Integration with LDAP directory services

Introduction

Neo4j supports LDAP, which allows for integration with Active Directory (AD), OpenLDAP, or other LDAP-compatible authentication services. This means that you use the LDAP service for managing federated users, while the native Neo4j user and role administration are completely turned off.

The following configuration settings are important to consider when configuring LDAP. For a more detailed overview of the LDAP configuration options, see Configuration settings.

LDAP dynamic configuration settings

The following configuration settings can be updated while the database is running, see Update dynamic settings. Altering any of these settings clears the authentication and authorization cache.

Parameter name Default value Description

dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template

uid={0},ou=users,dc=example,dc=com

Convert usernames into LDAP-specific fully qualified names required for logging in.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base

ou=users,dc=example,dc=com

Set the base object or named context to search for user objects.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter

(&(objectClass=*)(uid={0}))

Set an LDAP search filter for a user principal.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes

memberOf

List attribute names of a user object that contains groups to be used for mapping to roles. Common values: memberOf and gidNumber.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.nested_groups_enabled

false

This setting determines whether multiple LDAP search results will be processed. This must be set to true in order to resolve nested group membership.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_to_role_mapping

List an authorization mapping from groups to the pre-defined built-in roles admin, architect, publisher, editor, and reader, or to any other custom-defined roles.

dbms.security.ldap.authentication.attribute

samaccountname

Set the attribute to search for users with a system account.

dbms.security.ldap.authorization.access_permitted_group

Set an LDAP group of users with access rights. Users passing authentication are mapped to at least the PUBLIC role in addition to any roles assigned by the group to role mapping and have access to the database that those roles provide. If this attribute is set, users not part of this LDAP group will fail authentication, even if their credentials are correct.

All settings are defined at server startup time in the default configuration file neo4j.conf or can be modified at runtime using dbms.setConfigValue().

Set Neo4j to use LDAP

First, you configure Neo4j to use LDAP as an authentication and authorization provider.

  1. Uncomment the setting dbms.security.auth_enabled=false and change its value to true to turn on the security feature.

  2. Uncomment the settings dbms.security.authentication_providers and dbms.security.authorization_providers and change their value to ldap. This way, the LDAP connector is used as a security provider for both authentication and authorization.

Map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j roles

To assign privileges to users based on their LDAP groups, you have to map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j built-in and custom-defined roles. To do that, you need to know what privileges the Neo4j roles have, and based on these privileges, to create the mapping to the groups defined in the LDAP server. The map must be formatted as a semicolon separated list of key-value pairs, where the key is a comma-separated list of the LDAP group names and the value is a comma-separated list of the corresponding role names. For example, group1=role1;group2=role2;group3=role3,role4,role5;group4,group5=role6.

Example 1. Example of LDAP groups to Neo4j roles mapping
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_to_role_mapping=\
    "cn=Neo4j Read Only,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"      = reader;    \ (1)
    "cn=Neo4j Read-Write,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"     = editor,publisher; \ (2)
    "cn=Neo4j Read-Write,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com","cn=Neo4j Create Data,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"     = publisher; \ (3)
    "cn=Neo4j Create Data,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com","cn=Neo4j Schema Manager,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" = architect; \
    "cn=Neo4j Administrator,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"  = admin; \
    "cn=Neo4j Procedures,cn=users,dc=neo4j,dc=com"       = rolename (4)
1 Mapping of an LDAP group to a Neo4j built-in role.
2 Mapping of an LDAP group to two Neo4j built-in roles.
3 Mapping of two LDAP groups to a Neo4j built-in role.
4 Mapping of an LDAP group to a custom-defined role. Custom-defined roles, such as rolename, must be explicitly created using the CREATE ROLE rolename command before they can be used to grant privileges. See the Cypher Manual → Creating roles.

Configure Neo4j to use Active Directory

You configure Neo4j to use the LDAP security provider to access and manage your Active Directory. There are three alternative ways to do that depending on your specific use case.

Configure Neo4j to support LDAP user ID authentication

This option allows users to log in with their LDAP user ID.

In the neo4j.conf file, uncomment and configure the following settings:

  1. Configure LDAP to point to the AD server:

    dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com

  2. Provide details on the user structure of the LDAP directory:

    dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template=cn={0},cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base=cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter=(&(objectClass=*)(cn={0}))
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes=memberOf

  3. Map the groups in the LDAP system to the Neo4j built-in and custom roles. See Map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j roles.

Configure Neo4j to support attribute authentication

This is an alternative configuration for Active Directory that allows users to log in by providing an attribute to search for, by default sAMAccountName. The attribute has to be unique to be used as a lookup. You create a system account that has read-only access to the parts of the LDAP directory that you want. However, it does not need to have access rights to Neo4j or any other systems.

In the neo4j.conf file, uncomment and configure the following settings:

  1. Configure LDAP to point to the AD server:

    dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com

  2. Provide details on the user structure of the LDAP directory (replacing myattribute with the actual attribute name):

    dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base=cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter=(&(objectClass=*)(myattribute={0}))
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes=memberOf

  3. Map the groups in the LDAP system to the Neo4j built-in and custom roles. See Map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j roles.

  4. Configure Neo4j to use a system account with read access to all users and groups in the LDAP server.

    1. Set dbms.security.ldap.authorization.use_system_account value to true.

    2. Set dbms.security.ldap.authorization.system_username value to the full Distinguished Name (DN) as the dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template will not be applied to this username. For example,

      dbms.security.ldap.authorization.system_username=cn=search-account,cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com

    3. Configure the LDAP system account password.

      dbms.security.ldap.authorization.system_password=mypassword

    4. Configure which attribute to search for by adding the following lines to the neo4j.conf file (replacing myattribute with the actual attribute name):

      dbms.security.ldap.authentication.search_for_attribute=true
dbms.security.ldap.authentication.attribute=myattribute

    5. (Optional) Create an LDAP group to restrict authentication against the database to a subset of LDAP users:

      dbms.security.ldap.authorization.access_permitted_group=cn=Neo4j Access,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com

Configure Neo4j to support sAMAccountName authentication by setting user_dn_template

This is an alternative configuration for Active Directory that allows all users from the specified domain to log in using sAMAccountName. With this option, you do not have to create a system account and store a system username/password in the config file. Instead, you set {0}@example.com as a value of the user_dn_template to enable the authentication to start at the root domain. This way, the whole tree is checked to find the user, regardless of where it is located within the LDAP directory tree.

In the neo4j.conf file, uncomment and configure the following settings:

  1. Configure LDAP to point to the AD server:

    dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com

  2. Provide details on the user structure of the LDAP directory:

    dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template={0}@example.com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base=dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter=(&(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName={0}))
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes=memberOf

  3. Map the groups in the LDAP system to the Neo4j built-in and custom roles. For more information, see Map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j roles.

The setting dbms.security.ldap.authentication.search_for_attribute should be set to the default value of false.

Configure Neo4j to perform nested group lookup

When a user is a member of a group (e.g. engineers) and that group is a member of another group (e.g. employees), Active Directory can be configured to perform a nested search such that a user in the group engineers would also be a member of the group employees. This in turn means that it is possible to configure a group to role mapping for employees which will transitively apply to engineers.

Active Directory facilitates nested search via the extensible match operator LDAP_MATCHING_RULE_IN_CHAIN (whose Object Identifier is 1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941). This operator walks the chain of ancestry in objects all the way to the root.

To set up nested search in the neo4j.conf file, configure the following settings:

  1. Enable nested groups.

    dbms.security.ldap.authorization.nested_groups_enabled=true

  2. Provide details on the user structure of the LDAP directory:

    dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template=cn={0},cn=users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base=dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter=(&(objectClass=*)(uid={0}))

  3. Provide the nested groups search filter.
    This is the filter which will be used to perform the nested lookup of the user’s groups. It should contain the placeholder token {0}, which will be substituted with the user’s Distinguished Name (which is found for the specified user principle using dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter).
    This example features Active Directory’s LDAP_MATCHING_RULE_IN_CHAIN (aka 1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941) implementation:

    dbms.security.ldap.authorization.nested_groups_search_filter=(&(objectclass=group)(member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:={0}))

  4. Provide group to role mappings, including ancestor groups if required:

    dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_to_role_mapping=\
"cn=engineers,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"=procedures;\
"cn=employees,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"=reader
In contrast to a non-nested-LDAP lookup, a nested group lookup does not perform an attribute-based lookup on the user object. Instead, the dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes setting is ignored and the dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter is only used to determine the Distinguished Name of the user. This is then substituted into the dbms.security.ldap.authorization.nested_groups_search_filter to perform a separate, nested lookup of the user’s groups.

Configure Neo4j to use OpenLDAP

You configure the LDAP security provider to access and manage your OpenLDAP directory service.

In the neo4j.conf file, uncomment and configure the following settings:

  1. Configure LDAP to point to the OpenLDAP server:

    dbms.security.ldap.host=myopenldap.example.com

  2. Provide details on the user structure of the LDAP directory:

    dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template=cn={0},ou=users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base=ou=users,dc=example,dc=com
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter=(&(objectClass=*)(uid={0}))
dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes=gidNumber

  3. (Optional) Create an LDAP group to restrict authentication against the database to a subset of LDAP users:

    dbms.security.ldap.authorization.access_permitted_group=501

  4. Map the groups in the LDAP system to the Neo4j built-in and custom roles. For more information, see Map the LDAP groups to the Neo4j roles.

You can verify that your LDAP configuration is correct, and that the LDAP server responds, by using the LDAP command-line tool ldapsearch.

The ldapsearch command accepts the LDAP configuration setting values as input and verifies both the authentication (using the simple mechanism) and authorization of a user. See the ldapsearch official documentation for more advanced usage and how to use SASL authentication mechanisms.

  1. Verify the authentication and authorization of a user. For example, john.

    • With dbms.security.ldap.authorization.use_system_account=false (default):

      # ldapsearch -v -H ldap://<dbms.security.ldap.host> -x -D <dbms.security.ldap.authentication.user_dn_template : replace {0}> -W -b <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base> "<dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter : replace {0}>" <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes>

ldapsearch -v -H ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com:389 -x -D cn=john,cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com -W -b cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com "(&(objectClass=*)(cn=john))" memberOf

    • With dbms.security.ldap.authorization.use_system_account=true:

      # ldapsearch -v -H ldap://<dbms.security.ldap.host> -x -D <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.system_username> -w <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.system_password> -b <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_base> "<dbms.security.ldap.authorization.user_search_filter>" <dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_membership_attributes>

ldapsearch -v -H ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com:389 -x -D cn=search-account,cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com -w mypassword -b cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com "(&(objectClass=*)(cn=john))" memberOf

  2. Verify that the value of the returned membership attribute is a group that is mapped to a role in dbms.security.ldap.authorization.group_to_role_mapping.

    # extended LDIF
#
# LDAPv3
# base <cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com> with scope subtree
# filter: (cn=john)
# requesting: memberOf
#

# john, Users, example.com
dn: CN=john,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com
memberOf: CN=Neo4j Read Only,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com

# search result
search: 2
result: 0 Success

# numResponses: 2
# numEntries: 1

The auth cache

The auth cache is the mechanism by which Neo4j caches the result of authentication via the LDAP server in order to aid performance. It is configured with the parameters dbms.security.ldap.authentication.cache_enabled, and dbms.security.auth_cache_ttl.

# Turn on authentication caching to ensure performance.

dbms.security.ldap.authentication.cache_enabled=true
dbms.security.auth_cache_ttl=10m
Table 1. Auth cache parameters
Parameter name Default value Description

dbms.security.ldap.authentication.cache_enabled

true

Determines whether or not to cache the result of authentication via the LDAP server.

Whether authentication caching should be enabled or not must be considered in view of your company’s security guidelines.

dbms.security.auth_cache_ttl

600 seconds

Is the time to live (TTL) for cached authentication and authorization info.

Setting the TTL to 0 disables all auth caching.

A short TTL requires more frequent re-authentication and re-authorization, which can impact performance.

A very long TTL means that changes to the users settings on an LDAP server may not be reflected in the Neo4j authorization behaviour in a timely manner.

Valid units are ms, s, m; default unit is s.

An administrator can clear the auth cache to force the re-querying of authentication and authorization information from the federated auth provider system. Use Neo4j Browser or Neo4j Cypher Shell to execute this statement:

CALL dbms.security.clearAuthCache()

Available methods of encryption

Specifying the dbms.security.ldap.host parameter configures using LDAP without encryption. Not specifying the protocol or port results in ldap being used over the default port 389.

dbms.security.ldap.host=myactivedirectory.example.com
dbms.security.ldap.host=myactivedirectory.example.com:389
dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com
dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com:389

Use LDAP with encryption via StartTLS

To configure Active Directory with encryption via StartTLS, set the following parameters:

dbms.security.ldap.use_starttls=true
dbms.security.ldap.host=ldap://myactivedirectory.example.com

Use LDAP with encrypted LDAPS

To configure Active Directory with encrypted LDAPS, set dbms.security.ldap.host to one of the following. If you do not specify the port, the default one 636 is used.

dbms.security.ldap.host=ldaps://myactivedirectory.example.com
dbms.security.ldap.host=ldaps://myactivedirectory.example.com:636

Use a self-signed certificate (SSL) in a test environment

Production environments should always use an SSL certificate issued by a Certificate Authority for secure access to the LDAP server. However, there are scenarios, for example in test environments, where you may want to use an SSL certificate on the LDAP server.

To configure an SSL certificate on LDAP server, enter the details of the certificate using server.jvm.additional in neo4j.conf. The path to the certificate file MyCert.jks is an absolute path to the Neo4j server.

server.jvm.additional=-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=/path/to/MyCert.jks
server.jvm.additional=-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=mypasword
server.jvm.additional=-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/path/to/MyCert.jks
server.jvm.additional=-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=mypasword