How to analyze LDAP services with NMAP?

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) provides a mechanism for storing and retrieving information in a hierarchical directory structure. NMAP, on the other hand, is a network scanning tool that can analyze and find vulnerabilities in various network services such as LDAP.

To analyze LDAP services using NMAP, you first need to install NMAP on your system. Once NMAP is installed, you can use the command `nmap –p 389 `, where would be the IP address or hostname of the LDAP server you want to analyze (nmap.org, 2021). Port 389 is the default port for LDAP, though obviously, if the server runs LDAP on a different port, it should be specified instead.

The `–p` flag tells NMAP to only scan the specified port, while the `` is the IP or URL of the LDAP server. The output of this command will tell you if the provided port on the given target is open, closed or filtered. An open port indicates that the service running on it can receive connections (nmap.org, 2021).

If the port is open, the scan will also typically reveal information about the version of LDAP running on the target server. This can be done by using the `–sV` flag to enable version detection: `nmap –p 389 –sV ` (nmap.org, 2021).

To get even more information about the LDAP service, you can use the NMAP scripting engine (NSE). NMAP comes with several scripts for analyzing LDAP. For example, the ldap-search.nse script attempts to perform an anonymous bind with the target’s LDAP service and then conducts a search, returning 1000 results at most. The command for that would be: `nmap –p 389 —script ldap-search ` (“NSEDoc Reference Portal”, nmap.org, 2021).

The results of these scans can inform you about potential vulnerabilities in the LDAP service you are testing. This might range from outdated software versions to insecure configuration settings.

Finally, always remember that testing and scanning without permission can be seen as an aggressive act and as such could potentially violate laws. Always make sure to have permission from the owner of the LDAP service before running these scans.

References:
- nmap.org. (2021). Nmap Documentation. [online] Available at: https://nmap.org/book/man.html [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].
- nmap.org. (2021). NSEDoc Reference Portal. [online] Available at: https://nmap.org/nsedoc/scripts/ldap-search.html [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].