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Set Up User Authentication and Authorization with LDAP

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  • Required Access
  • Prerequisites
  • Recommendation
  • Considerations
  • Conflicts between LDAP Authorization and X.509 Users
  • Usernames
  • Connection String
  • Rolling Restart on Configuration Change
  • Using Public IP Addresses
  • Limitations
  • Procedures
  • Configure Authentication with LDAP
  • Configure Authorization
  • Add an LDAP Database User or Group
  • View LDAP Configuration
  • Disable LDAP Configuration
  • Tutorials for Third-Party LDAP Providers

Note

  • This feature is not available for M0 free clusters, M2, and M5 clusters. To learn more, see Atlas M0 (Free Cluster), M2, and M5 Limits.

  • This feature is not supported on Serverless instances at this time. To learn more, see Serverless Instance Limitations.

Atlas provides the ability to manage user authentication and authorization from all MongoDB clients using your own Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server over TLS. A single LDAPS (LDAP over TLS) configuration applies to all clusters in a project.

If you enable user authorization with LDAP, you can create LDAP groups on the admin database by mapping LDAP groups to MongoDB roles on your Atlas databases. To use LDAP groups effectively, create additional projects within Atlas to control access to specific deployments in your organization, such as creating separate Atlas projects for development and production environments. You can then map an LDAP group to a role in the Atlas project to provide access to the desired deployment.

Note

When you enable user authorization and an LDAP user doesn't belong to any LDAP group, Atlas doesn't assign any database roles to the user. When you enable user authentication and you disable user authorization, Atlas assigns MongoDB database roles to the LDAP user.

If you have multiple departments with their own billing needs, alert settings, and project members, consider creating a new set of projects or a new organization for each department or business unit.

Note

An explanation of LDAP is out of scope for the MongoDB documentation. Please review RFC 4515 and RFC 4516 or refer to your preferred LDAP documentation.

Required Access

To manage LDAP users or groups, you must have Organization Owner or Project Owner access to Atlas.

Prerequisites

You must meet the following prerequisites to manage user authentication and authorization using LDAP in Atlas:

  • Atlas cluster using MongoDB 4.0 or later.

  • LDAP server using TLS that your Atlas clusters can access over the network using either VPC or VNet peering connection or the cluster nodes' public IP addresses.

  • LDAP group memberships embedded as an attribute for each user in the LDAP entry for user authorization only.

Recommendation

For your LDAPS service to access Atlas clusters, MongoDB recommends one of two configurations:

Using a VPC or VNet:

  1. Run your LDAP server in a VPC or VNet.

  2. Establish a peering connection to your Atlas project.

  3. Use a public FQDN that resolves to the private IP address of your LDAP server.

Using your data center:

  1. Run your LDAP server with a public FQDN that resolves to a public IP address.

  2. Configure the LDAP server to allow inbound access from the Atlas cluster nodes' public IP addresses.

Considerations

Conflicts between LDAP Authorization and X.509 Users

If you enable LDAP authorization, you can't connect to your clusters with users that authenticate with an Atlas-managed X.509 certificate.

After you enable LDAP authorization, you can connect to your clusters with users that authenticate with an self-managed X.509 certificate. However, the user's Common Name in their X.509 certificate must match the Distinguished Name of a user who is authorized to access your database with LDAP.

Usernames

Atlas uses the full Distinguished Name (DN) of users in your LDAP server as the Atlas username. For example, an example LDAP user named ralph has the following username in Atlas:

cn=ralph,cn=Users,dc=aws-atlas-ldap-01,dc=myteam,dc=com

Connection String

If the administrator enables user authentication or both user authentication and authorization with LDAP, database users must override the following parameters in the connection string for their clients.

  • authSource must be $external

  • authenticationMechanism must be PLAIN

Example

The following connection string for mongosh authenticates an LDAP user named rob:

mongosh "mongodb+srv://cluster0-tijis.mongodb.net/test?authSource=%24external" \
  --authenticationMechanism PLAIN \
  --username cn=rob,cn=Users,dc=ldaps-01,dc=myteam,dc=com

To copy the connection string:

1

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

  1. If it is not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it is not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. If the Clusters page is not already displayed, click Database in the sidebar.

2

Locate the connection string.

Click Connect.

3

Edit the connection string.

Edit the string with your User DN and password.

Note

If your passwords, database names, or connection strings contain reserved URI characters, you must escape the characters. For example, if your password is @bc123, you must escape the @ character when specifying the password in the connection string, such as %40bc123. To learn more, see Special Characters in Connection String Password.

Rolling Restart on Configuration Change

If you change your LDAP configuration, Atlas performs a rolling restart of your cluster. This restart allows Atlas to use the correct settings to authenticate users.

Using Public IP Addresses

You can use public IP addresses that refer to other internal or private IP addresses using Network Address Translation to allow Atlas traffic to your LDAP server. If you do this, be aware that certain activities trigger a change in the Atlas cluster's public IP addresses.

If you allowed LDAP server access based on public IP addresses, changes to the Atlas cluster's public IP address prevent LDAP access. To restore LDAP access, add the new Atlas cluster public IP addresses to the LDAP access list.

Limitations

You cannot use both LDAP and SCRAM authentication for the same database user.

Procedures

Configure Authentication with LDAP

Note

You can use the same Atlas CLI command to configure LDAP authentication and LDAP authorization.

To save one LDAP configuration for the project you specify using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas security ldap save [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas security ldap save.

Tip

See: Related Links

Use the following procedure to configure user authentication with LDAP for all clusters in a project.

1

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

2

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authentication to On.

Note

You might incur additional costs when you enable this feature. See Advanced Security.

3

Enter the server details and bind credentials for all of your LDAP servers in the Configure Your LDAP Server panel.

You may list multiple servers separated by commas. You cannot use different ports.

4

Enter certificates issued from a Certificate Authority (CA) for your LDAP servers, separated by commas, in the CA Root Certificate field.

You may provide self-signed certificates.

5

Click Verify and Save.

Wait for Atlas to deploy your changes. Atlas verifies that your clusters can connect to, authenticate with, and query your LDAP servers using the configuration details that you provided.

Configure Authorization

Note

You can use the same Atlas CLI command to configure LDAP authentication and LDAP authorization.

To save one LDAP configuration for the project you specify using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas security ldap save [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas security ldap save.

Tip

See: Related Links

Use the following procedure to configure user authorization with LDAP for all clusters in a project.

Important

  • You must enable authentication with LDAP before enabling authorization.

  • When you enable and configure LDAP authorization, database users who are only configured for LDAP authentication will no longer be able to access databases.

1

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

2

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authorization to On.

3

Enter the server details and bind credentials for your LDAP server in the Configure Your LDAP Server panel.

4

Enter a query template in Query Template.

When a user attempts to perform an action, Atlas executes the LDAP query template to obtain the LDAP groups to which the authenticated user belongs. Atlas permits the action if the query returns at least one group that is authorized to perform the action. Atlas does not permit the action if the query returns no groups that are authorized to perform the action.

Atlas substitutes the authenticated username in the {USER} placeholder when it runs the query. The query is relative to the host specified in Server Hostname.

The formatting for the query must conform to RFC4515.

If you do not provide a query template, Atlas applies the default value: {USER}?memberOf?base.

5

Click Verify and Save.

Wait for Atlas to deploy your changes. Atlas verifies that your clusters can connect to, authenticate with, and query your LDAP server using the configuration details that you provide.

Add an LDAP Database User or Group

To create a database user for your project using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas dbusers create [builtInRole]... [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas dbusers create.

Tip

See: Related Links

After you configure authorization with LDAP, follow these steps to create an LDAP database user or group:

1

In Atlas, go to the Database Access page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Database Access under the Security heading.

2

Open the Add New Database User dialog box.

  1. If it isn't already displayed, click the Database Users tab.

  2. Click Add New Database User.

3

Select LDAP.

In the Authentication Method section of the Add New Database User modal window, select the box labeled LDAP.

Note

If you don't see an LDAP option, you must configure authorization with LDAP.

4

Select the LDAP type.

Under LDAP Type, select LDAP User for a single user or LDAP Group for an LDAP group.

5

Enter LDAP authentication string.

Enter the authentication string for the LDAP user or LDAP group.

Example

For the LDAP user named myUser in the project named projectName, enter the following:

cn=myUser,ou=projectName,dc=com

If you enable LDAP authorization, you can create LDAP users, but they can't access your clusters. Add an LDAP group to access clusters with LDAP authorization enabled.

6

Assign privileges.

Select the database user privileges. You can assign privileges to the new user in one or more of the following ways:

  • Select a built-in role from the Built-in Role dropdown menu. You can select one built-in role per database user within the Atlas UI. If you delete the default option, you can click Add Built-in Role to select a new built-in role.

  • If you have any custom roles defined, you can expand the Custom Roles section and select one or more roles from the Custom Roles dropdown menu. Click Add Custom Role to add more custom roles. You can also click the Custom Roles link to see the custom roles for your project.

  • Expand the Specific Privileges section and select one or more privileges from the Specific Privileges dropdown menu. Click Add Specific Privilege to add more privileges. This assigns the user specific privileges on individual databases and collections.

Atlas can apply a built-in role, multiple custom roles, and multiple specific privileges to a single database user.

To remove an applied role or privilege, click Delete next to the role or privilege you wish to delete.

Note

Atlas doesn't display the Delete icon next to your Built-in Role, Custom Role, or Specific Privilege selection if you selected only one option. You can delete the selected role or privilege once you apply another role or privilege.

For more information on authorization, see Role-Based Access Control and Built-in Roles in the MongoDB manual.

7

Specify the resources in the project that the user can access.

By default, users can access all the clusters and federated database instances in the project. You can restrict access to specific clusters and federated database instances by doing the following:

  1. Toggle Restrict Access to Specific Clusters/Federated Database Instances to ON.

  2. Select the clusters and federated database instances to grant the user access to from the Grant Access To list.

8

Save as a temporary user or temporary group.

  1. Toggle Temporary User or Temporary Group to On.

  2. Choose a time after which Atlas can delete the user or group from the Temporary User Duration or Temporary Group Duration dropdown. You can select one of the following time periods for the user or group to exist:

    • 6 hours

    • 1 day

    • 1 week

In the Database Users tab, temporary users and groups display the time remaining until Atlas will delete the user or group. Once Atlas deletes the user or group, any client or application that uses the temporary user's or group's credentials loses access to the cluster.

9

Click Add User or Add Group.

View LDAP Configuration

To return the details for one LDAP configuration using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas security ldap get [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas security ldap get.

Tip

See: Related Links

To view your current LDAP settings using the Atlas UI:

1

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

2

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authentication to On.

Atlas displays your LDAP authentication settings.

To view your LDAP authorization settings, toggle the button next to LDAP Authorization to On. Atlas displays your LDAP authorization settings.

Disable LDAP Configuration

Note

You can use the same Atlas CLI command to disable LDAP authentication settings and LDAP authorization settings.

To delete one LDAP configuration using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas security ldap delete [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas security ldap delete.

Tip

See: Related Links

To disable your current LDAP settings using the Atlas UI:

1

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

2

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authentication to OFF.

Atlas disables your LDAP authentication settings and your LDAP authorization settings.

To disable LDAP authorization only, toggle the button next to LDAP Authorization to OFF. Atlas disables your LDAP authorization settings.

Tutorials for Third-Party LDAP Providers

Use the following tutorials to configure Atlas to authenticate and authorize users from third-party LDAP providers:

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