nslcd: LDAP with TLS

[Andrea Sighinolfi <andrea.sighinolfi [at] sitti.it>]

I need to configure nslcd to allow me to authenticate a user on a remote 
LDAP server through an encrypted connection (TLS). I am using a sample 
program which make use of the pam_ldap.so module to provide ldap 
authentication using nslcd. If the LDAP connection is not encrypted 
(simple authentication), it works fine.

Since I need to do an encrypted connection to the LDAP server, Looking 
at the documentation, I seemed to understand that I have to modify the 
/etc/nslcd.conf file in order to get nslcd  aware of the TLS encryption.
I added the following commands to the nslcd.conf file:

    ...
    ssl start_tls
    tls_reqcert never

But when I try to authenticate the user with my sample program, nslcd 
freezes for seconds, and then fails to authenticate.

What am I doing wrong? I am sure I am missing something in the 
configuration but after several attempts I haven't been able to 
authenticate yet.

Thank you.

Andrea.