How to search users in LDAP using LdapConnection object in C#?

Question

I have requirement to search for users in a LDAP directory using C#. I can do it using DirectoryEntry and DirectorySearcher as shown in code below:

SearchResultCollection sResults = null;

DirectoryEntry dEntry = new DirectoryEntry(_LDAPConnectionString);

DirectorySearcher dSearcher = new DirectorySearcher(dEntry);    
dSearcher.Filter = String.Format("(&(objectClass=user)(cn={0}))", userName);

sResults = dSearcher.FindAll();

But the requirement is to create a LdapConnection object using a standard access user (always the same) as shown below. And use that particular LdapConnectionObject to search users using username.

LdapConnection ldapConnectionObject = new LdapConnection(
                new LdapDirectoryIdentifier(_hostName, _port),
                null,
                AuthType.Basic);
ldapConnectionObject.Bind(accessUserCredential);

How do I use the above ldapConnectionObject to search for users?

Take a look at the example of async ldapconnection searcher: dunnry.com/blog/2008/06/05/… — oldovets
– oldovets, Commented Jun 3, 2018 at 16:19

Rocklan · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-01 04:49:24Z

9

I found the answer searching using LdapConnection object. So we can use the SendRequest method of the LdapConnection class using the SearchRequest to get search response back. In below example, I have searched the user with uid userName and retreived its DN.

ldapConnection = new LdapConnection(
                new LdapDirectoryIdentifier(_hostName, _port),
                null,
                AuthType.Basic
                );

string searchFilter = String.Format("(&(objectClass=user)(uid={0}))", userName);

string userStore = "OU=WebsiteUsers,OU=InternalUsers";

SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest
                (userStore,
                 searchFilter,
                 System.DirectoryServices.Protocols.SearchScope.Subtree,
                 new string[] { "DistinguishedName" });

var response = (SearchResponse)ldapConnection.SendRequest(searchRequest);
string userDN = response.Entries[0].Attributes["DistinguishedName"][0].ToString();

edited Apr 1, 2021 at 4:49

Rocklan

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answered Jun 6, 2018 at 14:29

Psth

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6 Comments

user153923 Over a year ago

But parameter _userStore. What is that?

user153923 Over a year ago

Also: My (limited) tour of LDAP has told me that the parameter DistinguishedName is a default that is always returned. What I saw was that it is a "noobie mistake" to include that in your search parameters. I appreciate your code, though! :)

Psth Over a year ago

@jp2code the _userStore is the distinguished name of the object at which to start the search from. We can narrow it down as much as we can. and yeah it was a noobie mistake :) . I removed that search parameter from my code. Thanks :)

Psth Over a year ago

@Żubrówka the example for _userStore is : "OU=WebsiteUsers,OU=InternalUsers". It is just to specify from where the search should be started from.

Jason D Over a year ago

This code was very helpful. Only in my case I could get the DN as response.Entries[0].DistinguishedName. The Attributes were coming back empty.

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