LDAP/AD Server

[Trankery]

@nebulon I'm looking for an LDAP Server that works outside of cloudron too, or at least an option to manage the users on it.

[nebulon]

I see, that is indeed then basically a separate app. Lets see if others are interested as well and we can discuss that here then.

[yusf]

I’d be interested in connecting external services to the Cloudron LDAP!

[NCKNE]

An LDAP server would be great. I would vote for an identity provider (with LDAP, Oauth, etc.)!
I think @jimcavoli is already working one something along these lines: https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/2320/scaling-high-availability-cloudron-setup/5

[imc67]

It would be extremely convenient to have Cloudron as a LDAP server (app) and contains "the one and only truth" about usermanagement (all users/groups etc) so external systems (like local NAS) can make use of it.

Is that feasible, easy to do, safe ...?

[yusf]

I know @murgero prototyped an LDAP-app a while back.

[girish]

@imc67 Yes, agreed. we will investigate this as part of our roadmap for next release.

[nebulon]

Some more info about this at https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/2559/cloudron-ldap-access-for-external-apps/7 lets discuss further in this thread.

Both concepts are possible, either expose the built-in ldap server or provide an app, which exposes the ldap functionality. Not sure which ones is better or worse for which use-cases.

[yusf]

@nebulon I guess one feature of an app based approach can take advantage of the app level access controls, so that the external use of the LDAP easily can be limited to certain groups and users.

[nebulon]

That is a good point. In that case the app could also contain a small UI to configure ldap admin bind credentials for searches I guess.

[alexanderkings]

Hello, I have been redirected from a support email...

I think my concern is similar to that of other users who need this feature.

Looking on github i found this:
https://github.com/mitchellurgero/cloudron-ldap-proxy

Security Warnings
THIS CAN POTENTIALLY EXPOSE YOUR CLOUDRON'S INTERNAL LDAP SERVER TO THE WORLD. DO NOT USE THIS APP IN PRODUCTION IN ANY WAY!!!!

I have not tried it yet, but think that with some precautions it can be implemented...

[iamthefij]

@alexanderkings I haven't finished the step of migrating this to a Cloudron app, but I've been using mole to securely forward ports between networks using SSH Private/Public keys. My Docker implementation is Dockamole.

I'm using it already outside of Cloudron to allow my VPS to scrape metrics generated on my home NAS.

The workflow would require a Server container running on Cloudron and then a Client container running on whatever machine you'd like to access the forwarded port. All services on that machine access the service through the local container and it's forwarded to the server container.

Like I said... I haven't gotten it running on Cloudron yet though.

[friep2]

just came here to add my +1 for this. i'm currently looking into cloudron for our tech-focused NPO with over 1000 volunteers and it'd be great to have some (at least basic) LDAP server to integrate with "from the outside". we self-host some more specialized tools (partially other open source tools, partially self-developed) which are not on Cloudron - rightfully so - and it'd be super convenient if we could integrate with Cloudron's LDAP.
The "one login for a lot of services" and permission management (certain apps can only be accessed by certain people) is definitely one of the main attractions of cloudron I see for us and it'd be great if this would be extensible to external apps. This would radically reduce the workload for us full-time employees: right now we have to add volunteers to 5+ different services if we want to properly onboard them.

[infogulch]

@friep2 As a fellow regular user, could I ask you to elaborate a bit on why it would be inappropriate to package up the "open-source / self-developed" apps to run inside Cloudron directly? This is an honest question, I'm quite curious about how different people perceive the limits of Cloudron. I'm sure you have considered many different options for deployment.

[A Former User]

LDAP to the world would be interesting. I could also see a usecase for something like a SAML provider to redirect apps to a cloudron instance for SSO.

[marcusquinn]

Big for this from me. What can we do to get this happening?

First use would be with Unify apps and devices, so Cloudron could be a single source of logins, and single place to decommissions logins too for those moving on.

[A Former User]

I think the only way this could be better is adding support for custom external apps added to the dashboard (they just link out).

[marcusquinn]

Just noting a link to a comment from @luckow on a similar post I made before seeing this one, with some alternative solution links: https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/4933/have-a-cloudron-instance-as-an-ldap-provider/6?_=1618906250553

I think this thread has the right ultimate goal - but that might be something I have to investigate an intermediary solution for if this doesn't get on the roadmap.

[girish]

I wanted to explain a bit why we have not exposed the LDAP: Cloudron has a minimal user database. This is exposed with LDAP protocol for the sake of app authentication. But it's not a real directory server. A real directory server requires storing a LOT more user information (well atleast that's what people expect from a real LDAP server) like say phone numbers, photos etc.

The other aspect is, of course, security. It's not a good idea to expose the LDAP server straight to the internets. We have to make some mechanisms to only allow specific IPs to connect to LDAP server etc. This is easily doable.

Are you ok with living the minimal user database limitation? If so, we can look into it.

[robi]

VPN to Cloudron for LDAP is reasonable.

LDAP should only work for auth'd users, so externally it just needs an interface to do that.

One thing that comes up is that external LDAP users only should exist which means not allowing them to log in to the Cloudron dashboard is a thing.