Novell LDAP C# - Novell.Directory.Ldap - Has anybody made it work?

I came looking for a solution to a similar problem. My bind command would fail as well while using the same code from Novell's website. The solution that worked for me was adding a dynamic Certificate Validation Call back. You can read about it here.

        // Creating an LdapConnection instance 
        LdapConnection ldapConn = new LdapConnection();

        ldapConn.SecureSocketLayer = true;

        ldapConn.UserDefinedServerCertValidationDelegate += new
                CertificateValidationCallback(MySSLHandler);


        //Connect function will create a socket connection to the server
        ldapConn.Connect(ldapHost, ldapPort);

        //Bind function will Bind the user object Credentials to the Server
        ldapConn.Bind(userDN, userPasswd);

        // Searches in the Marketing container and return all child entries just below this
        //container i.e. Single level search
        LdapSearchResults lsc = ldapConn.Search("ou=users,o=uga",
                           LdapConnection.SCOPE_SUB,
                           "objectClass=*",
                           null,
                           false);

        while (lsc.hasMore())
        {
            LdapEntry nextEntry = null;
            try
            {
                nextEntry = lsc.next();
            }
            catch (LdapException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error: " + e.LdapErrorMessage);
                // Exception is thrown, go for next entry
                continue;
            }
            Console.WriteLine("\n" + nextEntry.DN);
            LdapAttributeSet attributeSet = nextEntry.getAttributeSet();
            System.Collections.IEnumerator ienum = attributeSet.GetEnumerator();
            while (ienum.MoveNext())
            {
                LdapAttribute attribute = (LdapAttribute)ienum.Current;
                string attributeName = attribute.Name;
                string attributeVal = attribute.StringValue;
                Console.WriteLine(attributeName + "value:" + attributeVal);
            }
        }
        ldapConn.Disconnect();
        Console.ReadKey();
    }

public static bool MySSLHandler(Syscert.X509Certificate certificate,
            int[] certificateErrors)
        {

            X509Store store = null;
            X509Stores stores = X509StoreManager.CurrentUser;
            //string input;
            store = stores.TrustedRoot;

            X509Certificate x509 = null;
            X509CertificateCollection coll = new X509CertificateCollection();
            byte[] data = certificate.GetRawCertData();
            if (data != null)
                x509 = new X509Certificate(data);

            return true;
        }

I finally found a way to make this work.

First, theses posts helped me get on the right track : http://directoryprogramming.net/forums/thread/788.aspx

Second, I got a compiled dll of the Novell LDAP Library and used the Mono.Security.Dll.

The solution:

I added this function to the code

// This is the Callback handler - after "Binding" this is called
        public bool MySSLHandler(Syscert.X509Certificate certificate, int[] certificateErrors)
        {

            X509Store store = null;
            X509Stores stores = X509StoreManager.LocalMachine;
            store = stores.TrustedRoot;

            //Import the details of the certificate from the server.

            X509Certificate x509 = null;
            X509CertificateCollection coll = new X509CertificateCollection();
            byte[] data = certificate.GetRawCertData();
            if (data != null)
                x509 = new X509Certificate(data);

            //List the details of the Server

            //if (bindCount == 1)
            //{

            Response.Write("<b><u>CERTIFICATE DETAILS:</b></u> <br>");
            Response.Write("  Self Signed = " + x509.IsSelfSigned + "  X.509  version=" + x509.Version + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Serial Number: " + CryptoConvert.ToHex(x509.SerialNumber) + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Issuer Name:   " + x509.IssuerName.ToString() + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Subject Name:  " + x509.SubjectName.ToString() + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Valid From:    " + x509.ValidFrom.ToString() + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Valid Until:   " + x509.ValidUntil.ToString() + "<br>");
            Response.Write("  Unique Hash:   " + CryptoConvert.ToHex(x509.Hash).ToString() + "<br>");
            // }

            bHowToProceed = true;
            if (bHowToProceed == true)
            {
                //Add the certificate to the store. This is \Documents and Settings\program data\.mono. . .
                if (x509 != null)
                    coll.Add(x509);
                store.Import(x509);
                if (bindCount == 1)
                    removeFlag = true;
            }

            if (bHowToProceed == false)
            {
                //Remove the certificate added from the store.

                if (removeFlag == true && bindCount > 1)
                {
                    foreach (X509Certificate xt509 in store.Certificates)
                    {
                        if (CryptoConvert.ToHex(xt509.Hash) == CryptoConvert.ToHex(x509.Hash))
                        {
                            store.Remove(x509);
                        }
                    }
                }
                Response.Write("SSL Bind Failed.");
            }
            return bHowToProceed;
        }

And i used it in the binding process

// Create Connection
                LdapConnection conn = new LdapConnection();
                conn.SecureSocketLayer = true;
                Response.Write("Connecting to:" + ldapHost);

                conn.UserDefinedServerCertValidationDelegate += new
                    CertificateValidationCallback(MySSLHandler);

                if (bHowToProceed == false)
                    conn.Disconnect();
                if (bHowToProceed == true)
                {
                    conn.Connect(ldapHost, ldapPort);
                    conn.Bind(loginDN, password);
                    Response.Write(" SSL Bind Successfull ");

                    conn.Disconnect();
                }
                quit = false;

The key elements are using the SSL Handler to dynamically obtain the Certificate, and using X509StoreManager.LocalMachine so that when the website is running its able to save and fetch the certificates.

91 is "cannot connect". Try to put the server in "ldap://x.x.x.x" format, check that userDN is set properly (with domain etc).

I am often using WireShark to see what is going on at the network level (it is aware of LDAP protocol).