ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider Class
Manages storage of membership information for an ASP.NET application in Active Directory and Active Directory Application Mode servers.
Assembly: System.Web (in System.Web.dll)
[DirectoryServicesPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction::InheritanceDemand, Unrestricted = true)] [AspNetHostingPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction::InheritanceDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel::Minimal)] [DirectoryServicesPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction::LinkDemand, Unrestricted = true)] [AspNetHostingPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction::LinkDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel::Minimal)] public ref class ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider : public MembershipProvider
This class is used by the Membership and MembershipUser classes to provide membership services for an ASP.NET application using an Active Directory (AD) or Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) server.
Note: |
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Using an ADAM server requires specific configuration. For more information, see the ADAM Configuration section below. |
Security Note: |
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The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance works only in the full-trust policy default configuration of ASP.NET. In order to use the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance at any partial-trust level, either you must make changes to the appropriate trust policy file for your application or you must create a "sandbox" assembly that is deployed in the GAC. The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class requires unrestricted DirectoryServicesPermission permission to run. This permission is not added to any of the partial-trust policy files supplied with ASP.NET. Although adding the DirectoryServicesPermission permission to a partial-trust policy file will enable use of the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class, doing so makes the System.DirectoryServices namespace classes available to any code running in your ASP.NET pages. This option is not recommended for any Web servers that need to run in a secure, locked-down mode. As an alternative, you can create a "sandbox" assembly that calls the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class. This assembly can contain either a wrapper class that forwards method calls to the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class or a class that derives from the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class. In either case, the wrapper class must assert unrestricted DirectoryServicesPermission permission. Deploy the sandbox assembly in the GAC and mark the assembly with the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute (APTCA) attribute. This will enable your partially trusted ASP.NET code to call your wrapper class, and since the wrapper class internally asserts the unrestricted DirectoryServicesPermission permission, your wrapper class will be able to successfully call the provider |
You must create a connectionStrings Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema) entry in the Web.config file that identifies the Active Directory server, Active Directory domain, or ADAM application partition to use. The provider will only operate at domain scope, or in a subscope within a domain. The following table lists allowed connection strings and the scope used.
Connection string | Scope |
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LDAP://<domain or server>:[port] Port number is optional for ADAM and not needed for Active Directory. | The provider runs against the specified domain or server. With AD, user creation and deletion is done in the default users container. All other operations, including any search methods, will be rooted at the default naming context for the domain. If the connection string specifies an Active Directory domain rather than a specific server and the EnablePasswordReset property is true, the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance will always connect to the server with the PDC role for the domain to ensure that password changes take effect and are available when the ValidateUser method is called. This connection string is not allowed when using ADAM, and will throw a NotSupportedException. |
LDAP://<domain or server>:[port]/<container dn> Port number is optional for ADAM and not needed for Active Directory. | The provider runs against the specified domain or server. User creation and deletion is only done in the specified container. All other operations, including any search methods, perform subtree searches rooted at the container. For ADAM servers, the container specifies the root of an application partition, or a container within an application partition. We recommend that the connection string define a specific container to improve performance. |
The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance maps directory attributes to ActiveDirectoryMembershipUser properties. Default attributes are used if no attribute mapping is done in the Web.config file. For more information on attribute mappings, see the individual properties in the ActiveDirectoryMembershipUser class documentation.
The following table lists the ActiveDirectoryMembershipUser properties and their default attribute mappings.
Security Note: |
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The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class does not explicitly check that provider attributes are not mapped to core attributes of the user object in the directory. You must ensure that sensitive information from the directory is not exposed through mapped attributes. |
Property | Default directory attribute | Can be mapped? |
|---|---|---|
securityIdentifier | No | |
userPrincipalName | Yes, but must be either userPrincipalName or sAMAccountName | |
comment | No | |
whenCreated | No | |
Yes, but must be a single-valued attribute of type Unicode String. | ||
n/a | Not supported by ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider. | |
n/a | Not supported by ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider. | |
pwdLastSet | No | |
none | Yes, but must be a single-valued attribute of type Unicode String. | |
User-Account-Control (AD) mDS-UserAccountDisabled (ADAM) | No | |
computed from lockoutTime and the AD lockout duration (AD on Windows 2000) msDS-User-Account-Control-Computed (AD on Windows Server 2003) msDS-User-Account-Control-Computed (ADAM) | No | |
If user is locked out due to too many bad password attempts, the lockout time attribute is returned. If user is locked out due to too many bad password answer attempts, the value stored in the attribute defined by attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerLockoutTime is returned. If user is locked out due to both a bad password and too many bad password attempts, the most recent date/time value is returned. If the account is not locked out, return 1/1/1754 for SQL compatibility. | No |
When both the RequiresQuestionAndAnswer and EnablePasswordReset properties are true, the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class supports password-reset security by requiring the user to answer a predetermined question. To support the question and answer, you must set the following configuration attributes using the add Element for providers for membership (ASP.NET Settings Schema) in the application configuration file.
Configuration attribute | Attribute type |
|---|---|
attributeMapPasswordQuestion | Must be a single-valued attribute of type Unicode String. |
attributeMapPasswordAnswer | Must be a single-valued attribute of type Unicode String. |
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerCount | Must be a single-valued attribute of type Integer. |
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerTime | Must be a single-valued attribute of type Large Integer/Interval. |
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerLockoutTime | Must be a single-valued attribute of type Large Integer/Interval. |
For more information on using password-reset security, see the RequiresQuestionAndAnswer property.
Active Directory connections
When the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class is used to connect to an Active Directory or an Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) server, the connectionProtection attribute that is set using the add Element for providers for membership (ASP.NET Settings Schema) in the application configuration file may restrict the types of operations the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class can perform over the connection. The connectionProtection attribute also determines the methods the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance will use to create the connection to the Active Directory or ADAM server.
The following table shows the effect of the connectionProtection attribute when connecting to an Active Directory.
connectionProtection setting | Effect |
|---|---|
The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class will connect to an Active Directory, with these restrictions.
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Secure | The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class will attempt to connect to Active Directory using SSL. If SSL fails, a second attempt to connect to Active Directory using sign-and-seal will be made. If both attempts fail, the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance will throw a ProviderException exception. Both process credentials and explicit credentials are supported. |
The following table shows the effect of the connectionProtection attribute when connecting to an ADAM server.
connectionProtection setting | Effect |
|---|---|
The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class will connect to an ADAM server, with this restriction.
Both process credentials and explicit credentials are supported. | |
Secure | The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class will attempt to connect to the ADAM server using SSL. If a connection cannot be made, the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance will throw a ProviderException exception. Both process credentials and explicit credentials are supported. |
ADAM Configuration
When using an ADAM server, the ADAM instance must contain a schema that defines the User class. You can import the User class with an LDIF import of the MS-User.ldf file available in the ADAM install directory.
The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider class will work with an ADAM server configured to use the default network ports. The following table shows the defaults expected for the ADAM server.
connectionProtection setting | Expected ADAM port |
|---|---|
389 | |
Secure | 636 |
If your ADAM server is not using the default ports, see article Q817583, "Active Directory Services does not request secure authorization over an SSL connection," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
The following code examples show the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use an ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance. The first example uses the default mappings for Active Directory attributes, and does not support password-reset security with question-and-answer nor the ability to call search methods. The second example shows all the attribute settings allowed for an ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider instance.
The first example is a simple configuration file using default mappings for Active Directory attributes.
<configuration>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="ADService" connectionString="LDAP://ldapServer/" />
</connectionStrings>
<system.web>
<membership defaultProvider="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider">
<providers>
<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider,
System.Web, Version=2.0.3600, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
</providers>
</membership>
</system.web>
</configuration>
This example shows all of the attribute settings that are available for an instance of ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider.
<configuration>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="ADService" connectionString="LDAP://ldapServer/" />
</connectionStrings>
<system.web>
<membership
defaultProvider="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider">
<providers>
<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider,
System.Web, Version=1.0.3600, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
connectionStringName="ADService"
connectionUsername="UserWithAppropriateRights"
connectionPassword="PasswordForUser"
connectionProtection="Secure"
enablePasswordReset="true"
enableSearchMethods="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
applicationName="/"
description="Default AD connection"
requiresUniqueEmail="false"
clientSearchTimeout="30"
serverSearchTimeout="30"
attributeMapPasswordQuestion="department"
attributeMapPasswordAnswer="division"
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerCount="singleIntAttribute"
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerTime="singleLargeIntAttribute"
attributeMapFailedPasswordAnswerLockoutTime="singleLargeIntAttribute"
attributeMapEmail = "mail"
attributeMapUsername = "userPrincipalName"
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts = "5"
passwordAttemptWindow = "10"
passwordAnswerAttemptLockoutDuration = "30"
minRequiredPasswordLength="7"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1"
passwordStrengthRegularExpression="
@\"(?=.{6,})(?=(.*\d){1,})(?=(.*\W){1,})" />
/>
</providers>
</membership>
</system.web>
</configuration>
- AspNetHostingPermission
for operating in a hosted environment. Demand value: LinkDemand. Permission value: Minimal.
- AspNetHostingPermission
for operating in a hosted environment. Demand value: InheritanceDemand. Permission value: Minimal.
- DirectoryServicesPermission
for accessing the Active Directory server. Demand value: LinkDemand. Permission value: Unrestricted.
- DirectoryServicesPermission
for accessing the Active Directory server. Demand value: InheritanceDemand. Permission value: Unrestricted.
System.Configuration.Provider::ProviderBase
System.Web.Security::MembershipProvider
System.Web.Security::ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
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Security Note: