[Network Administration] : OpenLDAP and SASL Passthrough

I needed to get the SASL passthrough working since I have some things that need to bind to the LDAP server. Specifically, I need to be able to authenticate to my Synology NAS with my LDAP account. Till now, I’ve just used NFS permissions to mount the shares to the system (mainly using the automounter getting the information from the LDAP server). If I need to allow clients to bind to the LDAP server as authentication, then I’ll need to have access to the password. I store my passwords in the Kerberos KDC, but I can have LDAP pass the authentication through to a SASL backend instead of storing the passwords locally in the directory.

[Network Administration]: Some Notes on Security

Before moving on, I’ll put some notes here on security. Basically, there really isn’t any. At some point, if someone really wants to get in, they’re going to. Hopefully, it won’t be malicious, and it won’t be that easy, but unless you’re completely isolated from the internet, I just don’t see any way that a machine can be completely secure. Possibly the best way is to try to stay out ahead. There are some things that can make things harder for an intruder. Probably, the best way is to really limit the number of network services. Especially, ways that are less secure. The less services running that are unneeded, the less visibility on the network. Also, I don’t have my KDC or LDAP server directly accessible from the internet. Of course, all of this means that it’s all less accessible to me, but that’s something that I can live with. Also, there is a very limited set of users who have access.