LDAP vs. LDAPS: What’s the Difference? – Rublon (2024)

FAQs

LDAP vs. LDAPS: What’s the Difference? – Rublon? ›

LDAP is an abbreviation of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. LDAPS stands for LDAP over SSL or Secure LDAP. LDAP uses TCP as a transmission protocol. LDAPS uses TLS/SSL as a transmission protocol.

Encryption: The most significant difference between LDAP and LDAPS is encryption. LDAPS encrypts the connection from the start, ensuring that all data (including credentials) exchanged between the client and server is encrypted. In contrast, LDAP transmits data in plain text, making it vulnerable to eavesdropping.

LDAP Port 389 vs Port 636. Quick Definition: LDAP port 389 is the default port for unencrypted LDAP communication, typically used for directory-related data exchange. In contrast, LDAP port 636 is the encrypted counterpart, ensuring secure transmission of data related to network accounts.

LDAPS is the non-standardized "LDAP over SSL" protocol that in contrast with StartTLS only allows communication over a secure port such as 636. It establishes the secure connection before there is any communication with the LDAP server.

They run concurrently on the DC. LDAPS gets enabled as soon as the DC gets an SSL certificate. Once you get the SSL certificate, you can work on migrating the web apps to LDAPS, but you can have some on LDAP and some on LDAPS. Microsoft recommends using encryption method STARTTLS with standard port 389.

LDAPS communication occurs over port TCP 636. LDAPS communication to a global catalog server occurs over TCP 3269.

AD does support LDAP, which means it can still be part of your overall access management scheme. Active Directory is just one example of a directory service that supports LDAP. There are other flavors, too: Red Hat Directory Service, OpenLDAP, Apache Directory Server, and more.

LDAP supports SSL, it's called LDAPS, and it uses a dedicated port. As of today, and since 2000, LDAPS is deprecated and StartTLS should be used. That being said, many servers accept LDAPS, and the Apache LDAP API supports it.

What is the difference between LDAP URL and LDAPS URL? ›

In addition to LDAP URLs, the LDAP provider also supports the non-standard but widely used LDAPS URLs. LDAPS URLs use SSL connections instead of plain (i.e., unprotected) connections. They have a syntax similar to LDAP URLs except the schemes are different and the default port for LDAPS URLs is 636 instead of 389.

LDAP is an open, vendor-neutral application protocol for accessing and maintaining that data. LDAP can also tackle authentication, so users can sign on just once and access many different files on the server. LDAP is a protocol, so it doesn't specify how directory programs work.

LDAPS supports both TCP and UDP, and TCP is the common protocol for querying. Microsoft Active Directory requires both TCP and UDP, so again, if you have a Windows domain server with Active Directory activated, you'll need both protocols.

The main difference between LDAP and LDAPS is that LDAPS is more secure than LDAP. This is because LDAPS is essentially LDAP encrypted using TLS/SSL as a wrapper. For that reason, LDAPS is also called LDAP over SSL or Secure LDAP.

Once certificate is successfully added to the JRE keystore, we can connect to the LDAP server over SSL. Now let us try to connect to LDAP Server (with and without SSL) using the ldp.exe tool. To Connect to LDAPS (LDAP over SSL), use port 636 and mark SSL. Click OK to connect.

Although the LDAP protocol may seem somewhat outdated in the current technological environment, it is still widely supported by many mainstream software as a classic standard.

Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) is a protocol that helps users find data about organizations, persons, and more. LDAP has two main goals: to store data in the LDAP directory and authenticate users to access the directory.

Yes, indeed. LDAP was originally developed for Linux and UNIX environments, but today it works with a wide range of applications and operating systems. Examples of popular applications that support LDAP authentication include OpenVPN, Docker, Jenkins, and Kubernetes.