RFC 3352

RFC 3352: Connection-less LDAP (CLDAP) to Historic Status 🦋

okay bestie, this one is a whole plot twist 💅 It's RFC 3352 by Kurt D. Zeilenga of the OpenLDAP Foundation, dated March 2003. It's Informational (so it isn't a standard, just a "hey, here's what happened" doc) and it obsoletes RFC 1798 🌸 That's the CLDAP spec, which is the star of this whole story.

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Status of this Memo ✨

This memo gives information to the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind, and distribution is unlimited 💖

Copyright Notice 🎀

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract 🔥

So the Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) spec, RFC 1798, came out in 1995 as a Proposed Standard. This doc explains why CLDAP never got pushed further along the Standard Track, and it recommends that RFC 1798 be moved to Historic status 🫶

1. Background 🧚

CLDAP [RFC1798] dropped in 1995 as a Proposed Standard, and it was built for apps that just need to look up a small amount of info in the directory. The big perk is that it skips the whole connection setup and teardown, plus the session bind and unbind operations that connection-oriented directory protocols need. CLDAP was meant to be the sidekick to version 2 of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAPv2) [RFC1777], which is now Historic [HISTORIC] 🌈

Fast forward seven years and CLDAP still hasn't caught on across the Internet 😭 There are a few likely reasons:

• Limited functionality:
  • anonymous only,
  • read only,
  • small result sizes only, and
• Insufficient security capabilities:
  • no integrity protection,
  • no confidentiality protection
• Inadequate internationalization support;
• Insufficient extensibility; and
• Lack of multiple independently developed implementations.

The CLDAP spec also has normative references to several obsolete specs: X.501(88), X.511(88), and RFC 1487, which is the predecessor to RFC 1777 (the now Historic LDAPv2 spec). Unless the spec gets updated, CLDAP can't stay on the standards track, because it leans on a Historic RFC 💀

The community realized in the mid-1990s that CLDAP needed an update. So in 1997 the IETF chartered the LDAP Extensions Working Group (LDAPext WG) to do it. The LDAPext WG is wrapping up without producing a CLDAP update, and right now there's no standardization effort to update CLDAP 🙈

Also, the community still wants a "connection-less" directory access protocol, but based on operational experience, further experimentation is needed to sort out the open technical issues. Especially the security considerations for "connection-less" services, which still need to be addressed 🔥

2. Recommendation 💅

Since there's no viable standardization effort to update CLDAP in a way that keeps it on the standards track, and the community sees this area as one that needs more experimentation, RFC 1798 must be moved to Historic status 👑

If you're into connection-less access to X.500-based directory services, the recommendation is to experiment with [LDAPUDP] and other alternatives that might show up later 🦋

3. Security Considerations 🔐

The security of the Internet will not be impacted by the retirement of CLDAP. Bye bye, no drama 💜

4. Acknowledgment 🫶

The author would like to thank the designers of CLDAP for their contribution to the Internet community. Iconic behaviour 🌸

5. Normative References 📚

[HISTORIC] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol version 2 (LDAPv2) to Historic Status", RFC 3494, February 2003.

[CLDAP] Young, A. "Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol," RFC 1798, June 1995.

6. Informative References 🍓

[LDAPUDP] Johansson, L. and R. Hedberg, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over UDP/IP," Work in Progress.

[RFC1777] Yeong, W., Howes, T. and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", RFC 1777, March 1995.

[RFC3377] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377, September 2002.

[X501] The Directory: Models. CCITT Recommendation X.501 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC21; International Standard 9594-2, 1988.

[X511] The Directory: Abstract Service Definition. CCITT Recommendation X.511, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC21; International Standard 9594-3, 1988.

7. Author's Address 📮

Kurt D. Zeilenga OpenLDAP Foundation

EMail: Kurt@OpenLDAP.org

8. Full Copyright Statement 📜

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others. Derivative works that comment on or explain it, or help with implementing it, may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, as long as the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations. The one exception is for developing Internet standards, where the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or when translating it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information in it are provided on an "AS IS" basis, and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ✨

Acknowledgement 🌈

Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society 💖