Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
rfc4514.txt 31.1 KiB
Newer Older
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843






Network Working Group                                   K. Zeilenga, Ed.
Request for Comments: 4514                           OpenLDAP Foundation
Obsoletes: 2253                                                June 2006
Category: Standards Track


             Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
              String Representation of Distinguished Names

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   The X.500 Directory uses distinguished names (DNs) as primary keys to
   entries in the directory.  This document defines the string
   representation used in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
   (LDAP) to transfer distinguished names.  The string representation is
   designed to give a clean representation of commonly used
   distinguished names, while being able to represent any distinguished
   name.

1.  Background and Intended Usage

   In X.500-based directory systems [X.500], including those accessed
   using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC4510],
   distinguished names (DNs) are used to unambiguously refer to
   directory entries [X.501][RFC4512].

   The structure of a DN [X.501] is described in terms of ASN.1 [X.680].
   In the X.500 Directory Access Protocol [X.511] (and other ITU-defined
   directory protocols), DNs are encoded using the Basic Encoding Rules
   (BER) [X.690].  In LDAP, DNs are represented in the string form
   described in this document.

   It is important to have a common format to be able to unambiguously
   represent a distinguished name.  The primary goal of this
   specification is ease of encoding and decoding.  A secondary goal is
   to have names that are human readable.  It is not expected that LDAP



Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 1]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


   implementations with a human user interface would display these
   strings directly to the user, but that they would most likely be
   performing translations (such as expressing attribute type names in
   the local national language).

   This document defines the string representation of Distinguished
   Names used in LDAP [RFC4511][RFC4517].  Section 2 details the
   RECOMMENDED algorithm for converting a DN from its ASN.1 structured
   representation to a string.  Section 3 details how to convert a DN
   from a string to an ASN.1 structured representation.

   While other documents may define other algorithms for converting a DN
   from its ASN.1 structured representation to a string, all algorithms
   MUST produce strings that adhere to the requirements of Section 3.

   This document does not define a canonical string representation for
   DNs.  Comparison of DNs for equality is to be performed in accordance
   with the distinguishedNameMatch matching rule [RFC4517].

   This document is a integral part of the LDAP technical specification
   [RFC4510], which obsoletes the previously defined LDAP technical
   specification, RFC 3377, in its entirety.  This document obsoletes
   RFC 2253.  Changes since RFC 2253 are summarized in Appendix B.

   This specification assumes familiarity with X.500 [X.500] and the
   concept of Distinguished Name [X.501][RFC4512].

1.1.  Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].

   Character names in this document use the notation for code points and
   names from the Unicode Standard [Unicode].  For example, the letter
   "a" may be represented as either <U+0061> or <LATIN SMALL LETTER A>.

   Note: a glossary of terms used in Unicode can be found in [Glossary].
   Information on the Unicode character encoding model can be found in
   [CharModel].











Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 2]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


2.  Converting DistinguishedName from ASN.1 to a String

   X.501 [X.501] defines the ASN.1 [X.680] structure of distinguished
   name.  The following is a variant provided for discussion purposes.

      DistinguishedName ::= RDNSequence

      RDNSequence ::= SEQUENCE OF RelativeDistinguishedName

      RelativeDistinguishedName ::= SET SIZE (1..MAX) OF
          AttributeTypeAndValue

      AttributeTypeAndValue ::= SEQUENCE {
          type  AttributeType,
          value AttributeValue }

   This section defines the RECOMMENDED algorithm for converting a
   distinguished name from an ASN.1-structured representation to a UTF-8
   [RFC3629] encoded Unicode [Unicode] character string representation.
   Other documents may describe other algorithms for converting a
   distinguished name to a string, but only strings that conform to the
   grammar defined in Section 3 SHALL be produced by LDAP
   implementations.

2.1.  Converting the RDNSequence

   If the RDNSequence is an empty sequence, the result is the empty or
   zero-length string.

   Otherwise, the output consists of the string encodings of each
   RelativeDistinguishedName in the RDNSequence (according to Section
   2.2), starting with the last element of the sequence and moving
   backwards toward the first.

   The encodings of adjoining RelativeDistinguishedNames are separated
   by a comma (',' U+002C) character.

2.2.  Converting RelativeDistinguishedName

   When converting from an ASN.1 RelativeDistinguishedName to a string,
   the output consists of the string encodings of each
   AttributeTypeAndValue (according to Section 2.3), in any order.

   Where there is a multi-valued RDN, the outputs from adjoining
   AttributeTypeAndValues are separated by a plus sign ('+' U+002B)
   character.





Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 3]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


2.3.  Converting AttributeTypeAndValue

   The AttributeTypeAndValue is encoded as the string representation of
   the AttributeType, followed by an equals sign ('=' U+003D) character,
   followed by the string representation of the AttributeValue.  The
   encoding of the AttributeValue is given in Section 2.4.

   If the AttributeType is defined to have a short name (descriptor)
   [RFC4512] and that short name is known to be registered [REGISTRY]
   [RFC4520] as identifying the AttributeType, that short name, a
   <descr>, is used.  Otherwise the AttributeType is encoded as the
   dotted-decimal encoding, a <numericoid>, of its OBJECT IDENTIFIER.
   The <descr> and <numericoid> are defined in [RFC4512].

   Implementations are not expected to dynamically update their
   knowledge of registered short names.  However, implementations SHOULD
   provide a mechanism to allow their knowledge of registered short
   names to be updated.

2.4.  Converting an AttributeValue from ASN.1 to a String

   If the AttributeType is of the dotted-decimal form, the
   AttributeValue is represented by an number sign ('#' U+0023)
   character followed by the hexadecimal encoding of each of the octets
   of the BER encoding of the X.500 AttributeValue.  This form is also
   used when the syntax of the AttributeValue does not have an LDAP-
   specific ([RFC4517], Section 3.1) string encoding defined for it, or
   the LDAP-specific string encoding is not restricted to UTF-8-encoded
   Unicode characters.  This form may also be used in other cases, such
   as when a reversible string representation is desired (see Section
   5.2).

   Otherwise, if the AttributeValue is of a syntax that has a LDAP-
   specific string encoding, the value is converted first to a UTF-8-
   encoded Unicode string according to its syntax specification (see
   [RFC4517], Section 3.3, for examples).  If that UTF-8-encoded Unicode
   string does not have any of the following characters that need
   escaping, then that string can be used as the string representation
   of the value.

      - a space (' ' U+0020) or number sign ('#' U+0023) occurring at
        the beginning of the string;

      - a space (' ' U+0020) character occurring at the end of the
        string;






Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 4]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


      - one of the characters '"', '+', ',', ';', '<', '>',  or '\'
        (U+0022, U+002B, U+002C, U+003B, U+003C, U+003E, or U+005C,
        respectively);

      - the null (U+0000) character.

   Other characters may be escaped.

   Each octet of the character to be escaped is replaced by a backslash
   and two hex digits, which form a single octet in the code of the
   character.  Alternatively, if and only if the character to be escaped
   is one of

      ' ', '"', '#', '+', ',', ';', '<', '=', '>', or '\'
      (U+0020, U+0022, U+0023, U+002B, U+002C, U+003B,
       U+003C, U+003D, U+003E, U+005C, respectively)

   it can be prefixed by a backslash ('\' U+005C).

   Examples of the escaping mechanism are shown in Section 4.

3.  Parsing a String Back to a Distinguished Name

   The string representation of Distinguished Names is restricted to
   UTF-8 [RFC3629] encoded Unicode [Unicode] characters.  The structure
   of this string representation is specified using the following
   Augmented BNF [RFC4234] grammar:

      distinguishedName = [ relativeDistinguishedName
          *( COMMA relativeDistinguishedName ) ]
      relativeDistinguishedName = attributeTypeAndValue
          *( PLUS attributeTypeAndValue )
      attributeTypeAndValue = attributeType EQUALS attributeValue
      attributeType = descr / numericoid
      attributeValue = string / hexstring

      ; The following characters are to be escaped when they appear
      ; in the value to be encoded: ESC, one of <escaped>, leading
      ; SHARP or SPACE, trailing SPACE, and NULL.
      string =   [ ( leadchar / pair ) [ *( stringchar / pair )
         ( trailchar / pair ) ] ]

      leadchar = LUTF1 / UTFMB
      LUTF1 = %x01-1F / %x21 / %x24-2A / %x2D-3A /
         %x3D / %x3F-5B / %x5D-7F

      trailchar  = TUTF1 / UTFMB
      TUTF1 = %x01-1F / %x21 / %x23-2A / %x2D-3A /



Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 5]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


         %x3D / %x3F-5B / %x5D-7F

      stringchar = SUTF1 / UTFMB
      SUTF1 = %x01-21 / %x23-2A / %x2D-3A /
         %x3D / %x3F-5B / %x5D-7F

      pair = ESC ( ESC / special / hexpair )
      special = escaped / SPACE / SHARP / EQUALS
      escaped = DQUOTE / PLUS / COMMA / SEMI / LANGLE / RANGLE
      hexstring = SHARP 1*hexpair
      hexpair = HEX HEX

   where the productions <descr>, <numericoid>, <COMMA>, <DQUOTE>,
   <EQUALS>, <ESC>, <HEX>, <LANGLE>, <NULL>, <PLUS>, <RANGLE>, <SEMI>,
   <SPACE>, <SHARP>, and <UTFMB> are defined in [RFC4512].

   Each <attributeType>, either a <descr> or a <numericoid>, refers to
   an attribute type of an attribute value assertion (AVA).  The
   <attributeType> is followed by an <EQUALS> and an <attributeValue>.
   The <attributeValue> is either in <string> or <hexstring> form.

   If in <string> form, a LDAP string representation asserted value can
   be obtained by replacing (left to right, non-recursively) each <pair>
   appearing in the <string> as follows:

      replace <ESC><ESC> with <ESC>;
      replace <ESC><special> with <special>;
      replace <ESC><hexpair> with the octet indicated by the <hexpair>.

   If in <hexstring> form, a BER representation can be obtained from
   converting each <hexpair> of the <hexstring> to the octet indicated
   by the <hexpair>.

   There is one or more attribute value assertions, separated by <PLUS>,
   for a relative distinguished name.

   There is zero or more relative distinguished names, separated by
   <COMMA>, for a distinguished name.

   Implementations MUST recognize AttributeType name strings
   (descriptors) listed in the following table, but MAY recognize other
   name strings.









Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 6]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


      String  X.500 AttributeType
      ------  --------------------------------------------
      CN      commonName (2.5.4.3)
      L       localityName (2.5.4.7)
      ST      stateOrProvinceName (2.5.4.8)
      O       organizationName (2.5.4.10)
      OU      organizationalUnitName (2.5.4.11)
      C       countryName (2.5.4.6)
      STREET  streetAddress (2.5.4.9)
      DC      domainComponent (0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.25)
      UID     userId (0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1)

   These attribute types are described in [RFC4519].

   Implementations MAY recognize other DN string representations.
   However, as there is no requirement that alternative DN string
   representations be recognized (and, if so, how), implementations
   SHOULD only generate DN strings in accordance with Section 2 of this
   document.

4.  Examples

   This notation is designed to be convenient for common forms of name.
   This section gives a few examples of distinguished names written
   using this notation.  First is a name containing three relative
   distinguished names (RDNs):

      UID=jsmith,DC=example,DC=net

   Here is an example of a name containing three RDNs, in which the
   first RDN is multi-valued:

      OU=Sales+CN=J.  Smith,DC=example,DC=net

   This example shows the method of escaping of a special characters
   appearing in a common name:

      CN=James \"Jim\" Smith\, III,DC=example,DC=net

   The following shows the method for encoding a value that contains a
   carriage return character:

      CN=Before\0dAfter,DC=example,DC=net

   In this RDN example, the type in the RDN is unrecognized, and the
   value is the BER encoding of an OCTET STRING containing two octets,
   0x48 and 0x69.




Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 7]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


      1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.0=#04024869

   Finally, this example shows an RDN whose commonName value consists of
   5 letters:

      Unicode Character                Code       UTF-8   Escaped
      -------------------------------  ------     ------  --------
      LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L           U+004C     0x4C    L
      LATIN SMALL LETTER U             U+0075     0x75    u
      LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CARON  U+010D     0xC48D  \C4\8D
      LATIN SMALL LETTER I             U+0069     0x69    i
      LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH ACUTE  U+0107     0xC487  \C4\87

   This could be encoded in printable ASCII [ASCII] (useful for
   debugging purposes) as:

      CN=Lu\C4\8Di\C4\87

5.  Security Considerations

   The following security considerations are specific to the handling of
   distinguished names.  LDAP security considerations are discussed in
   [RFC4511] and other documents comprising the LDAP Technical
   Specification [RFC4510].

5.1.  Disclosure

   Distinguished Names typically consist of descriptive information
   about the entries they name, which can be people, organizations,
   devices, or other real-world objects.  This frequently includes some
   of the following kinds of information:

      - the common name of the object (i.e., a person's full name)
      - an email or TCP/IP address
      - its physical location (country, locality, city, street address)
      - organizational attributes (such as department name or
        affiliation)

   In some cases, such information can be considered sensitive.  In many
   countries, privacy laws exist that prohibit disclosure of certain
   kinds of descriptive information (e.g., email addresses).  Hence,
   server implementers are encouraged to support Directory Information
   Tree (DIT) structural rules and name forms [RFC4512], as these
   provide a mechanism for administrators to select appropriate naming
   attributes for entries.  Administrators are encouraged to use
   mechanisms, access controls, and other administrative controls that
   may be available to restrict use of attributes containing sensitive
   information in naming of entries.   Additionally, use of



Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 8]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


   authentication and data security services in LDAP [RFC4513][RFC4511]
   should be considered.

5.2.  Use of Distinguished Names in Security Applications

   The transformations of an AttributeValue value from its X.501 form to
   an LDAP string representation are not always reversible back to the
   same BER (Basic Encoding Rules) or DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules)
   form.  An example of a situation that requires the DER form of a
   distinguished name is the verification of an X.509 certificate.

   For example, a distinguished name consisting of one RDN with one AVA,
   in which the type is commonName and the value is of the TeletexString
   choice with the letters 'Sam', would be represented in LDAP as the
   string <CN=Sam>.  Another distinguished name in which the value is
   still 'Sam', but is of the PrintableString choice, would have the
   same representation <CN=Sam>.

   Applications that require the reconstruction of the DER form of the
   value SHOULD NOT use the string representation of attribute syntaxes
   when converting a distinguished name to the LDAP format.  Instead,
   they SHOULD use the hexadecimal form prefixed by the number sign ('#'
   U+0023) as described in the first paragraph of Section 2.4.

6.  Acknowledgements

   This document is an update to RFC 2253, by Mark Wahl, Tim Howes, and
   Steve Kille.  RFC 2253 was a product of the IETF ASID Working Group.

   This document is a product of the IETF LDAPBIS Working Group.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [REGISTRY]    IANA, Object Identifier Descriptors Registry,
                 <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ldap-parameters>.

   [Unicode]     The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard, Version
                 3.2.0" is defined by "The Unicode Standard, Version
                 3.0" (Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, 2000.  ISBN 0-201-
                 61633-5), as amended by the "Unicode Standard Annex
                 #27: Unicode 3.1"
                 (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr27/) and by the
                 "Unicode Standard Annex #28: Unicode 3.2"
                 (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr28/).





Zeilenga                    Standards Track                     [Page 9]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


   [X.501]       International Telecommunication Union -
                 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "The
                 Directory -- Models," X.501(1993) (also ISO/IEC 9594-
                 2:1994).

   [X.680]       International Telecommunication Union -
                 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "Abstract
                 Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) - Specification of Basic
                 Notation", X.680(1997) (also ISO/IEC 8824-1:1998).

   [RFC2119]     Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3629]     Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
                 10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

   [RFC4234]     Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                 Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.

   [RFC4510]     Zeilenga, K., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access
                 Protocol (LDAP): Technical Specification Road Map", RFC
                 4510, June 2006.

   [RFC4511]     Sermersheim, J., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access
                 Protocol (LDAP): The Protocol", RFC 4511, June 2006.

   [RFC4512]     Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
                 (LDAP): Directory Information Models", RFC 4512, June
                 2006.

   [RFC4513]     Harrison, R., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access
                 Protocol (LDAP): Authentication Methods and Security
                 Mechanisms", RFC 4513, June 2006.

   [RFC4517]     Legg, S., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
                 (LDAP): Syntaxes and Matching Rules", RFC 4517, June
                 2006.

   [RFC4519]     Sciberras, A., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access
                 Protocol (LDAP): Schema for User Applications", RFC
                 4519, June 2006.

   [RFC4520]     Zeilenga, K., "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
                 (IANA) Considerations for the Lightweight Directory
                 Access Protocol (LDAP)", BCP 64, RFC 4520, June 2006.






Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 10]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


7.2.  Informative References

   [ASCII]       Coded Character Set--7-bit American Standard Code for
                 Information Interchange, ANSI X3.4-1986.

   [CharModel]   Whistler, K. and M. Davis, "Unicode Technical Report
                 #17, Character Encoding Model", UTR17,
                 <http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr17/>, August
                 2000.

   [Glossary]    The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Glossary",
                 <http://www.unicode.org/glossary/>.

   [X.500]       International Telecommunication Union -
                 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "The
                 Directory -- Overview of concepts, models and
                 services," X.500(1993) (also ISO/IEC 9594-1:1994).

   [X.511]       International Telecommunication Union -
                 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "The
                 Directory: Abstract Service Definition", X.511(1993)
                 (also ISO/IEC 9594-3:1993).

   [X.690]       International Telecommunication Union -
                 Telecommunication Standardization Sector,
                 "Specification of ASN.1 encoding rules: Basic Encoding
                 Rules (BER), Canonical Encoding Rules (CER), and
                 Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER)", X.690(1997) (also
                 ISO/IEC 8825-1:1998).

   [RFC2849]     Good, G., "The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) -
                 Technical Specification", RFC 2849, June 2000.



















Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 11]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


Appendix A.  Presentation Issues

   This appendix is provided for informational purposes only; it is not
   a normative part of this specification.

   The string representation described in this document is not intended
   to be presented to humans without translation.  However, at times it
   may be desirable to present non-translated DN strings to users.  This
   section discusses presentation issues associated with non-translated
   DN strings.  Issues with presentation of translated DN strings are
   not discussed in this appendix.  Transcoding issues are also not
   discussed in this appendix.

   This appendix provides guidance for applications presenting DN
   strings to users.  This section is not comprehensive; it does not
   discuss all presentation issues that implementers may face.

   Not all user interfaces are capable of displaying the full set of
   Unicode characters.  Some Unicode characters are not displayable.

   It is recommended that human interfaces use the optional hex pair
   escaping mechanism (Section 2.3) to produce a string representation
   suitable for display to the user.  For example, an application can
   generate a DN string for display that escapes all non-printable
   characters appearing in the AttributeValue's string representation
   (as demonstrated in the final example of Section 4).

   When a DN string is displayed in free-form text, it is often
   necessary to distinguish the DN string from surrounding text.  While
   this is often done with whitespace (as demonstrated in Section 4), it
   is noted that DN strings may end with whitespace.  Careful readers of
   Section 3 will note that the characters '<' (U+003C) and '>' (U+003E)
   may only appear in the DN string if escaped.  These characters are
   intended to be used in free-form text to distinguish a DN string from
   surrounding text.  For example, <CN=Sam\ > distinguishes the string
   representation of the DN composed of one RDN consisting of the AVA
   (the commonName (CN) value 'Sam ') from the surrounding text.  It
   should be noted to the user that the wrapping '<' and '>' characters
   are not part of the DN string.

   DN strings can be quite long.  It is often desirable to line-wrap
   overly long DN strings in presentations.  Line wrapping should be
   done by inserting whitespace after the RDN separator character or, if
   necessary, after the AVA separator character.  It should be noted to
   the user that the inserted whitespace is not part of the DN string
   and is to be removed before use in LDAP.  For example, the following
   DN string is long:




Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 12]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


         CN=Kurt D.  Zeilenga,OU=Engineering,L=Redwood Shores,
         O=OpenLDAP Foundation,ST=California,C=US

   So it has been line-wrapped for readability.  The extra whitespace is
   to be removed before the DN string is used in LDAP.

   Inserting whitespace is not advised because it may not be obvious to
   the user which whitespace is part of the DN string and which
   whitespace was added for readability.

   Another alternative is to use the LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF)
   [RFC2849].  For example:

         # This entry has a long DN...
         dn: CN=Kurt D.  Zeilenga,OU=Engineering,L=Redwood Shores,
          O=OpenLDAP Foundation,ST=California,C=US
         CN: Kurt D.  Zeilenga
         SN: Zeilenga
         objectClass: person

Appendix B.  Changes Made since RFC 2253

   This appendix is provided for informational purposes only, it is not
   a normative part of this specification.

   The following substantive changes were made to RFC 2253:

      - Removed IESG Note.  The IESG Note has been addressed.
      - Replaced all references to ISO 10646-1 with [Unicode].
      - Clarified (in Section 1) that this document does not define a
        canonical string representation.
      - Clarified that Section 2 describes the RECOMMENDED encoding
        algorithm and that alternative algorithms are allowed.  Some
        encoding options described in RFC 2253 are now treated as
        alternative algorithms in this specification.
      - Revised specification (in Section 2) to allow short names of any
        registered attribute type to appear in string representations of
        DNs instead of being restricted to a "published table".  Removed
        "as an example" language.  Added statement (in Section 3)
        allowing recognition of additional names but require recognition
        of those names in the published table.  The table now appears in
        Section 3.
      - Removed specification of additional requirements for LDAPv2
        implementations which also support LDAPv3 (RFC 2253, Section 4)
        as LDAPv2 is now Historic.
      - Allowed recognition of alternative string representations.
      - Updated Section 2.4 to allow hex pair escaping of all characters
        and clarified escaping for when multiple octet UTF-8 encodings



Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 13]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


        are present.  Indicated that null (U+0000) character is to be
        escaped.  Indicated that equals sign ('=' U+003D) character may
        be escaped as '\='.
      - Rewrote Section 3 to use ABNF as defined in RFC 4234.
      - Updated the Section 3 ABNF.  Changes include:
        + allowed AttributeType short names of length 1 (e.g., 'L'),
        + used more restrictive <oid> production in AttributeTypes,
        + did not require escaping of equals sign ('=' U+003D)
          characters,
        + did not require escaping of non-leading number sign ('#'
          U+0023) characters,
        + allowed space (' ' U+0020) to be escaped as '\ ',
        + required hex escaping of null (U+0000) characters, and
        + removed LDAPv2-only constructs.
      - Updated Section 3 to describe how to parse elements of the
        grammar.
      - Rewrote examples.
      - Added reference to documentations containing general LDAP
        security considerations.
      - Added discussion of presentation issues (Appendix A).
      - Added this appendix.

   In addition, numerous editorial changes were made.

Editor's Address

   Kurt D.  Zeilenga
   OpenLDAP Foundation

   EMail: Kurt@OpenLDAP.org





















Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 14]

RFC 4514               LDAP: Distinguished Names               June 2006


Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
   Administrative Support Activity (IASA).







Zeilenga                    Standards Track                    [Page 15]