As of LDAPv3, a bind operation is annonymous unless credentials are provided. By setting the credentials in the environment and then binding, if the bind has succeeded, the credentials were valid and the user is authenticated.

A better question is the authorization, one that I am interested in myself. LDAP apparently only supports read and write permissioning, making no distinction between object level properties, and attribute level properties. Is there anyways to test for read / write permission?

Sheldon

Here's the sample code I use everytime I have to code up an
authentication program through LDAP and JNDI. Just be sure
to set the the o and ou settings properly, as well as the
address of your LDAP server. Furthermore, check to see
what authentication service you use.

   static final String LDAPServer = "ldap://domain.com:389";

    public static boolean authenticate(String name, String passwd)
    {
        boolean authorized = false;
        if(name.equals("") || passwd.equals("")) 
            return false;

        // prepare new env object
        Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
        // specify context factory
        env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFacto
ry");

        // Specify host and port to use for directory service
        env.put( Context.PROVIDER_URL, LDAPServer );
        env.put( Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
        String principal = "uid="+name+",ou=Blah, o=something.com";
        env.put( Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, principal );
        env.put( Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, passwd );

        try {
            // Create initial context
            DirContext ctx = new InitialDirContext( env );

            // Close the context when we're done
            ctx.close();
            authorized = true;
        }
        catch( Throwable e ) {
            authorized = false;
        }
        return authorized;

    }