Apricot

Apricot is a proxy for delegating LDAP requests to an OpenID Connect backend. The name is a slightly tortured acronym for: LDAP proxy for OpenID Connect.

Usage

Start the Apricot server on port 1389 by running:

python run.py --client-id "<your client ID>" --client-secret "<your client secret>" --backend "<your backend>" --port "<your desired port>" --domain "<your domain name>" --redis-host "<your Redis server>"

If you prefer to use Docker, you can edit docker/docker-compose.yaml and run:

docker compose up

from the docker directory.

Using Redis [Optional]

You can use a Redis server to store generated uidNumber and gidNumber values in a more persistent way. To do this, you will need to provide the --redis-host and --redis-port arguments to run.py.

Configure background refresh [Optional]

By default Apricot will refresh the LDAP tree whenever it is accessed and it contains data older than 60 seconds. If it takes a long time to fetch all users and groups, or you want to ensure that each request gets a prompt response, you may want to configure background refresh to have it periodically be refreshed in the background.

This is enabled with the --background-refresh flag, which uses the --refresh-interval parameter as the interval to refresh the ldap database.

Using TLS [Optional]

You can set up a TLS listener to communicate with encryption enabled over the configured port. To enable it you need provide a path to the PEM files for the certificate --tls-certificate=<path> and the private key --tls-private-key=<path>. To change the port from the default 1636 use --tls-port.

Outputs

This will create an LDAP tree that looks like this:

dn: DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: dcObject

dn: OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: users

dn: OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: groups

Each user will have an entry like

dn: CN=<user name>,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: person
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: top
<user data fields here>
memberOf: <DN for each group that this user belongs to>

Each group will have an entry like

dn: CN=<group name>,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: posixGroup
objectClass: top
<group data fields here>
member: <DN for each user belonging to this group>

Querying the server

Anonymous queries are enabled by default.

ldapsearch -H ldap://<your server location>:<your desired port> -x -b "DC=example,DC=com"

If you want to query on behalf of a particular user you will need to use the full distinguished name.

ldapsearch -H ldap://<your server location>:<your desired port> -x -b "DC=example,DC=com" -D "CN=<user name>,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com"

OpenID Connect

Instructions for specific OpenID Connect backends below.

Microsoft Entra

You will need to use the following command line arguments:

--backend MicrosoftEntra \
--entra-tenant-id "<your tenant ID>"

You will need to register an application to interact with Microsoft Entra. Do this as follows:

• Create a new App Registration in your Microsoft Entra.
  • Set the name to whatever you choose (e.g. apricot)
  • Set access to Accounts in this organizational directory only.
  • Set Redirect URI to Public client/native (mobile & desktop) with a value of urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
• Under Certificates & secrets add a New client secret
  • Set the description to whatever you choose (e.g. Apricot Authentication Secret)
  • Set the expiry time to whatever is relevant for your use-case
  • You must record the value of this secret at creation time, as it will not be visible later.
• Under API permissions:
  • Enable the following permissions:
    • Microsoft Graph > User.Read.All (application)
    • Microsoft Graph > GroupMember.Read.All (application)
    • Microsoft Graph > User.Read.All (delegated)
  • Select this and click the Grant admin consent button (otherwise each user will need to manually consent)

Keycloak

You will need to use the following command line arguments:

--backend Keycloak \
--keycloak-base-url "<your hostname>/<path to keycloak>" \
--keycloak-domain-attribute "<the attribute used as your domain>" \
--keycloak-realm "<your realm>"

User domain attribute

You will need to add a custom attribute to each user you want Apricot to use. The name of this attribute should be used as the value of the --keycloak-domain-attribute argument above. The value of this attribute should be the same as the --domain argument to Apricot.

Any users with this attribute missing or set to something else will be ignored by Apricot. This allows you to attach multiple Apricot servers to the same Keycloak instance, each with their own set of users.

❗ You can disable user domain verification with the --disable-user-domain-verification command line option ❗

Client application

You will need to register an application to interact with Keycloak. Do this as follows:

• Create a new Client in your Keycloak instance.
  • Under General Settings:
    • Client type: OpenID Connect
    • Client name: apricot
  • Under Capability config
    • Enable Client authentication
    • Enable the following authentication flows and disable the rest:
      • Direct access grants
      • Service accounts roles
  • Save the client
• For the client you have just created
  • Under Credentials copy client secret
  • Under Service accounts roles:
    • Click on Assign role then Filter by clients
    • Assign the following roles:
      • realm-management > view-users
      • realm-management > manage-users
      • realm-management > query-groups
      • realm-management > query-users

Configuring the Apricot LDAP server

Anonymous binds

By default, Apricot allows anonymous queries. If you would prefer to disable these, please use the --disable-anonymous-binds command line option.

Primary groups

Apricot creates an associated group for each user, which acts as its POSIX user primary group.

For example:

dn: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: person
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: top
...
memberOf: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
...

will have an associated group

dn: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: posixGroup
objectClass: top
...
member: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
...

❗ You can disable the creation of these groups with the --disable-primary-groups command line option ❗

Mirrored groups

Apricot creates a group-of-groups for each group of users. This simply contains the primary group for each user in the original group. Note that these groups-of-groups are not posixGroups as POSIX does not allow nested groups.

For example:

dn:CN=Detectives,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: posixGroup
objectClass: top
...
member: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
...

will have an associated group-of-groups

dn: CN=Primary user groups for Detectives,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: top
...
member: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
...

This allows a user to make a request for "all primary user groups needed by members of group X" without getting a large number of primary user groups for unrelated users. To do this, you will need an LDAP request that looks like:

(&(objectClass=posixGroup)(|(CN=Detectives)(memberOf=Primary user groups for Detectives)))

which will return:

dn:CN=Detectives,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: posixGroup
objectClass: top
...
member: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
...

dn: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=groups,DC=example,DC=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
objectClass: posixGroup
objectClass: top
...
member: CN=sherlock.holmes,OU=users,DC=example,DC=com
...

❗ You can disable the creation of mirrored groups with the --disable-mirrored-groups command line option ❗