Use Windows Login in PHP Applications
As a developer you may run into a situation such as what I have, numerous applications deployed and or created and deployed.
With multiple logins for all the apps, we had to find way to integrate all logins for better management and maintenance.
Since we were using Apache with a PHP server, the solution was to find a way to consolidate the logins usin PHP.
The answer is ldap() (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). This built in function through PHP, allows you to create username and password schemes using existing Windows authentication.
Take this snippet:
$ldaprdn = 'myName@timbuckTwo.com'; // ldap rdn or dn
$ldappass = 'password'; // associated password
// connect to ldap server
$ldapconn = ldap_connect("Ip address or domain name")or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
That is all it takes to connect to your windows login using PHP.
Now, for the practical example:
$ldaprdn = $_POST['username']; // ldap rdn or dn
$ldappass = $_POST['password']; // associated password
// connect to ldap server
$ldapconn = ldap_connect("Ip address or domain name")or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
The values can be passed on using a web form with the text field names of username and password:
See form code below:
<form name="form1" method="post" action="">
<table>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><div align="center"><?=$errorMess;?></div></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="76">Username</td>
<td width="324"><input class="<?=$aClass;?>" type="text" name="username" id="username" value="<?=$_POST['username'];?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password</td>
<td><input class="<?=$aClass;?>" type="password" name="password" id="password" value="<?=$_POST['password'];?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><input type="submit" name="Submit" id="Submit" value="Submit"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
Using the multi-purpose pages described in my other tutorial about forms, you can see how the logic before we push Submit and after we push Submit.
After pushing Submit this snippet runs:
// using ldap bind
$ldaprdn = $_POST['username']; // ldap rdn or dn
$ldappass = $_POST['password']; // associated password
//lets concatenate the proper username:
$ldaprdn = $_POST['username'] . "@whatever the domain name is";
// connect to ldap server
$ldapconn = ldap_connect("ldap.example.com")
or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
if ($ldapconn) {
// binding to ldap server
$ldapbind = ldap_bind($ldapconn, $ldaprdn, $ldappass);
// verify binding
if ($ldapbind) {
echo "LDAP bind successful...";
} else {
echo "LDAP bind failed...";
}
}
We concatenated or connected the username and the domain extension to create the proper credentials to pass on to Active Directory.
Now using this knowledge, you can create authentication using the built in Windows login, no creating usernames and passwords, Windows can manage that, leaving you to script and create.
Recap:
We went over basic authentication using a small script and how you can incorporate such a script in a real life scenario.
I invite you to look at the ldap() function and its companions, it does a lot more than what we went over, you can search, create and delete, and modify users listed on Active Directory using the function.
I will be listing other real world scenarios in the articles to come, please come and do bookmark me.
Thank you!
Comments
another good hub
- Author
Thank you Lgali, I hope that what I write can benefit anyone who chooses to use it.
Thank you
this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a copy of this lesson on my site herewww.7wass.com
- Author
Thank you ZeeaD
Nice, now we mix the open source apps into the local Intranet..Thanks
:)
Thanks for sharing your excellent information.Very informative.
this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a copy of this lesson on my site herewww.doross.org
his is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a copy of this lesson on my site here
good
- Author
Just wanted to thank you all for reading and hopefully getting something out of these how tos, once again, thanks.
this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a copy of this lesson on my site here
www.alhmaya.com
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this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put acopy of this lesson on my site here www.7asryat.prnamg.net
Thank you wonderful information
may i ask hub?
i was build a website using PHP and active directory..
what i want to ask,
could you fixed my code..because i am newbie and wanna try it..
this is my form code
Nama
Password
and this is my connection code (PS : my domain name's is ABC.com and i have OU name's abc and the password aaa)
and this is my dologin.php code
i still confused where's the error..
and one..if i wanna connect this php to active directory?
could i install php in windows server first?
or i can cross it with windows xp to windows server?
(PS: my php file was in windows xp)
thanks before
may i ask hub?
i was build a website using PHP and active directory..
what i want to ask,
could you fixed my code..because i am newbie and wanna try it..
this is my form code
Nama
Password
and this is my connection code (PS : my domain name's is ABC.com and i have OU name's abc and the password aaa)
$ldaprdn = 'abc@CTO.com'; // ldap rdn or dn
$ldappass = 'aaa'; // associated password
// connect to ldap server
$ldapconn = ldap_connect("LDAP.CTO.com")or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
and this is my dologin.php code
$ldaprdn = $_POST['username']; // ldap rdn or dn
$ldappass = $_POST['password']; // associated password
//lets concatenate the proper username:
$ldaprdn = $_POST['username'] . "@CTO.com";
// connect to ldap server
$ldapconn = ldap_connect("ldap.CTO.com")
or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
if ($ldapconn) {
// binding to ldap server
$ldapbind = ldap_bind($ldapconn, $ldaprdn, $ldappass);
// verify binding
if ($ldapbind) {
echo "LDAP bind successful...";
} else {
echo "LDAP bind failed...";
}
}
i still confused where's the error..
and one..if i wanna connect this php to active directory?
could i install php in windows server first?
or i can cross it with windows xp to windows server?
(PS: my php file was in windows xp)
thanks before
very nice article about php
is is posible to read the username and password from windows log in and use this to authenticate against AD ?
Thank you so very much I have been trying to make this work for a week now and this was SO helpful!!
Hi Georgia,
I want to connect window machine from PHP. Let me tell you what exactly i want to do is i want to run some program by passing data from web app based on php. and retrieve result from that program and display on web page. I have to use windows machine as that program is supporting only windows.
Many many thanks, I hope to get some idea.
Nice, taht's exactly what I was looking for ;)
Many many thanx, BR.
There is tested function I wrote for checking users on Windows 2003 server LDAP.
Just pass these params:
$un = user name
$pwd = password
$srv = LDAP server
$cp = LDAP port (usualy 389)
$dn = full domain name (...after @)
It returns TRUE if user check was successful or FALSE if it fails. (FALSE = bad login or error in LDAP connection, becouse I don't need distinguish that...)
-------------------------------------------------------
function login_check($un,$pwd,$srv,$cp,$dn){
$ds=ldap_connect($srv, $cp);
ldap_set_option($ds,LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION,3);
ldap_set_option($ds,LDAP_OPT_REFERRALS,0);
$r=ldap_bind($ds,$un.'@'.$dn,$pwd);
ldap_unbind($ds);
ldap_close($ds);
return ($ds && $r);
}
-------------------------------------------------------
Hope, somebody could use this ;) BR
Thank you Alpho011, The script was helpful but I have a challenge. I want to create session for the user login after the user has successfully login wt the AD username and password.
For example: $_SESSION['email'] = $data["mail"][0];
$_SESSION['fullname'] = $data["cn"][0];
$_SESSION['employee_id'] = $data["userprincipalname"][0];
$_SESSION['last_name'] = $data["sn"][0];
but this is not working. Please your help will be appreciated
Thank you in anticipation.
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