LDAP

Doris supports integration with third-party LDAP services, providing two core functionalities:

• Authentication: Use LDAP passwords instead of Doris passwords for identity verification.
• Group Authorization: Map LDAP groups to Doris roles for unified permission management.

LDAP Basic Concepts

In LDAP, data is organized in a tree structure. Here's an example of a typical LDAP directory tree:

- dc=example,dc=com
 - ou = ou1
   - cn = group1
   - cn = user1
 - ou = ou2
   - cn = group2
     - cn = user2
 - cn = user3

Terminology

Term	Full Name	Description
dc	Domain Component	Organization's domain name, serving as the root node of the tree
dn	Distinguished Name	Unique name. For example, user1's dn is cn=user1,ou=ou1,dc=example,dc=com, user2's dn is cn=user2,cn=group2,ou=ou2,dc=example,dc=com
rdn	Relative Distinguished Name	Part of the dn. user1's four rdns are cn=user1, ou=ou1, dc=example, and dc=com
ou	Organization Unit	Sub-organization. users can be placed in ou or directly under the example.com domain
cn	Common Name	Name
group	-	Group, corresponding to Doris roles
user	-	User, equivalent to Doris users
objectClass	-	Data type. Used to distinguish whether a node is a group or user. group requires cn and member (list of users) attributes, user requires cn, password, uid, etc.

Quick Start

Step 1: Configure Doris

1. Set the authentication method in fe/conf/fe.conf: authentication_type=ldap.

2. Configure LDAP service connection information in fe/conf/ldap.conf:

   ldap_authentication_enabled = true
   ldap_host = ladp-host
   ldap_port = 389
   ldap_admin_name = uid=admin,o=emr
   ldap_user_basedn = ou=people,o=emr
   ldap_user_filter = (&(uid={login}))
   ldap_group_basedn = ou=group,o=emr

3. After starting fe, log in to Doris with root or admin account and set the LDAP admin password:

   set ldap_admin_password = password('<ldap_admin_password>');

Step 2: Client Connection

LDAP authentication requires clients to send passwords in plaintext, so cleartext authentication plugins must be enabled.

MySQL Client

You can enable the cleartext authentication plugin using either method:

• Method 1: Set environment variable (permanent)

  echo "export LIBMYSQL_ENABLE_CLEARTEXT_PLUGIN=1" >> ~/.bash_profile && source ~/.bash_profile

• Method 2: Add parameter when logging in (one-time)

  mysql -hDORIS_HOST -PDORIS_PORT -u user -p --enable-cleartext-plugin

JDBC Client

1. Doris SSL Not Enabled

   When Doris SSL is not enabled, you need to create a custom authentication plugin to bypass SSL restrictions when using JDBC connections:

   1. Create a custom plugin class that extends MysqlClearPasswordPlugin and overrides the requiresConfidentiality() method:

      public class MysqlClearPasswordPluginWithoutSSL extends MysqlClearPasswordPlugin {
        @Override
        public boolean requiresConfidentiality() {
          return false;
        }
      }

   2. Configure the custom plugin in the JDBC connection URL (replace xxx with your actual package name):

      jdbcUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:9030/mydatabase?authenticationPlugins=xxx.xxx.xxx.MysqlClearPasswordPluginWithoutSSL&defaultAuthenticationPlugin=xxx.xxx.xxx.MysqlClearPasswordPluginWithoutSSL&disabledAuthenticationPlugins=com.mysql.jdbc.authentication.MysqlClearPasswordPlugin";

      Description of the three required properties:

      Property	Description
      authenticationPlugins	Register the custom cleartext authentication plugin
      defaultAuthenticationPlugin	Set the custom plugin as the default authentication plugin
      disabledAuthenticationPlugins	Disable the original cleartext authentication plugin (which mandates SSL)

   You can refer to the examples in this code repository. Or execute build-auth-plugin.sh to directly generate the plugin JAR file, then place it in the client's specified location.

2. Doris SSL Enabled

   When Doris SSL is enabled (enable_ssl=true added in fe.conf), the JDBC URL requires no additional parameters and can connect directly:

   jdbcUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:9030/mydatabase

Authentication

LDAP authentication means password verification through LDAP service to supplement Doris's native authentication mechanism. Password verification priority is as follows:

1. Doris first uses LDAP to verify user passwords.
2. If the user doesn't exist in LDAP, it falls back to Doris local password verification.
3. If the LDAP password is correct but there's no corresponding account in Doris, a temporary user is created for login.

Login Behavior Overview

After enabling LDAP, login behaviors under different user states are as follows:

LDAP User	Doris User	Password Used	Login Result	Login Identity
Exists	Exists	LDAP password	Success	Doris user
Exists	Exists	Doris password	Failed	-
Not exists	Exists	Doris password	Success	Doris user
Exists	Not exists	LDAP password	Success	LDAP temporary user

About Temporary Users:

• Temporary accounts are only valid for the current connection and are automatically destroyed when disconnected.
• Doris doesn't create persistent user metadata for temporary users.
• Temporary user permissions are determined by LDAP group authorization (see "Group Authorization" section below).
• If temporary users have no corresponding group permissions, they default to select_priv on information_schema.

Login Examples

The following examples assume LDAP authentication is enabled, configured with ldap_user_filter = (&(uid={login})), and the client has set LIBMYSQL_ENABLE_CLEARTEXT_PLUGIN=1.

Scenario 1: Account exists in both Doris and LDAP

• Doris account: jack@'172.10.1.10', password: 123456
• LDAP user attributes: uid: jack, password: abcdef

Login with LDAP password, success:

mysql -hDoris_HOST -PDoris_PORT -ujack -p abcdef

Login with Doris password, failed (after enabling LDAP, LDAP users must use LDAP passwords):

mysql -hDoris_HOST -PDoris_PORT -ujack -p 123456

Scenario 2: User exists only in LDAP

• LDAP user attributes: uid: jack, password: abcdef

Login with LDAP password, Doris automatically creates temporary user jack@'%' and logs in. Temporary user has basic permission DatabasePrivs: Select_priv, automatically destroyed after disconnection:

mysql -hDoris_HOST -PDoris_PORT -ujack -p abcdef

Scenario 3: Account exists only in Doris

• Doris account: jack@'172.10.1.10', password: 123456

User doesn't exist in LDAP, falls back to Doris local authentication, login succeeds with Doris password:

mysql -hDoris_HOST -PDoris_PORT -ujack -p 123456

Group Authorization

LDAP group authorization maps LDAP groups to Doris roles to achieve centralized permission management. The core mechanism is:

• If an LDAP user's dn appears in the member attribute of an LDAP group node, Doris considers the user belongs to that group.
• When users log in, Doris automatically grants them the role permissions corresponding to their LDAP groups.
• After users log out, Doris automatically revokes these role permissions.

Prerequisite: Before using LDAP group authorization, you need to create roles in Doris with the same names as LDAP groups and grant permissions to these roles.

Permission Merging Rules

The final permissions of a logged-in user depend on their status in both LDAP and Doris:

LDAP User	Doris User	Final Permissions
Exists	Exists	LDAP group permissions + Doris user permissions
Not exists	Exists	Doris user permissions
Exists	Not exists	LDAP group permissions

Group Name Mapping Rules

Doris extracts the first Rdn of the LDAP group dn as the group name and maps it to a role with the same name in Doris.

For example, if user dn is uid=jack,ou=aidp,dc=domain,dc=com, and the group information is:

dn: cn=doris_rd,ou=group,dc=domain,dc=com  
objectClass: groupOfNames  
member: uid=jack,ou=aidp,dc=domain,dc=com  

The first Rdn of this group dn is cn=doris_rd, so the group name is doris_rd, corresponding to the role doris_rd in Doris.

Group Authorization Example

If user jack belongs to LDAP groups doris_rd, doris_qa, doris_pm, and Doris has roles with the same names: doris_rd, doris_qa, doris_pm. After jack logs in, in addition to the original permissions of their Doris account, they will also receive the permissions of these three roles.

Note:

• Which group a user belongs to is independent of the LDAP tree's organizational structure. user2 in the example above doesn't necessarily belong to group2.
• To make user2 belong to group2, you need to explicitly add user2 to the member attribute of group2.

Cache Management

To avoid frequent access to LDAP services, Doris caches LDAP information in memory.

Configuration	Description	Default Value
ldap_user_cache_timeout_s	Cache time for LDAP user information (seconds)	43200 (12 hours)

In the following scenarios, you may need to manually refresh the cache to make changes take effect immediately:

• Modified user or group information in the LDAP service.
• Modified the Role permissions corresponding to LDAP user groups in Doris.

You can refresh the cache with the refresh ldap statement. See REFRESH-LDAP for details.

Known Limitations

• Currently, Doris's LDAP functionality only supports cleartext password verification, meaning that when users log in, passwords are transmitted in plaintext between client and fe, and between fe and LDAP service.

FAQ

Q: How to check which roles an LDAP user has in Doris?

After logging into Doris with an LDAP user, execute show grants; to view all roles of the current user. ldapDefaultRole is the default role that every LDAP user has.

Q: An LDAP user has fewer roles in Doris than expected, how to troubleshoot?

Check the following items step by step:

1. Execute show roles; to confirm whether the expected roles exist in Doris. If not, create them with CREATE ROLE role_name;.
2. Check whether the expected group is located under the organizational structure corresponding to ldap_group_basedn.
3. Check whether the expected group contains the member attribute.
4. Check whether the member attribute of the expected group contains the current user's dn.