java get Active Directory RootDSE

Question

I am trying to get Active Directory rootDSE using java. Here is what I have attempted so far:

public class RootDSE {

    public DirContext context;
    public Attributes attributes;
    public NamingEnumeration enumerations;

    public RootDSE()
    {
        try {
            this.context = new InitialDirContext();
            this.attributes = context.getAttributes(
                "ldap://192.168.122.115", new String[]{"*"}
            );
            this.enumerations = this.attributes.getIDs();
            while(this.enumerations != null && this.enumerations.hasMore()) {
                String nextAttribute = (String)this.enumerations.next();
                System.out.println(attributes.get(nextAttribute));
            }
            context.close();
        } catch (NamingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

(I have commented the import s to make the reading easier. I launch the code by just creating the RootDSE object:

RootDSE dse = new RootDSE();
javax.naming.NamingException: [LDAP: error code 1 - 000004DC: LdapErr: DSID-0C090728, comment: In order to perform this operation a successful bind must be completed on the connection., data 0, v2580

I have already performed authenticated ldap requests, so the network connectivity and access to directory service is granted. Moreover, rootDSE requests should be anonymous? It shouldn't be necessary to perform a " successful bind " to get it?

Can someone explain why am I getting this error, and how to solve it?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

This is a problem specific to AD and a clash with Java's JNDI LDAP implementation which kinda by default assumes that an LDAPv3 server supports RFC3296, yet AD doesn't. This results in the reported - perhaps not that intuitive - error message from AD.

Resolution: as per this answer you need to set Context.REFERRAL property on the context.

Therefore, initialize your context like this:

Properties props = new Properties();
props.setProperty(Context.REFERRAL, "throw");  // any other allowed value than the default ('ignore') will do
this.context = new InitialDirContext(props);