# Reference

## Settings

### AUTH_LDAP_ALWAYS_UPDATE_USER

Default: `True`

If `True`, the fields of a `User` object will be updated with the latest values from the LDAP directory every time the user logs in. Otherwise the `User` object will only be populated when it is automatically created.

### AUTH_LDAP_AUTHORIZE_ALL_USERS

Default: `False`

If `True`, `LDAPBackend` will be able furnish permissions for any Django user, regardless of which backend authenticated it.

### AUTH_LDAP_BIND_AS_AUTHENTICATING_USER

Default: `False`

If `True`, authentication will leave the LDAP connection bound as the authenticating user, rather than forcing it to re-bind with the default credentials after authentication succeeds. This may be desirable if you do not have global credentials that are able to access the user’s attributes. django-auth-ldap never stores the user’s password, so this only applies to requests where the user is authenticated. Thus, the downside to this setting is that LDAP results may vary based on whether the user was authenticated earlier in the Django view, which could be surprising to code not directly concerned with authentication. Remember to set `AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE` to avoid initial connection to LDAP with default bind credentials.

### AUTH_LDAP_REFRESH_DN_ON_BIND

Default: `False`

If `True` and `AUTH_LDAP_BIND_AS_AUTHENTICATING_USER` is `True` and `AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE` is set, after performing bind login it refresh the DN attribute of the user. This is meant for such cases in which users authenticates via userPrincipalName and in which distinguishedName is not inferrable by that attribute.

### AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN

Default: `''` (Empty string)

The distinguished name to use when binding to the LDAP server (with `AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD`). Use the empty string (the default) for an anonymous bind. To authenticate a user, we will bind with that user’s DN and password, but for all other LDAP operations, we will be bound as the DN in this setting. For example, if `AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE` is not set, we’ll use this to search for the user. If `AUTH_LDAP_FIND_GROUP_PERMS` is `True`, we’ll also use it to determine group membership.

### AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD

Default: `''` (Empty string)

The password to use with `AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN`.

### AUTH_LDAP_CACHE_TIMEOUT

Default: `0`

The value determines the amount of time, in seconds, a user’s group memberships and distinguished name are cached. The value `0`, the default, disables caching entirely.

### AUTH_LDAP_CONNECTION_OPTIONS

Default: `{}`

A dictionary of options to pass to each connection to the LDAP server via `LDAPObject.set_option()`. Keys are ldap.OPT_* constants.

### AUTH_LDAP_DENY_GROUP

Default: `None`

The distinguished name of a group; authentication will fail for any user that belongs to this group.

### AUTH_LDAP_FIND_GROUP_PERMS

Default: `False`

If `True`, `LDAPBackend` looks up Django `Group`s matching LDAP group names, and assigns user permissions based on the Django `Group` permissions.

`AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH` and `AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE` must also be set.

Important

Users will not be added to the Django `Group`. The LDAP groups remain the source of truth for group membership.

### AUTH_LDAP_GLOBAL_OPTIONS

Default: `{}`

A dictionary of options to pass to `ldap.set_option()`. Keys are ldap.OPT_* constants.

Note

Due to its global nature, this setting ignores the settings prefix. Regardless of how many backends are installed, this setting is referenced once by its default name at the time we load the ldap module.

### AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH

Default: `None`

An `LDAPSearch` object that finds all LDAP groups that users might belong to. If your configuration makes any references to LDAP groups, this and `AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE` must be set.

### AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE

Default: `None`

An `LDAPGroupType` instance describing the type of group returned by `AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH`.

### AUTH_LDAP_MIRROR_GROUPS

Default: `None`

If `True`, `LDAPBackend` will mirror a user’s LDAP group membership in the Django database. Any time a user authenticates through the `LDAPBackend`, we will create all of their LDAP groups as Django groups and update their Django group membership to exactly match their LDAP group membership. If the LDAP server has nested groups, the Django database will end up with a flattened representation.

This can also be a list or other collection of group names, in which case we’ll only mirror those groups and leave the rest alone. This is ignored if `AUTH_LDAP_MIRROR_GROUPS_EXCEPT` is set.

Note

Users authenticating through another authentication backend, such as `ModelBackend` will not have their group membership and permissions refreshed from the LDAP server.

### AUTH_LDAP_MIRROR_GROUPS_EXCEPT

Default: `None`

If this is not `None`, it must be a list or other collection of group names. This will enable group mirroring, except that we’ll never change the membership of the indicated groups. `AUTH_LDAP_MIRROR_GROUPS` is ignored in this case.

### AUTH_LDAP_PERMIT_EMPTY_PASSWORD

Default: `False`

If `False` (the default), authentication with an empty password will fail immediately, without any LDAP communication. This is a secure default, as some LDAP servers are configured to allow binds to succeed with no password, perhaps at a reduced level of access. If you need to make use of this LDAP feature, you can change this setting to `True`.

### AUTH_LDAP_REQUIRE_GROUP

Default: `None`

The distinguished name of a group; authentication will fail for any user that does not belong to this group. This can also be an `LDAPGroupQuery` instance.

### AUTH_LDAP_NO_NEW_USERS

Default: `False`

Prevent the creation of new users during authentication. Any users not already in the Django user database will not be able to login.

### AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI

Default: `'ldap://localhost'`

The URI of the LDAP server. This can be any URI that is supported by your underlying LDAP libraries. Can also be a callable that returns the URI. The callable is passed a single positional argument: `request`.

Changed in version 1.7.0: When `AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI` is set to a callable, it is now passed a positional `request` argument. Support for no arguments will continue for backwards compatibility but will be removed in a future version.

### AUTH_LDAP_START_TLS

Default: `False`

If `True`, each connection to the LDAP server will call `start_tls_s()` to enable TLS encryption over the standard LDAP port. There are a number of configuration options that can be given to `AUTH_LDAP_GLOBAL_OPTIONS` that affect the TLS connection. For example, `ldap.OPT_X_TLS_REQUIRE_CERT` can be set to `ldap.OPT_X_TLS_NEVER` to disable certificate verification, perhaps to allow self-signed certificates.

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_QUERY_FIELD

Default: `None`

The field on the user model used to query the authenticating user in the database. If unset, uses the value of `USERNAME_FIELD` of the model class. When set, the value used to query is obtained through the `AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP`. For example, setting `AUTH_LDAP_USER_QUERY_FIELD` to `username` and adding `"username": "sAMAccountName",` to `AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP` will cause django to query local database using `username` column and LDAP using `sAMAccountName` attribute.

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTRLIST

Default: `None`

A list of attribute names to load for the authenticated user. Normally, you can ignore this and the LDAP server will send back all of the attributes of the directory entry. One reason you might need to override this is to get operational attributes, which are not normally included:

    AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTRLIST = ["*", "+"]

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP

Default: `{}`

A mapping from `User` field names to LDAP attribute names. A users’s `User` object will be populated from his LDAP attributes at login.

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE

Default: `None`

A string template that describes any user’s distinguished name based on the username. This must contain the placeholder `%(user)s`.

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_FLAGS_BY_GROUP

Default: `{}`

A mapping from boolean `User` field names to distinguished names of LDAP groups. The corresponding field is set to `True` or `False` according to whether the user is a member of the group.

Values may be strings for simple group membership tests or `LDAPGroupQuery` instances for more complex cases.

### AUTH_LDAP_USER_SEARCH

Default: `None`

An `LDAPSearch` object that will locate a user in the directory. The filter parameter should contain the placeholder `%(user)s` for the username. It must return exactly one result for authentication to succeed.

## Module Properties

django_auth_ldap.version

  The library’s current version number as a 3-tuple.

django_auth_ldap.version_string

  The library’s current version number as a string.

## Configuration

class django_auth_ldap.config.LDAPSearch
  __init__(base_dn, scope, filterstr='(objectClass=*)')
    Parameters:

      - base_dn (str) – The distinguished name of the search base.

      - scope (int) – One of `ldap.SCOPE_*`.

      - filterstr (str) – An optional filter string (e.g. ‘(objectClass=person)’). In order to be valid, `filterstr` must be enclosed in parentheses.

class django_auth_ldap.config.LDAPSearchUnion

  Added in version 1.1.

  __init__(\*searches)
    Parameters:

      searches (`LDAPSearch`) – Zero or more LDAPSearch objects. The result of the overall search is the union (by DN) of the results of the underlying searches. The precedence of the underlying results and the ordering of the final results are both undefined.

class django_auth_ldap.config.LDAPGroupType

  The base class for objects that will determine group membership for various LDAP grouping mechanisms. Implementations are provided for common group types or you can write your own. See the source code for subclassing notes.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

    By default, LDAP groups will be mapped to Django groups by taking the first value of the cn attribute. You can specify a different attribute with `name_attr`.

class django_auth_ldap.config.PosixGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `LDAPGroupType` that handles the `posixGroup` object class. This checks for both primary group and group membership.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.MemberDNGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `LDAPGroupType` that handles grouping mechanisms wherein the group object contains a list of its member DNs.

  __init__(member_attr, name_attr='cn')
    Parameters:

      member_attr (str) – The attribute on the group object that contains a list of member DNs. ‘member’ and ‘uniqueMember’ are common examples.

class django_auth_ldap.config.NestedMemberDNGroupType

  Similar to `MemberDNGroupType`, except this allows groups to contain other groups as members. Group hierarchies will be traversed to determine membership.

  __init__(member_attr, name_attr='cn')

    As above.

class django_auth_ldap.config.GroupOfNamesType

  A concrete subclass of `MemberDNGroupType` that handles the `groupOfNames` object class. Equivalent to `MemberDNGroupType('member')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.NestedGroupOfNamesType

  A concrete subclass of `NestedMemberDNGroupType` that handles the `groupOfNames` object class. Equivalent to `NestedMemberDNGroupType('member')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.GroupOfUniqueNamesType

  A concrete subclass of `MemberDNGroupType` that handles the `groupOfUniqueNames` object class. Equivalent to `MemberDNGroupType('uniqueMember')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.NestedGroupOfUniqueNamesType

  A concrete subclass of `NestedMemberDNGroupType` that handles the `groupOfUniqueNames` object class. Equivalent to `NestedMemberDNGroupType('uniqueMember')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.ActiveDirectoryGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `MemberDNGroupType` that handles Active Directory groups. Equivalent to `MemberDNGroupType('member')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.NestedActiveDirectoryGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `NestedMemberDNGroupType` that handles Active Directory groups. Equivalent to `NestedMemberDNGroupType('member')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.OrganizationalRoleGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `MemberDNGroupType` that handles the `organizationalRole` object class. Equivalent to `MemberDNGroupType('roleOccupant')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.NestedOrganizationalRoleGroupType

  A concrete subclass of `NestedMemberDNGroupType` that handles the `organizationalRole` object class. Equivalent to `NestedMemberDNGroupType('roleOccupant')`.

  __init__(name_attr='cn')

class django_auth_ldap.config.LDAPGroupQuery

  Represents a compound query for group membership.

  This can be used to construct an arbitrarily complex group membership query with AND, OR, and NOT logical operators. Construct primitive queries with a group DN as the only argument. These queries can then be combined with the `&`, `|`, and `~` operators.

  This is used by certain settings, including `AUTH_LDAP_REQUIRE_GROUP` and `AUTH_LDAP_USER_FLAGS_BY_GROUP`. An example is shown in Limiting Access.

  __init__(group_dn)
    Parameters:

      group_dn (str) – The distinguished name of a group to test for membership.

## Backend

django_auth_ldap.backend.populate_user

  This is a Django signal that is sent when clients should perform additional customization of a `User` object. It is sent after a user has been authenticated and the backend has finished populating it, and just before it is saved. The client may take this opportunity to populate additional model fields, perhaps based on `ldap_user.attrs`. This signal has two keyword arguments: `user` is the `User` object and `ldap_user` is the same as `user.ldap_user`. The sender is the `LDAPBackend` class.

django_auth_ldap.backend.ldap_error

  This is a Django signal that is sent when we receive an `ldap.LDAPError` exception. The signal has four keyword arguments:

  - `context`: one of `'authenticate'`, `'get_group_permissions'`, or `'populate_user'`, `'search_for_user_dn'` or `'mirror_groups'`, indicating which API was being called when the exception was caught.

  - `user`: the Django user being processed (if available) or `None`.

  - `request`: the Django request object associated with the authentication attempt (if available) or `None`.

  - `exception`: the `LDAPError` object itself.

  The sender is the `LDAPBackend` class (or subclass).

  By default, LDAP errors are be handled by `django_auth_ldap` by failing the authentication. If instead you wish to propagate the error to up application code, then raise an exception from the signal handler.

class django_auth_ldap.backend.LDAPBackend

  `LDAPBackend` has one method that may be called directly and several that may be overridden in subclasses.

  settings_prefix

    A prefix for all of our Django settings. By default, this is `'AUTH_LDAP_'`, but subclasses can override this. When different subclasses use different prefixes, they can both be installed and operate independently.

  default_settings

    A dictionary of default settings. This is empty in `LDAPBackend`, but subclasses can populate this with values that will override the built-in defaults. Note that the keys should omit the `'AUTH_LDAP_'` prefix.

  populate_user(username)

    Populates the Django user for the given LDAP username. This connects to the LDAP directory with the default credentials and attempts to populate the indicated Django user as if they had just logged in. `AUTH_LDAP_ALWAYS_UPDATE_USER` is ignored (assumed `True`).

  get_user_model(self)

    Returns the user model that `get_or_build_user()` will instantiate. By default, custom user models will be respected. Subclasses would most likely override this in order to substitute a proxy model.

  authenticate_ldap_user(self, ldap_user, password)

    Given an LDAP user object and password, authenticates the user and returns a Django user object. See Customizing Authentication.

  get_or_build_user(self, username, ldap_user)

    Given a username and an LDAP user object, this must return a valid Django user model instance. The `username` argument has already been passed through `ldap_to_django_username()`. You can get information about the LDAP user via `ldap_user.dn` and `ldap_user.attrs`. The return value must be an (instance, created) two-tuple. The instance does not need to be saved.

    The default implementation looks for the username with a case-insensitive query; if it’s not found, the model returned by `get_user_model()` will be created with the lowercased username. New users will not be saved to the database until after the `django_auth_ldap.backend.populate_user` signal has been sent.

    A subclass may override this to associate LDAP users to Django users any way it likes.

  ldap_to_django_username(username)

    Returns a valid Django username based on the given LDAP username (which is what the user enters). By default, `username` is returned unchanged. This can be overridden by subclasses.

  django_to_ldap_username(username)

    The inverse of `ldap_to_django_username()`. If this is not symmetrical to `ldap_to_django_username()`, the behavior is undefined.