDirectory = require('activedirectory');
var ad = new ActiveDirectory(url, baseDN, username, password);

Optionally the configuration can be specified with an object:

var ActiveDirectory = require('activedirectory');
var ad = new ActiveDirectory({ url: 'ldap://dc.domain.com',
                               baseDN: 'dc=domain,dc=com',
                               username: 'username@domain.com',
                               password: 'password' });

The username and password specified in the configuration are what are used for user and group lookup operations.

Attributes

By default, the following attributes are returned for users and groups:

• user - userPrincipalName, sAMAccountName, mail, lockoutTime, whenCreated, pwdLastSet, userAccountControl, employeeID, sn, givenName, initials, cn, displayName, comment, description
• group - objectCategory, distinguishedName, cn, description, member

If you need to override those defaults, then you can override them when you create your ActiveDirectory instance:

var ad = new ActiveDirectory({ url: 'ldap://dc.domain.com',
                               baseDN: 'dc=domain,dc=com',
                               username: 'username@domain.com',
                               password: 'password',
                               attributes: {
                                 user: [ 'myCustomAttribute', 'mail', 'userPrinicipalName' ],
                                 group: [ 'anotherCustomAttribute', 'objectCategory' ]
                               }
                              });

or

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(url, baseDN, username, password, {
                             attributes: {
                               user: [ 'myCustomAttribute', 'mail', 'userPrinicipalName' ],
                               group: [ 'anotherCustomAttribute', 'objectCategory' ] }
                             });

If overriding the 'user' or 'group' attribute, you must specify ALL of the attributes you want. The existing defaults will be overridden. Optionally, you can override the attributes on a per call basis using the 'opts' parameter.

Referrals

By default, referral chasing is disabled. To enable it, specify a referrals attribute when you create your instance. The referrals object has the following syntax:

{
  referrals: {
    enabled: false,
    excluded: [
      'ldaps?://ForestDnsZones\./.*',
      'ldaps?://DomainDnsZones\./.*',
      'ldaps?://.*/CN=Configuration,.*'
    ]
  }
}

The 'excluded' options is a list of regular expression filters to ignore specific referrals. The default exclusion list is included above, ignoring the special partitions that ActiveDirectory creates by default. To specify these options, override them as follows:

var ad = new ActiveDirectory({ url: 'ldap://dc.domain.com',
                               baseDN: 'dc=domain,dc=com',
                               username: 'username@domain.com',
                               password: 'password',
                               attributes: { ... },
                               referrals: {
                                 enabled: true,
                                 excluded: [ ]
                               }
                              });

or

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(url, baseDN, username, password, {
                             attributes: { ... },
                             referrals: { enabled: true }
                             });

If you enable referral chasing, the specified username MUST be a userPrincipalName.

Entry parser

By default, the entry parser only returns the entry.object. if you want to manipulate the entry in a different way you can pass a custom parser. This is useful, for example, in case you want to change the objectSid or GUID which are binary values. an example of a custom parser:

var customEntryParser = function(entry, callback){
    var item = entry.object;
    if (entry.raw.hasOwnProperty("objectSid")){
        item.objectSid = entry.raw.objectSid;
    }
    if (entry.raw.hasOwnProperty("objectGUID")){
        item.objectGUID = entry.raw.objectGUID;
    }
    callback(item);
};

If you want to specify your own parser you can override the default parser as follows:

var ad = new ActiveDirectory({ url: 'ldap://dc.domain.com',
                               baseDN: 'dc=domain,dc=com',
                               username: 'username@domain.com',
                               password: 'password',
                               attributes: { ... },
                               referrals: { ... },
                               entryParser : customEntryParser
                              });

or

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(url, baseDN, username, password, {
                             attributes: { ... },
                             referrals: { ... },
                             entryParser : customEntryParser
                             });

---

Documentation

• authenticate
• isUserMemberOf
• find
• findUser
• findGroup
• findUsers
• findGroups
• groupExists
• userExists
• getGroupMembershipForGroup
• getGroupMembershipForUser
• getUsersForGroup
• getRootDSE
• findDeletedObjects

---

### authenticate(username, password, callback)

Authenticates the username and password by doing a simple bind with the specified credentials.

Arguments

• username - The username to authenticate.
• password - The password to use for authentication.
• callback(err, authenticated) - A callback which is called after authentication is completed.

Example

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
var username = 'john.smith';
var password = 'password';

ad.authenticate(username, password, function(err, auth) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: '+JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }
  
  if (auth) {
    console.log('Authenticated!');
  }
  else {
    console.log('Authentication failed!');
  }
});

---

### isUserMemberOf(opts, username, groupName, callback)

Checks to see if a user is a member of the specified group. This function will also check for group membership inside of a group. Even if a user is not explicity listed as a member of a particular group, if a group that the user is a member of belongs to the group, then this function will return true.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• username - The username to check for membership. Can be specied as a sAMAccountName, userPrincipalName or distinguishedName (dn)
• groupName - The group to check for membership. Can be a commonName (cn) or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, result: {Boolean})

Example

var username = 'user@domain.com';
var groupName = 'Employees';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
var ad.isUserMemberOf(username, groupName, function(err, isMember) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log(username + ' isMemberOf ' + groupName + ': ' + isMember);
});

---

### groupExists(opts, groupName, callback)

Checks to see if the specified group exists.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• groupName - The group to check if is defined. Can be a commonName (cn) or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, result: {Boolean})

Example

var groupName = 'Employees';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.groupExists(groupName, function(err, exists) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log(groupName + ' exists: ' + exists);
});

---

### userExists(opts, username, callback)

Checks to see if the specified user exists.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• username - The username to check if it exists. Can be a sAMAccountName, userPrincipalName or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, result: {Boolean})

Example

var username = 'john.smith';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.userExists(username, function(err, exists) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log(username + ' exists: ' + exists);
});

---

### getUsersForGroup(opts, groupName, callback)

For the specified group, retrieve all of the users that belong to the group. If the group contains groups, then the members of those groups are recursively retrieved as well to build a complete list of users that belong to the specified group.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• groupName - The name of the group to retrieve membership from. Can be a commonName (cn) or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, groups: {Array[User]})

Example

var groupName = 'Employees';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.getUsersForGroup(groupName, function(err, users) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if (! users) console.log('Group: ' + groupName + ' not found.');
  else {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(users));
  }
});

---

### getGroupMembershipForUser(opts, username, callback)

For the specified username, retrieve all of the groups that a user belongs to. If a retrieved group is a member of another group, then that group is recursively retrieved as well to build a complete hierarchy of groups that a user belongs to.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• username - The name of the user to retrieve group membership for. Can be a sAMAccountName, userPrincipalName, or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, groups: {Array[Group]})

Example

var sAMAccountName = 'john.smith';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.getGroupMembershipForUser(sAMAccountName, function(err, groups) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if (! groups) console.log('User: ' + sAMAccountName + ' not found.');
  else console.log(JSON.stringify(groups));
});

---

### getGroupMembershipForGroup(opts, groupName, callback)

For the specified group, retrieve all of the groups that the group is a member of. If a retrieved group is a member of another group, then that group is recursively retrieved as well to build a complete hierarchy of groups that a user belongs to.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• groupName - The name of the user to retrieve group membership for. Can be a sAMAccountName, userPrincipalName, or a distinguishedName (dn)
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, groups: {Array[Group]})

Example

var groupName = 'Employees';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.getGroupMembershipForGroup(groupName, function(err, groups) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if (! groups) console.log('Group: ' + groupName + ' not found.');
  else console.log(JSON.stringify(groups));
});

---

### find(opts, callback)

Perform a generic search for the specified LDAP query filter. This function will return both groups and users that match the specified filter. Any results not recognized as a user or group (i.e. computer accounts, etc.) can be found in the 'other' attribute / array of the result.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }. Optionally, if only a string is provided, then the string is assumed to be an LDAP filter
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, groups: {Array[Group]})

Example

var query = 'cn=*Exchange*';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.find(query, function(err, results) {
  if ((err) || (! result)) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' + JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log('Groups');
  _.each(result.groups, function(group) {
    console.log('  ' + group.cn);
  });

  console.log('Users');
  _.each(result.users, function(user) {
    console.log('  ' + user.cn);
  });

  console.log('Other');
  _.each(result.other, function(other) {
    console.log('  ' + other.cn);
  });
});

---

### findDeletedObjects(opts, callback)

If tombstoning (recycle bin) is enabled for the Active Directory installation, use findDeletedObjects to retrieve items in the recycle bin.

More information about tombstoning and enabling can be found at:

• Enable the Active Directory Recycle Bin (and other New Features)
• Reanimating Active Directory Tombstone Objects

Note: That when an LDAP entry / object is tombstoned, not all attributes for that item are retained. This is a limitation of Active Directory itself and not the library itself.

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }. Optionally, if only a string is provided, then the string is assumed to be an LDAP filter
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, result: {Array})

If the baseDN is not specified, then a RootDSE query will be performed on the attached URL and 'ou-Deleted Objects' will be appended.

Example

var url = 'ldap://yourdomain.com';
var opts = {
  baseDN: 'ou=Deleted Objects, dc=yourdomain, dc=com',
  filter: 'cn=*Bob*'
};
ad.findDeletedObjects(opts, function(err, result) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log('findDeletedObjects: '+JSON.stringify(result));
});

---

### findUser(opts, username, includeMembership, callback)

Looks up or finds a username by their sAMAccountName, userPrincipalName, distinguishedName (dn) or custom filter. If found, the returned object contains all of the requested attributes. By default, the following attributes are returned:

• userPrincipalName, sAMAccountName, mail, lockoutTime, whenCreated, pwdLastSet, userAccountControl, employeeID, sn, givenName, initials, cn, displayName, comment, description

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• username - The username to retrieve information about. Optionally can pass in the distinguishedName (dn) of the user to retrieve.
• includeMembership - Indicates if the request should also retrieve the group memberships for the user. Default = false;
• callback(err, user) - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, user: {User})

Example

// Any of the following username types can be searched on
var sAMAccountName = 'username';
var userPrincipalName = 'username@domain.com';
var dn = 'CN=Smith\\, John,OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=com';

// Find user by a sAMAccountName
var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.findUser(sAMAccountName, function(err, user) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if (! user) console.log('User: ' + sAMAccountName + ' not found.');
  else console.log(JSON.stringify(user));
});

---

### findUsers(opts, includeMembership, callback)

Perform a generic search for users that match the specified filter. The default LDAP filter for users is specified as (&(|(objectClass=user)(objectClass=person))(!(objectClass=computer))(!(objectClass=group)))

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }. Optionally, if only a string is provided, then the string is assumed to be an LDAP filter that will be appended as the last parameter in the default LDAP filter.
• includeMembership - Indicates if the request should also retrieve the group memberships for the user. Default = false;
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, users: {Array[User]})

Example

var query = 'cn=*George*';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.findUsers(query, true, function(err, users) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if ((! users) || (users.length == 0)) console.log('No users found.');
  else {
    console.log('findUsers: '+JSON.stringify(users));
  }
});

---

### findGroup(opts, groupName, callback)

Looks up or find a group by common name (CN) which is required to be unique in Active Directory or optionally by the distinguished name. Supports groups with range retrieval specifiers. The following attributes are returned by default for the group:

• objectCategory, distinguishedName, cn, description, member

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }
• groupName - The group (cn) to retrieve information about. Optionally can pass in the distinguishedName (dn) of the group to retrieve.
• callback(err, group) - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, group: {Group})

Example

// Any of the following group names can be searched on
var groupName = 'Employees';
var dn = 'CN=Employees,OU=Groups,DC=domain,DC=com'

// Find group by common name
var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.findGroup(groupName, function(err, group) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if (! user) console.log('Group: ' + groupName + ' not found.');
  else {
    console.log(group);
    console.log('Members: ' + (group.member || []).length);
  }
});

---

### findGroups(opts, callback)

Perform a generic search for groups that match the specified filter. The default LDAP filter for groups is specified as (&(objectClass=group)(!(objectClass=computer))(!(objectClass=user))(!(objectClass=person)))

Arguments

• opts - Optional LDAP query string parameters to execute. { scope: '', filter: '', attributes: [ '', '', ... ], sizeLimit: 0, timelimit: 0 }. Optionally, if only a string is provided, then the string is assumed to be an LDAP filter that will be appended as the last parameter in the default LDAP filter.
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, groups: {Array[Group]})

Example

var query = 'CN=*Admin*';

var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.findGroups(query, function(err, groups) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  if ((! groups) || (groups.length == 0)) console.log('No groups found.');
  else {
    console.log('findGroups: '+JSON.stringify(groups));
  }
});

---

### getRootDSE(url, attributes, callback)

Retrieves the root DSE for the specified url. Can be called statically.

Arguments

• url - The url to retrieve the root DSE for.
• attributes - The optional list of attributes to retrieve. Returns all if not specified.
• callback - The callback to execute when completed. callback(err: {Object}, result: {Object})

Example

var url = 'ldap://yourdomain.com';
ActiveDirectory.prototype.getRootDSE(url, [ 'defaultNamingContext' ], function(err, result) {
  if (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' +JSON.stringify(err));
    return;
  }

  console.log('getRootDSE: '+JSON.stringify(result));
});

// Or can be called with an instance...
var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
ad.getRootDSE(function(err, result) {
  //...
});