Re: How to authenticate Subversion with SASL2 + LDAP

Thanks Johan!

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 12:36, Johan Corveleyn <
johan.corveleyn_at_uz.kuleuven.ac.be> wrote:

> > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > Van: rizzopablo_at_gmail.com [mailto:rizzopablo_at_gmail.com] Namens Pablo
> > Manuel Rizzo
> > Verzonden: donderdag 11 juni 2009 16:15
> > Aan: users_at_subversion.tigris.org
> > Onderwerp: Re: How to authenticate Subversion with SASL2 + LDAP
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 11:03, Stefan Sperling <stsp_at_elego.de> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 10:43:13AM -0300, Pablo Manuel Rizzo
> > wrote:
> > > Hey Andrey, first you say it's not possible, now you say
> > it's all there.
> > > Is something wrong with you?
> >
> >
> > I'd say he just didn't know that SASL auth was added to svnserve.
> > It's a new feature.
> >
> >
> > > Does anybody know how to use sasl to authenticate subversion
> > with ldap?
> >
> >
> > The book suggests that you read the SASL documentation to
> > find out how to configure a given authentication scheme.
> > Have you read this part of the svnbook?
> >
> > I quote http://svnbook.red-
> > bean.com/nightly/en/svn.serverconfig.svnserve.html#svn.serverconfig.svn
> > serve.sasl
> >
> > Because SASL provides so many different kinds of authentication
> > mechanisms, it
> > would be foolish (and far beyond the scope of this book) to try
> > to describe
> > every possible server-side configuration. Instead, we recommend
> > that you read
> > the documentation supplied in the doc/ subdirectory of the SASL
> > source code. It
> > goes into great detail about every mechanism and how to
> > configure the server
> > appropriately for each.
> >
> > Have you tried that?
> >
> >
> >
> > Yes, sasl documentation is quite poor, there are no quick tips or how
> > tos. I see many people in this list and many others and forums is
> > looking for a quick how-to too. If someone in this list was able to
> > make it work and is willing to share how, it would be very nice and
> > usefull to publish this information somewhere.
> >
>
> SASL documentation is indeed very poor, and certainly when you're trying to
> focus on use of LDAP with svnserve. You have to learn all about the
> different password exchange mechanisms (plain, md5-digest, cram-digest, ...)
> figuring out all about saslauthd and other stuff, while all you want to know
> is: where do I configure the LDAP server, bind dn and bind password and
> stuff like that (like with Apache + LDAP).
>
> Short answer: it's not possible, unless you apply a specific patch and
> build svn server from source. See e.g.
> http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2008-01/0719.shtml. I haven't tried it
> myself though (can't compile from source).
>
> The reason why it's not possible, despite what the documentation of SVN
> says? Read the "Known Issues" in
> http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/notes/sasl.txt:
> -----
> ...
> As a consequence, you won't be able to use the saslauthd daemon to
> authenticate users, because that method only works with plain text
> passwords.
> -----
> And it just so happens that LDAP authentication only works with saslauthd
> (and plain text passwords).
>
> This was one of my major frustrations when trying to get SVN up and running
> for the first time. We wanted to go for svnserve to get the last drop of
> performance out of it (and seemingly simple to set up). I lost days and days
> looking for a solution, why it wouldn't work despite following carefully the
> SASL instructions, ... until I found that "known issue" in the sasl.txt
> file. In the end we switched to Apache just for this (I have not regretted
> it, but just the time I lost with that ... I would have liked to have known
> this beforehand).
>
> The SVN devs could do current and future SVN users, administrators, ... a
> big service by clearly documenting this! Please put this in big bold letters
> in the book: svnserve + SASL + LDAP is not supported. Don't let people work
> on this assumption until they find the small print in that sasl.txt file.
> Please don't act in the book like all the SASL mechanisms are supported,
> because they clearly are not.
>
> And if it ever would be supported: please provide a simple example in the
> book for getting this up and running.
>
> Kind regards,
> Johan
>
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-- 
Pablo Manuel Rizzo
-------------------------------
http://pablorizzo.com
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