I can't log-in to the webserver via LDAP

Question

We using a VM for a web server running with apache2 regulating a specific service. Both SSH-login and logging to the front end were regulated by our LDAP-server. A few weeks ago, some changes were made to our LDAP server due to increased security protocols. The server addresses were not changed though.

After the change we can still log-in to the VM via ssh, but for some reason, we can't log-in to the web front.

I have sudo rights on the vm, so I can make changes there (but not to our LDAP-server). The web server was set up using perl scripts, which are all saved under /www/mpiseq/*. In there we also have some perl libraries, in one of them, mpiseqGlobals.pm both parameters $ldap_server and $ldap_base are defined.

The apache2.conf file states the correct path

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin [email protected]
        DocumentRoot /www/mpiseq/web
        DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.html
         <Directory /www/mpiseq/web>
                AllowOverride None
               Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
                Require all granted
        </Directory>


        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

and the default-ssl.conf file

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName VM_NAME
        Redirect permanent / https://VM_NAME
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerName VM_NAME
        ServerAdmin [email protected]
        DocumentRoot /www/mpiseq2/web
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ngs-cert.pem
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ngs-private-key-nopass.pem
        SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/certificate/chain.txt
        DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.html
ErrorDocument 404 /404.cgi
ErrorDocument 500 /505.cgi
        <Directory /www/mpiseq2/web>
                AllowOverride None
                Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
                Require all granted
        </Directory>


        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

                <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
                                SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
                </FilesMatch>

</VirtualHost>

Before the change we didn't use any auth_ldap.conf file, so I don't think this is the reason (but I have no real experience, so what do i know ), but we now added one hoping to solve the problem. But it didn't.

 LDAPConnectionTimeout 3
 LDAPTimeout 10

<Directory /www/mpiseq2/web>
    SSLRequireSSL
    AuthName "LDAP Authentication"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthBasicProvider ldap
    AuthLDAPURL "ldaps://ldapserv1.**** ldapserv2.**** ldapserv3.*****/dc=***,dc=**,dc=**?uid?sub?(objectClass=posixAccount)"
    Require valid-user
 </Directory>

I'm no server administrator and I don't know even where to look for the problem. I have tried to change the auth_ldap.conf as well as all the apache2 conf files, but nothing really made a difference. I don't know if this might be a certificate problem, and also not even sure how to test for that option.

I would appreciate any help you can give or advice where to look for the problem.

Answer 1

I found out the solution.

Apparently, now I have to add the port also to the server address.

The correct address was nos as such

$ldapserver => 'ldaps://SERVER.NAME:636'

This let me log in to the front end.