Configuring LDAP Auth Method with HCP Vault

Introduction

We will discuss how to set up the LDAP auth method in HCP Vault in this article, providing particular examples for clusters within HCP Vault.

When using LDAP (Identity Provider) servers, the ldap authentication method  can be used to obtain credentials in the form of a username and password. This eliminates the need to duplicate user configurations across various locations when integrating Vault into environments that already utilise LDAP.

For the purpose of this tutorial, the LDAP Server used in this instance is an Windows Active Directory.

Prerequisites

• HCP Vault cluster
• An LDAP Server machine, preferably one with a static IP address, accessible to the HCP Vault Cluster.

Steps

PLEASE NOTE:  The following steps are condensed and used to point out specific parts of the official learn guide that concerns HCP Vault settings and configuration.

LDAP
A Windows Server 2016 machine, provided by AWS, is used in this demo.

For setting up the Active Directory Domain Service and adding a sample Domain User Account, this link will be helpful.

HCP Vault

1. Log in to Your HCP Vault Instance: Access your HCP Vault instance using the appropriate credentials via CLI.
Please ensure to export the VAULT_NAMESPACE variable in order to ensure that the commands will work with your HCP Vault cluster.

Alternatively, you can set up the LDAP auth method via the HCP Vault UI.

export VAULT_ADDR="<YOURVAULTCLUSTER>"; export VAULT_NAMESPACE="admin"
export VAULT_TOKEN=[ENTER_TOKEN_HERE]

2. Enable the LDAP Authentication Method:

3. Configure the LDAP Authentication Method:

LDAP_ADDR='ldap://192.168.64.6:389' ;

vault write auth/ldap/config \
url="$LDAP_ADDR" \
userattr=sAMAccountName \
userdn="CN=Users,DC=raghav,DC=hashicorp" \
binddn="CN=messi,CN=Users,DC=raghav,DC=hashicorp" \
bindpass="admin" \
upndomain="raghav.hashicorp" \
insecure_tls=true \
starttls=false

• url: Replace with the URL of your LDAP server.
• userattr: Specify the attribute to be used for identifying users (e.g., "uid").
• userdn: Set the base DN for user searches.
• binddn: Specify the DN to use for binding to the LDAP server.
• bindpass: Set the password for the bind DN.
• upndomain: userPrincipalDomain used to construct the UPN string for the authenticating user. The constructed UPN will appear as [username]@UPNDomain.
• insecure_tls: Use "true" if your LDAP server uses an insecure TLS connection. Change to "false" if using a secure connection.
• starttls: If true, issues a StartTLS command after establishing an unencrypted connection.

4. Configure Vault Policies: Create or modify Vault policies that specify the rights that users acquire upon LDAP authentication. Establish policies according to your unique needs. The "default" policy is applied to the user after login if they are not configured.

5. Authenticate with LDAP: Users can now authenticate with Vault using their LDAP credentials. You can use the auth/ldap/login/<username> endpoint to authenticate with Vault via LDAP. For example:

# Success! You are now authenticated. The token information displayed below
  # ...
  # token_meta_username messi

Completion: The LDAP auth method is now configured in your HCP Vault instance, enabling LDAP-based authentication for your users and applications.

Please adapt this procedure to your organization's specific LDAP directory configuration and security requirements. Be sure to follow the latest guidelines and security best practices when implementing LDAP authentication with HCP Vault.

Known Issues

While configuring the LDAP authentication method, common error returned by vault is "ldap operation failed: failed to bind as user". To resolve this error please follow this KB article.

Reference Link:

• LDAP Doc
• LDAP Api Doc