Profile Management and Authentication Using LDAP

In this paper, we present the technique to manage user profiles and authentication using LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol). The user profiles maintained in the LDAP directory information tree (DIT) which contains various information about users. This information can be retrieved by the users depending upon the level of access provided to them on the network. Various services use this authentication mechanism to allow the authorized users, who provide correct authentication information as stored in the LDAP server, to use the corresponding services. Virtual private network (VPN), remote access server (RAS), Web server, mail server can use LDAP for authenticating users.