Authenticate against Active Directory/ISA from php

Question

I have a complicated problem, exacerbated by the fact I don't really know where to start!

Over the last few years, I've developed a number of php web-based systems. When I built them, our network was ropey at best, so I thought nothing of creating my own username/password stuff.

Since then, our network has become a lot more robust, our admins have installed an ISA server for various other things and my apps are left as frustrating relics that people forget their passwords and are never sure which one belongs to what.

I would like to be able to replace my own login code with something that will talk to the the ISA/Active directory stuff so users can just use their primary username and password to log onto my stuff too.

Part of the difficulty is that the PHP apps are hosted outside of our network, although I do also have a server inside the network to act as a gateway if necessary. All of the servers I have access to are running Linux, although I might be able to persuade someone to install a 'plugin' on a windows box if it is absolutely necessary.

Where do I start?

Answer 1

If PHP is running under Apache you should be able to use mod_ldap and mod_authnz_ldap to authenticate to your Active Directory server.

There's also a fairly complete LDAP API for PHP, which you should investigate.