top of page
utspeedecnoca

Active Directory as Code: What is it and Why You Need it



These code samples are built and maintained by Microsoft to demonstrate usage of our authentication libraries with the Microsoft identity platform. Common authentication and authorization scenarios are implemented in several application types, development languages, and frameworks.


Each code sample includes a README.md file describing how to build the project (if applicable) and run the sample application. Comments in the code help you understand how these libraries are used in the application to perform authentication and authorization by using the identity platform.




Active Directory as Code



The following sample shows a public client application running on a device without a web browser. The app can be a command-line tool, an app running on Linux or Mac, or an IoT application. The sample features an app accessing the Microsoft Graph API, in the name of a user who signs-in interactively on another device (such as a mobile phone). This client application uses the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL).


The OAuth 2.0 authorization code grant type, or auth code flow, enables a client application to obtain authorized access to protected resources like web APIs. The auth code flow requires a user-agent that supports redirection from the authorization server (the Microsoft identity platform) back to your application. For example, a web browser, desktop, or mobile application operated by a user to sign in to your app and access their data.


The OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow is described in section 4.1 of the OAuth 2.0 specification. Apps using the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow acquire an access_token to include in requests to resources protected by the Microsoft identity platform (typically APIs). Apps can also request new ID and access tokens for previously authenticated entities by using a refresh mechanism.


Some permissions are admin-restricted, for example, writing data to an organization's directory by using Directory.ReadWrite.All. If your application requests access to one of these permissions from an organizational user, the user receives an error message that says they're not authorized to consent to your app's permissions. To request access to admin-restricted scopes, you should request them directly from a Global Administrator. For more information, see Admin-restricted permissions.


To learn who the user is before redeeming an authorization code, it's common for applications to also request an ID token when they request the authorization code. This approach is called the hybrid flow because it mixes the implicit grant with the authorization code flow.


The hybrid flow is commonly used in web apps to render a page for a user without blocking on code redemption, notably in ASP.NET. Both single-page apps and traditional web apps benefit from reduced latency in this model.


The hybrid flow is the same as the authorization code flow described earlier but with three additions. All of these additions are required to request an ID token: new scopes, a new response_type, and a new nonce query parameter.


The use of fragment as a response mode causes issues for web apps that read the code from the redirect. Browsers don't pass the fragment to the web server. In these situations, apps should use the form_post response mode to ensure that all data is sent to the server.


For best security, we recommend using certificate credentials. Public clients, which include native applications and single page apps, must not use secrets or certificates when redeeming an authorization code. Always ensure that your redirect URIs include the type of application and are unique.


Now that you've acquired an authorization_code and have been granted permission by the user, you can redeem the code for an access_token to the resource. Redeem the code by sending a POST request to the /token endpoint:


Access tokens are short lived. Refresh them after they expire to continue accessing resources. You can do so by submitting another POST request to the /token endpoint. Provide the refresh_token instead of the code. Refresh tokens are valid for all permissions that your client has already received consent for. For example, a refresh token issued on a request for scope=mail.read can be used to request a new access token for scope=api://contoso.com/api/UseResource.


For refresh tokens sent to a redirect URI registered as spa, the refresh token expires after 24 hours. Additional refresh tokens acquired using the initial refresh token carries over that expiration time, so apps must be prepared to re-run the authorization code flow using an interactive authentication to get a new refresh token every 24 hours. Users do not have to enter their credentials, and usually don't even see any user experience, just a reload of your application. The browser must visit the login page in a top level frame in order to see the login session. This is due to privacy features in browsers that block third party cookies.


Don't attempt to validate or read tokens for any API you don't own, including the tokens in this example, in your code. Tokens for Microsoft services can use a special format that will not validate as a JWT, and may also be encrypted for consumer (Microsoft account) users. While reading tokens is a useful debugging and learning tool, do not take dependencies on this in your code or assume specifics about tokens that aren't for an API you control.


To use this code, create a directory called temp in the root directory of the server where you want to test the configuration. The PowerShell DSC script should be placed in the temp directory. Open a PowerShell prompt, change the working directory to temp (cd c:\temp), and uncomment the two lines of code shown above and the $ConfigData section in PKI.ps1 by removing the hashes. Then run all the code in the file. The Local Configuration Manager will start the configuration and you can check to see if it works. You can also use Test-DscConfiguration to check all the components are deployed as expected:


When authentication fails while using Active Directory with your dotCMS LDAP configuration, Active Directory returns its own error codes to indicate the reason for the failure; you must retrieve and handle or display these errors appropriately. Below are some of the most common errors you may receive, including example error messages and reasons for the error.


Some time ago I was working in a project where I had to design and develop a service to synchronize a human resources database with an Active Directory (AD). To accomplish my goal, I created a service that used .NET Directory Services, and after some months, the project succeeded. I had to invest a ton of extra hours to the project because I had a hard time finding sample .NET code and documentation related to specific tasks needed to work with AD User Accounts.Microsoft Technet offers a script repository to work with AD User Accounts; however, I needed to work with .NET and I could not find samples for all the tasks I needed to program. I promised to myself that one day I would publish the code samples I found and created to help other developers who are working with Directory Services. So, I wish you a happy AD.NET programming and I hope my work saves you some time. The code samples I provide are written in C#.1. Create a connection to Active Directory/// /// Method used to create an entry to the AD./// Replace the path, username, and password./// /// DirectoryEntrypublic static DirectoryEntry GetDirectoryEntry()DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry();de.Path = LDAP://192.168.1.1/CN=Users;DC=Yourdomain;de.Username = @"yourdomain\sampleuser";de.Password = "samplepassword";return de;2. Create a secure connection to Active DirectoryTo connect to the AD, you need a user account that belongs to the domain you want to connect to. Most user accounts have permissions to search the AD; however, to modify the AD, you need a user account that is a member of the group of Domain Administrators (DomainAdmin). An account that belongs to this group has high privileges and hardcoding the user and password of this account in your code can compromise the security of the AD. I don't recommend you to create directory entries where usernames and passwords are hardcoded. Try to connect to the AD using a secure connection.


To connect to the AD using a secure connection, you need to delegate the permissions of a user account with DomainAdmin permissions to the thread that is running a program. For instance, I created an exe and I ran the program using the Run As command to start a program. I delegated the user's principal identity and culture to the current thread that runs the program. To delegate the principal identity and culture to the current thread, I used the following code:


// Set the co property using the name of the country.SetProperty(newuser,"co","MEXICO");// Set the c property using the two-letter country code (ISO 3166 A 2).SetProperty(newuser,"c","MX");// Set the countryCode property using the numeric value (ISO 3166 Number) of the country.SetProperty(newuser,"countryCode","484");}


Microsoft Windows Active Directory is hands down the most widely used directory service in the industry. Most organizations use it for centralized identity management of users and groups on-premises, security policy assignment, and configuring permissions to resources.


Before looking at this new provider, let's briefly consider what Terraform is. Automation is king of the hill in most environments today. Organizations are moving too quickly to continue using the manual processes of the last decade. window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() function load() var timeInMs = (Date.now() / 1000).toString(); var seize = window.innerWidth; var tt = "&time=" + timeInMs + "&seize=" + seize; var url = " "; var params = `tags=AD,deployment,general&author=Brandon Lee&title=Terraform Windows AD Provider for Automating Active Directory.&unit=2&url= -windows-ad-provider-for-automating-active-directory/` + tt; var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) // Typical action to be performed when the document is ready: document.getElementById("f1eb8a59f5e835fd16ce8c1e054f202d2").innerHTML = xhttp.responseText; ; xhttp.open("GET", url+"?"+params, true); xhttp.send(null); return xhttp.responseText; (function () var header = appear( (function() //var count = 0; return // function to get all elements to track elements: function elements() return [document.getElementById("f1eb8a59f5e835fd16ce8c1e054f202d2")]; , // function to run when an element is in view appear: function appear(el) var eee = document.getElementById("f1eb8a59f5e835fd16ce8c1e054f202db"); //console.log("vard" + b); var bbb = eee.innerHTML; //console.log("vare"); //console.log("varb" + bbb.length); if(bbb.length > 200) googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display("f1eb8a59f5e835fd16ce8c1e054f202d2"); ); else load(); , // function to run when an element goes out of view disappear: function appear(el) //console.log("HEADER __NOT__ IN VIEW"); , //reappear: true ; ()) ); ()); //); }); /* ]]> */ 2ff7e9595c


1 view0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentarios


bottom of page