LDAP AUTHENTICATION- PLEASE HELP

Question

My client wants me use LDAP for authentication. I new to this: I have written a Authentication bean. As follows.
//Used to authenticate user from LDAP directry.
import javax.naming.*;
import javax.naming.directory.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
public class AuthBean {
     private boolean attempted;
     private String userName;
     private String password;
     public AuthBean() {
          attempted = false;
          userName = "";
          password = "";
     //Getter methods.
     public String getUserName() {
          return this.userName;
     public String getPassword() {
          return this.password;
     //Setter methods.
     public void setUserName (String userName) {
          this.userName = userName;
          if (!this.userName.equals("") && !this.password.equals(""))
          attempted = true;
     else
               attempted = false;
     public void setPassword(String password) {
          this.password = password;
          if (!this.userName.equals("") && !this.password.equals(""))
               attempted = true;
          else
               attempted = false;
     //Checks to see if attempted.
     public boolean isAttempted() {
          return this.attempted;
     * Given a username and password, authenticates to the directory
     * Takes a String for username, String for password.
     * Calls getDn for the method.
     public boolean ldapAuthenticate (String username, String pass) {
          if ( username == null || pass == null ) {
               System.out.println(" im here in the method");
               System.out.println(" user" + username);
               System.out.println(" pass" + pass);
               return false;
          String dn = getDN(username);
               System.out.println(" dn" + dn);
               if ( dn == null)
               return false;
               dn = dn + ",o=hcfhe";
               //dn = dn + ",o=mu";
               System.out.println(dn);
               String ldap_url = "ldap://10.1.1.199:389/ou=it,o=hcfhe";
               //set variables for context
               Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
               env.put("com.sun.naming.ldap.trace.ber", System.err);
               env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
               env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, ldap_url);
               env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
               env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, dn);
               env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, pass);
               DirContext ctx;
               //make connection, catch errors thrown
               try {
                    ctx = new InitialDirContext(env);
               } catch (AuthenticationException e) {
                         System.out.println("Authentication Exception");
                         return false;
               } catch (NamingException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    return false;
          //close connection
          try {
               ctx.close();
          } catch (NamingException ne) {
                    System.out.println(ne);
          return true;
     * This methods cheks for the username from the LDAP directory.
     * Takes a String.
     public String getDN(String username) {
          String dn = "";
          String ldap_url = "ldap://10.1.1.199:389/ou=it,o=hcfhe";
          Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
          env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
          env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, ldap_url);
          DirContext ctx;
          try {
               ctx = new InitialDirContext(env);
               SearchControls ctls = new SearchControls();
               ctls.setSearchScope(SearchControls.SUBTREE_SCOPE);
               String filter = "(uid=" + username + ")"; // Search for objects with these matching attributes
               NamingEnumeration results = ctx.search("",filter,ctls);
               if ( results != null && results.hasMoreElements()) {
                    SearchResult sr = (SearchResult)results.nextElement();
                    dn = sr.getName();
               } else dn = null;
                         ctx.close();
          } catch (AuthenticationException e) {
                    System.out.println("Authentication Exception");
                    return null;
          } catch (NamingException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    return null;
               return dn;
I also done a validate. jsp as follows.
<%@page import="register.AuthBean"%>
<jsp:useBean id ="AuthBean" class="register.AuthBean" scope="session"/>
<%
          //boolean valid = false;
          String username = request.getParameter("user");
          //System.out.println("The username" + username);
          String password = request.getParameter("password");
          //System.out.println("The username" +password);
%>
     <jsp:setProperty name="AuthBean" property="userName" param="user" />
     <jsp:setProperty name="AuthBean" property="password" param= "password" />
<%
               //boolean validate = false;
               String nn = AuthBean.getUserName();
               System.out.println(nn);     
               String dn = AuthBean.getDN(username);
               System.out.println(dn);
               boolean validate = AuthBean.ldapAuthenticate(username, password);
               if(validate) {
                    response.sendRedirect("../admin/Adminindex.jsp");
               } else {
                    response.sendRedirect("Login.html");
%>
At current I keep getting 'false' for validate. But there are no errors. I m using tomcat and apache, do I need to configure any of these to LDAP. If so can you show me some examples.
Many thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Irene,
I am posting my LDAP Authentication code for you to look at. If you have any more questions, please respond to this posting. I have just three days ago implemented this for my client. It works on Web Sphere against Microsoft Active Directory.
=====================================================================
import javax.naming.directory.*;
import javax.naming.ldap.*;
import javax.naming.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.math.*;
* Insert the type's description here.
* Creation date:
* @author: Sajjad Alam
public final class LDAPConn {
     public static java.lang.Object Conn;
* LDAPConn constructor comment.
public LDAPConn() {
     super();
* Insert the method's description here.
* @return java.lang.Object
public static DirContext getConn() throws Exception {
     //Declarations of variables
     Hashtable env = new Hashtable(11);
     InitialLdapContext ctx = null;
     //==============LDAP Authentication of a given user stored in Active Directory=============
     System.out.println("Entered constructor for Ldap Context");
     //Initialize the Context Factory.
     env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
     env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldap://XXX.XXX.XX.XXX:389/dc=domainURL1,dc=domainURL2,dc=com");
     try {
          The following syntax is a standard way of authenticating users stores in LDAP
          when JNDI api is used.
          env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
          env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "[email protected]");
          env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "password");
          System.out.println("Issuing request to authenticate the user and create an LDAP context");
          ctx = new InitialLdapContext(env, null);
          System.out.println("Got handle on Ldap Context");
          //==============Completed Authentication of user=============
          //==============Retrieving attribute data about a user stored in Active Directory==========
          //Here we will retrieve attributes of one of the users in LDAP ("cn=");
          //Declarations of variables
          String userInfo = "cn=someUserName ,ou=Users,ou=something,ou=something";
          Attributes userAttr = ctx.getAttributes(userInfo);
          Attribute orgUnitAttr = null;
          //Looping through the enumeration to obtain attribute data
          for (NamingEnumeration ae = userAttr.getAll(); ae.hasMore();) {
               Attribute attr = (Attribute) ae.next();
               if (attr.getID().equals("distinguishedName"))
                    orgUnitAttr = attr;
               System.out.print(" Attribute: " + attr.getID());
               //Print each value
               for (NamingEnumeration e = attr.getAll(); e.hasMore();) {
                    System.out.println(" Value: " + e.next());
          //============== Done retrieving attribute data about user==========
          //==============To find which organizational unit a user belongs provided we pass the user==========
          //This section of code uses the value from the "distinguishedName" attribute
          System.out.println("");
          Object parseOutOrgUnit = (Object) orgUnitAttr;
          System.out.println("We can obtain the organizational unit (Role) from the " + parseOutOrgUnit.toString());
          //======================================Done=============================
          // Close the context when we're done or you can close the connection where you are using this object.
          String grInfo = "CN=Sales-Administrator,OU=Java Application Accounts,OU=something,OU=something";
          Attributes grAttr = ctx.getAttributes(grInfo);
          //Looping through the enumeration to obtain attribute data
          for (NamingEnumeration ae = grAttr.getAll(); ae.hasMore();) {
               Attribute attr = (Attribute) ae.next();
               System.out.print(" Attribute: " + attr.getID());
               //Print each value
               for (NamingEnumeration e = attr.getAll(); e.hasMore();) {
                    System.out.println(" Value: " + e.next());
          //============== Done retrieving attribute data about user==========
          //==============To find which organizational unit a user belongs provided we pass the user==========
          //This section of code uses the value from the "distinguishedName" attribute
          System.out.println("");
          //======================================Done=============================
          ctx.close();
     catch (Exception e) {
          System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
     return ctx;