wpDirAuth

Please see the Changelog (Development tab above) for recent updates/changes.

wpDirAuth shifts authentication from the local WordPress instance to a central directory (LDAP) server(s).

wpDirAuth allows users of central directory (LDAP) servers to login to authorized WordPress instances without having to register. The plugin creates a new account for each directory user on first login so that they have full access to preferences and functions, as any WP user would. Activating the plugin will not restrict you to using directory authentication and you will still be able to both create new WP-only users as well as turn on public registration in WordPress. You can also assign any privilege levels to your directory users, and the those users will be referred to their institutional password policy whenever they would normally able to update their WP passwords (on the profile screen, in user edit, etc).

Ldap/ldaps

Authentication should work with most LDAP enabled directory services, such as OpenLDAP, Apache Directory, Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, Sun Java System Directory Server, and more. wpDirAuth supports LDAP and LDAPS (SSL) connectivity and can force SSL for WordPress authentication if it is available on the Web server. It also supports server connection pools, for pseudo load balancing and fault tolerance, or multiple source directory authentication. Because the key used to locate a user’s profile in the LDAP server is not always the same, depending on your LDAP server type and institutional choices, you can define your own through the wpDirAuth administration tool. When logging in as a directory user, the WP “remember me” feature is downgraded from 6 months for regular WP users to only 1 hour, so that institutional passwords are not overly endangered when accessing WP from public terminals.

Branding & Notifications

You can define notifications addressed to your directory users in key WordPress areas, such as the login screen and the profile edit screen. Since these admin-editable values support HTML (admin, coders, beware of xss!), you can point your directory users to central support information related to functions such as changing their institutional password, a WordPress usage related policy, etc. There is also a simple and optional terms of services concept, only implemented for directory users, which will simply record a one-time acceptance date when agreed upon. Note that agreeing to the TOS has no effect on the user’s level of access in the system, fact which could change in future version if there is a demand for it, or through direct code contribution to that effect.

Using wpDirAuth

Once installed and activated, you will be able to administer your directory settings through the dedicated plugin configuration tool found under the wpDirAuth menu found in the WordPress Settings admin section. Directory Authenticated users can now be pre-added to your wordpress system and granted roles by going to the Add Dir Auth User menu found in the WordPress Users admin section. Contextual help for this section is available for this section within WordPress’ built-in help menu. See the inline help found in the tool for more information on the settings. There is a secondary activation toggle, so you can install and activate the plugin, check out the options panel, but not immediately accept directory authentication, or even simply turn the feature on or off at any time.

Help and Support

Please post questions, request for help to the WordPress plugins forum or email wpdirauth@gilzow.com. Please be sure to include ‘wpdirauth’ in the subject line.

TO-DO’s

• Internationalization
• Refactor to a class
• More action/filter hooks

Source and Development

wpDirAuth welcomes friendly contributors wanting to lend a hand, be it in the form of code through SVN patches, user support, platform portability testing, security consulting, localization help, etc. The [current] goal is to keep the plugin self-contained (ie: no 3rd-party lib) for easier security maintenance, while keeping the code clean and extensible. Focus is on security, features, security, and let’s not forget, security. Unit tests will hopefully be developed and constant security audit performed. Recurring quality patch contributions will lead to commit privileges to the project source repository. Please post questions/requests for help to the wordpress forums and/or email wpdirauth@gilzow.com

License

Read the full description on the official page →