Develop Reference

Trying to access Properties in Active Directory to add to a Database

Working on pulling user info from an AD based on an ID that is entered. The error I get is:
Cannot implicitly convert type "string" to type "System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry"
happening here in the Save method:
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry();
de = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.NID);
Opening the connection:
private DirectoryEntry GetDirectoryObject()
{
DirectoryEntry oDE;
oDE = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://myConnection");
return oDE;
}
Querying AD:
public string QueryAD(string userNID)
{
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher
{
SearchRoot = new DirectoryEntry(""),
//start searching from local domain
Filter = userNID
};
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("givenname");
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("sn");
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("mail");
// start searching
SearchResultCollection searchCollection = ds.FindAll();
try
{
foreach (SearchResult result in searchCollection)
{
if (result.Properties.PropertyNames != null)
foreach (string propKey in result.Properties.PropertyNames)
{
// Display each of the values for the property identified by the property name.
foreach (object prop in result.Properties[propKey])
{
if ((propKey == "userPrincipalName"))
{
return prop.ToString();
}
}
}
return "Unknown User";
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return "Unknown User";
}
}
Save new user:
public void SaveUser(SearchRolesViewModel objSearchRolesViewModel, string userID)
{
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry();
de = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.NID);
USERACCOUNT objUserAccount = new USERACCOUNT
{
HPID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserHealthPlans),
DOMAIN = "Aeth",
NTUSERID = objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id,
ROLEID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.UserRole),
FIRSTNAME = GIVENNAME GOES HERE,
LASTNAME = SURNAME GOES HERE,
EMAIL = MAIL GOES HERE,
ACTIVE = true/*Convert.ToBoolean(objSearchRolesViewModel.ActiveStatus)*/,
DEFAULTPLANID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserPrimaryHealthPlan),
CREATEID = userID,
CREATEDATE = DateTime.Now,
UPDATEID = userID,
UPDATEDATE = DateTime.Now
};
_context.USERACCOUNTs.Add(objUserAccount);
_context.SaveChanges();
}
I need to be able to access the properties from Active Directory and add them to what is being sent to the DB when a new user is added.

A couple nit-picky things:
Opening the connection
Creating a DirectoryEntry object doesn't actually open any connection. That is how almost all of Microsoft's libraries work: constructors do not make any I/O requests. The first network request is made when you first start using the object.
Also, new DirectoryEntry("") has exactly the same effect as new DirectoryEntry() - the empty string doesn't get you anything. But also, if you don't set the SearchRoot property, it will automatically set it to the current domain anyway. So you don't even need to set it unless you need to set it to a different domain or OU.
Now on to answering the question:
You have gotten a couple answers already, but they aren't ideal. You certainly can use the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace if you want, which is just a wrapper around System.DirectoryServices to make things easier. But like all things that make things easier, it does so at the cost of performance. It always has worse performance over using System.DirectoryServices directly, yourself. One reason is because whenever a UserPrincipal object is created, it retrieves every attribute that has a value for the account. You probably aren't using every attribute.
If you can wrap your head around using DirectoryEntry/DirectorySearcher yourself, you will have better performing code.
Jawad's answer will also work, but it has one key issue that will slow down your code: DirectorySearcher will return all the attributes you request. You already set PropertiesToLoad, which is good - it will limit the results to only the attributes you need. But if you use GetDirectoryEntry(), that info is lost. If you then start using .Properties on the DirectoryEntry, it will make a new network request and ask for all attributes that have values. That can be a lot of data that you aren't using, apart from being a second network request that you could avoid.
I would suggest just returning a SearchResult from QueryAD, which will let you use the data that was returned in the search.
You can also use FindOne() instead of FindAll(), since you are only using the first result anyway. This will make AD stop looking after it finds one result. Just test for null in case the user wasn't found.
public SearchResult QueryAD(string userNID)
{
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher(userNID) {
PropertiesToLoad = {"givenname", "sn", "mail"}
};
return ds.FindOne();
}
public void SaveUser(SearchRolesViewModel objSearchRolesViewModel, string userID)
{
var result = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.NID);
if (result == null)
{
//user wasn't found!
}
USERACCOUNT objUserAccount = new USERACCOUNT
{
HPID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserHealthPlans),
DOMAIN = "Aeth",
NTUSERID = objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id,
ROLEID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.UserRole),
FIRSTNAME = (string) result.Properties["givenName"]?[0],
LASTNAME = (string) result.Properties["sn"]?[0],
EMAIL = (string) result.Properties["mail"]?[0],
ACTIVE = true/*Convert.ToBoolean(objSearchRolesViewModel.ActiveStatus)*/,
DEFAULTPLANID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserPrimaryHealthPlan),
CREATEID = userID,
CREATEDATE = DateTime.Now,
UPDATEID = userID,
UPDATEDATE = DateTime.Now
};
_context.USERACCOUNTs.Add(objUserAccount);
_context.SaveChanges();
}
The Properties of a SearchResult will always present properties as arrays, even if they are single-valued attributes in AD. This is different than DirectoryEntry. But that is the reason for the [0] in result.Properties["givenName"]?[0] as string. The ? is to test for null, because if the attribute is not set in AD, then it won't appear in the Properties collection at all.
I wrote an article about getting better performance when programming with AD, with a focus on C#. You might enjoy reading it.

In your code, QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.NID); returns a string but you are assigning it to a DirectoryEntity. This wont work.
public void SaveUser(SearchRolesViewModel objSearchRolesViewModel, string userID)
{
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry();
de = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.NID); // <--- This is the issue.
...
Look up DirectoryEntry from the QueryAD function and return that object to make your call work.
public string QueryAD(string userNID) // You will need to return DirectoryEntry to make your code work.
{
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher
EDIT:
I find using UserPrincipal with PrincipalContext to be much simpler. Look up PrincipalContext by using your domain name and provide creds if not running with domain account. Then, simply, lookup user by SamAccountName, Name/ID or DistinguishedName.
You will need, 'System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement' nuget package for Principal usage.
public static UserPrincipal QueryAD(string UserName)
{
PrincipalContext context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "Aeth", "user", "password");
// Without creds if the account running the code is already a domain account
//PrincipalContext context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "Aeth");
// You can search the account by SamAccountName, DistinguishedName, UserPrincipalName or SID
return UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(context, IdentityType.Name, UserName);
}
public void SaveUser(SearchRolesViewModel objSearchRolesViewModel, string userID)
{
UserPrincipal user = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id);
USERACCOUNT objUserAccount = new USERACCOUNT
{
HPID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserHealthPlans),
DOMAIN = "Aeth",
NTUSERID = objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id,
ROLEID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.UserRole),
FIRSTNAME = user.GivenName, // Get FirstName
LASTNAME = user.Surname, // Get LastName
EMAIL = user.EmailAddress, // Get Email Address
ACTIVE = user.Enabled, // Get User Status
DEFAULTPLANID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserPrimaryHealthPlan),
CREATEID = userID,
CREATEDATE = DateTime.Now,
UPDATEID = userID,
UPDATEDATE = DateTime.Now
};
_context.USERACCOUNTs.Add(objUserAccount);
_context.SaveChanges();
}

Following is your code that uses DirectoryEntry method. Make sure you add credentials if you are running this code with account that does not have access to AD.
Method to search AD
public DirectoryEntry QueryAD(string UserName)
{
try
{
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher
{
SearchRoot = new DirectoryEntry(),
//start searching from local domain
Filter = "(&" +
"(objectClass=user)" +
"(name=" + UserName + "))" // This is Username
};
// start searching
return ds.FindOne().GetDirectoryEntry();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new ApplicationException("error occured while querying AD");
}
}
Method to Check if Account is Active
private bool IsActive(DirectoryEntry de)
{
if (de.NativeGuid == null) return false;
int flags = (int)de.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value;
return !Convert.ToBoolean(flags & 0x0002);
}
Method to Save the User to your DB
public void SaveUser(SearchRolesViewModel objSearchRolesViewModel, string userID)
{
DirectoryEntry userEntry = QueryAD(objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id);
if (userEntry == null)
{
//Handle error where No User was Found.
throw new ApplicationException("User Not Found");
}
USERACCOUNT objUserAccount = new USERACCOUNT
{
HPID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserHealthPlans),
DOMAIN = "Aeth",
NTUSERID = objSearchRolesViewModel.User_Id,
ROLEID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.UserRole),
FIRSTNAME = userEntry.Properties["givenname"].Value.ToString(),
LASTNAME = userEntry.Properties["sn"].Value.ToString(),
EMAIL = userEntry.Properties["mail"].Value.ToString(),
ACTIVE = IsActive(userEntry),
DEFAULTPLANID = Convert.ToInt32(objSearchRolesViewModel.NewUserPrimaryHealthPlan),
CREATEID = userID,
CREATEDATE = DateTime.Now,
UPDATEID = userID,
UPDATEDATE = DateTime.Now
};
_context.USERACCOUNTs.Add(objUserAccount);
_context.SaveChanges();
}

Active Directory - Get All Users Belonging to a Manager

I have this little problem.
I want to get all the users that has the same manager.
Currently, I have code that can do this, but the problem is that it gets ALL the users. I then loop through all the users, and match the manager.
The problem with this is that this will take a bit too long when there is, let's say, 100 000 users.
My current code:
UserPrincipal managerP = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(GetPrincipalContext(), IdentityType.SamAccountName, sAMManager);
if (managerP != null)
{
using (UserPrincipal user = new UserPrincipal(GetPrincipalContext()))
{
using (PrincipalSearcher search = new PrincipalSearcher(user))
{
search.QueryFilter = user;
foreach (UserPrincipal userP in search.FindAll())
{
if (managerP.SamAccountName.ToLower() == sAMManager.ToLower())
{
//Add 'userP' to list.
}
}
}
}
}
How can I change this, so that I can get all the users belonging to a manager, instead of getting them all first?

You can do this with a simple LDAP query:
using (DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher(new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://contoso.com")))
{
searcher.Filter = "(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(manager=CN=John Doe,CN=Users,DC=contoso,DC=com))";
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.AddRange(new string[] { "givenName", "sn", "sAMAccountName" });
foreach (SearchResult item in searcher.FindAll())
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("User {0} {1} ({2}) works for John Doe", item.Properties["givenName"].ToString(), item.Properties["sn"].ToString(), item.Properties["sAMAccountName"].ToString()));
}
}

C# Search Active Directory error

I am pretty new to using C# and this is my second time using it with active directory. I keep getting the error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Below is my code. I know that my null reference is in the line var result = searcher.FindOne(); I am unsure of what I need to do to fix this.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> userList = new List<string>();
try
{
string[] newUsers = { List of users is here ex: jsmith#xyz.com, bsmith#xyz.com, ... };
PrincipalContext AD = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "xyz.com");
UserPrincipal u = new UserPrincipal(AD);
PrincipalSearcher search = new PrincipalSearcher(u);
DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher();
foreach (string x in newUsers)
{
searcher.Filter = string.Format("(&(objectCategory=person)(anr={0}))", x);
var result = searcher.FindOne();
userList.Add(string.Format("{0} {1}", result.Properties["DisplayName"][0].ToString(), result.Properties["Company"][0].ToString()));
search.Dispose();
}
foreach(string y in userList)
{
Console.WriteLine(y);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error: " + e.Message);
}
File.WriteAllLines(file location, userList);
}

Your problem is that you're declaring PrincipalSearcher and DirectorySearcher, yet you're only populating the PrincipalSearcher with UserPrincipal object.
...
UserPrincipal u = new UserPrincipal(AD);
PrincipalSearcher search = new PrincipalSearcher(u);
...
However, your DirectorySearcher object searcher is empty.
DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher();
In foreach loop you're searching for one user using DirectorySearcher object not PrincipalSearcher:
var result = searcher.FindOne();
The above line will always return null. You need to populate DirectorySearcher.
DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher(/*need a DirectoryEntry*/);
I would suggest you take full advantage of UserPrincipal class. It seems that you want to search for users in Active Directory and you know their UserPrincipal names.
using (PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "yourdomain.com"))
{
string [] newUsers; //need to declare list of new users
foreach (string user in newUsers)
{
using (UserPrincipal newUser = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.UserPrincipalName, user))
{
if (newUser != null)
{
//do what you need to do
//newUser will contain all info on a particular user
}
}
}
}

As several commenters have noted, your code is not handling the situation where no user is found by DirectorySearcher.FindOne - and, as noted in the MSDN documentation, FindOne returns null if no user is found:
If more than one entry is found during the search, only the first entry is returned. If no entries are found to match the search criteria, a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic) is returned.
So you'll need to handle the case where the user you're looking for isn't there:
foreach (string x in newUsers)
{
Console.WriteLine("looking for user {0}", x);
searcher.Filter = string.Format("(&(objectCategory=person)(anr={0}))", x);
var result = searcher.FindOne();
if (result == null)
{
userList.Add(String.Format("user {0} not found!", x));
}
else
{
userList.Add(string.Format("{0} {1}", result.Properties["DisplayName"][0].ToString(), result.Properties["Company"][0].ToString()));
}
search.Dispose();
}

Search for a Local user in a local group that does not have Foreign Security policy

Basically I found a post that has a solution for a problem we are having in our application and the solution was:
private static void listGroupMembers(string groupDistinguishedName, PrincipalContext ctx, List<UserPrincipal> users)
{
DirectoryEntry group = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + groupDistinguishedName);
foreach (string dn in group.Properties["member"])
{
DirectoryEntry gpMemberEntry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + dn);
System.DirectoryServices.PropertyCollection userProps = gpMemberEntry.Properties;
object[] objCls = (userProps["objectClass"].Value) as object[];
if (objCls.Contains("group"))
listGroupMembers(userProps["distinguishedName"].Value as string, ctx, users);
if (!objCls.Contains("foreignSecurityPrincipal"))
{
UserPrincipal u = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.DistinguishedName, dn);
if(u!=null) // u==null for any other types except users
users.Add(u);
}
}
}
However I am trying to search a Local group so if I change the directory entry to say:
DirectoryEntry groupEntry =
new DirectoryEntry(string.Format("WinNT://{0}/{1},group", Environment.MachineName, groupName));
Then it doesn't work and it says that the property doesn't exist. How can I do the above but for a local group and user?

Basically to fix this I ended up doing:
protected bool IsUserInLocalGroup(string userName, string group)
{
using (DirectoryEntry computerEntry = new DirectoryEntry("WinNT://{0},computer".FormatWith(Environment.MachineName)))
using(DirectoryEntry groupEntry = computerEntry.Children.Find(group, "Group"))
{
foreach (object o in (IEnumerable)groupEntry.Invoke("Members"))
{
using (DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(o))
{
if (entry.SchemaClassName.Equals("User", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) && entry.Name.Equals(userName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
}

How to get all the AD groups for a particular user?

I checked this post already. But it doesn't answer my question. I want to get all the active directory groups in which a particular user is a member.
I've written the following code. But I'm not able to proceed further as I don't know how to give the filter and how to access the properties.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://mydomain.com");
DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher(de);
searcher.Filter = "(&(ObjectClass=group))";
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("distinguishedName");
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("sAMAccountName");
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name");
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("objectSid");
SearchResultCollection results = searcher.FindAll();
int i = 1;
foreach (SearchResult res in results)
{
Console.WriteLine("Result" + Convert.ToString(i++));
DisplayProperties("distinguishedName", res);
DisplayProperties("sAMAccouontName", res);
DisplayProperties("name", res);
DisplayProperties("objectSid", res);
Console.WriteLine();
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static void DisplayProperties(string property, SearchResult res)
{
Console.WriteLine("\t" + property);
ResultPropertyValueCollection col = res.Properties[property];
foreach (object o in col)
{
Console.WriteLine("\t\t" + o.ToString());
}
}
}
Any ideas?

You should use System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement. It's much easier. Here is a nice code project article giving you an overview on all the classes in this DLL.
As you pointed out, your current approach doesn't find out the primary group. Actually, it's much worse than you thought. There are some more cases that it doesn't work, like the domain local group from another domain. You can check here for details. Here is how the code looks like if you switch to use System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement. The following code can find the immediate groups this user assigned to, which includes the primary group.
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(new PrincipalContext (ContextType.Domain, "mydomain.com"), IdentityType.SamAccountName, "username");
foreach (GroupPrincipal group in user.GetGroups())
{
Console.Out.WriteLine(group);
}

Use tokenGroups:
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher();
ds.Filter = String.Format("(&(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName={0}))", username);
SearchResult sr = ds.FindOne();
DirectoryEntry user = sr.GetDirectoryEntry();
user.RefreshCache(new string[] { "tokenGroups" });
for (int i = 0; i < user.Properties["tokenGroups"].Count; i++) {
SecurityIdentifier sid = new SecurityIdentifier((byte[]) user.Properties["tokenGroups"][i], 0);
NTAccount nt = (NTAccount)sid.Translate(typeof(NTAccount));
//do something with the SID or name (nt.Value)
}
Note: this only gets security groups

Just query the "memberOf" property and iterate though the return, example:
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("memberOf");
StringBuilder groupNames = new StringBuilder(); //stuff them in | delimited
SearchResult result = search.FindOne();
int propertyCount = result.Properties["memberOf"].Count;
String dn;
int equalsIndex, commaIndex;
for (int propertyCounter = 0; propertyCounter < propertyCount;
propertyCounter++)
{
dn = (String)result.Properties["memberOf"][propertyCounter];
equalsIndex = dn.IndexOf("=", 1);
commaIndex = dn.IndexOf(",", 1);
if (-1 == equalsIndex)
{
return null;
}
groupNames.Append(dn.Substring((equalsIndex + 1),
(commaIndex - equalsIndex) - 1));
groupNames.Append("|");
}
return groupNames.ToString();
This just stuffs the group names into the groupNames string, pipe delimited, but when you spin through you can do whatever you want with them

This code works even faster (two 1.5 faster than my previous version):
public List<String> GetUserGroups(WindowsIdentity identity)
{
List<String> groups = new List<String>();
String userName = identity.Name;
int pos = userName.IndexOf(#"\");
if (pos > 0) userName = userName.Substring(pos + 1);
PrincipalContext domain = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "riomc.com");
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(domain, IdentityType.SamAccountName, userName); // NGeodakov
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://RIOMC.com");
DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher(de);
search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=group)(member=" + user.DistinguishedName + "))";
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("cn");
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("samaccountname");
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("memberOf");
SearchResultCollection results = search.FindAll();
foreach (SearchResult sr in results)
{
GetUserGroupsRecursive(groups, sr, de);
}
return groups;
}
public void GetUserGroupsRecursive(List<String> groups, SearchResult sr, DirectoryEntry de)
{
if (sr == null) return;
String group = (String)sr.Properties["cn"][0];
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(group))
{
group = (String)sr.Properties["samaccountname"][0];
}
if (!groups.Contains(group))
{
groups.Add(group);
}
DirectorySearcher search;
SearchResult sr1;
String name;
int equalsIndex, commaIndex;
foreach (String dn in sr.Properties["memberof"])
{
equalsIndex = dn.IndexOf("=", 1);
if (equalsIndex > 0)
{
commaIndex = dn.IndexOf(",", equalsIndex + 1);
name = dn.Substring(equalsIndex + 1, commaIndex - equalsIndex - 1);
search = new DirectorySearcher(de);
search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=group)(|(cn=" + name + ")(samaccountname=" + name + ")))";
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("cn");
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("samaccountname");
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("memberOf");
sr1 = search.FindOne();
GetUserGroupsRecursive(groups, sr1, de);
}
}
}

This is how I list all the groups (direct and indirect) for a specific Distinguished Name:
The string 1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941 specifies LDAP_MATCHING_RULE_IN_CHAIN.
This rule is limited to filters that apply to the DN. This is a special "extended" match operator that walks the chain of ancestry in objects all the way to the root until it finds a match.
This method is 25 times faster than the UserPrincipal.GetGroups() method in my testing.
Note: The primary group (typically Domain Users) is not returned by this or GetGroups() method. To get the primary group name too, I've confirmed this method works.
Additionally, I found this list of LDAP filters extremely useful.
private IEnumerable<string> GetGroupsForDistinguishedName(DirectoryEntry domainDirectoryEntry, string distinguishedName)
{
var groups = new List<string>();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(distinguishedName))
{
var getGroupsFilterForDn = $"(&(objectCategory=group)(member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:={distinguishedName}))";
using (DirectorySearcher dirSearch = new DirectorySearcher(domainDirectoryEntry))
{
dirSearch.Filter = getGroupsFilterForDn;
dirSearch.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name");
using (var results = dirSearch.FindAll())
{
foreach (SearchResult result in results)
{
if (result.Properties.Contains("name"))
groups.Add((string)result.Properties["name"][0]);
}
}
}
}
return groups;
}

The following example is from the Code Project article, (Almost) Everything In Active Directory via C#:
// userDn is a Distinguished Name such as:
// "LDAP://CN=Joe Smith,OU=Sales,OU=domain,OU=com"
public ArrayList Groups(string userDn, bool recursive)
{
ArrayList groupMemberships = new ArrayList();
return AttributeValuesMultiString("memberOf", userDn,
groupMemberships, recursive);
}
public ArrayList AttributeValuesMultiString(string attributeName,
string objectDn, ArrayList valuesCollection, bool recursive)
{
DirectoryEntry ent = new DirectoryEntry(objectDn);
PropertyValueCollection ValueCollection = ent.Properties[attributeName];
IEnumerator en = ValueCollection.GetEnumerator();
while (en.MoveNext())
{
if (en.Current != null)
{
if (!valuesCollection.Contains(en.Current.ToString()))
{
valuesCollection.Add(en.Current.ToString());
if (recursive)
{
AttributeValuesMultiString(attributeName, "LDAP://" +
en.Current.ToString(), valuesCollection, true);
}
}
}
}
ent.Close();
ent.Dispose();
return valuesCollection;
}
Just call the Groups method with the Distinguished Name for the user, and pass in the bool flag to indicate if you want to include nested / child groups memberships in your resulting ArrayList:
ArrayList groups = Groups("LDAP://CN=Joe Smith,OU=Sales,OU=domain,OU=com", true);
foreach (string groupName in groups)
{
Console.WriteLine(groupName);
}
If you need to do any serious level of Active Directory programming in .NET I highly recommend bookmarking & reviewing the Code Project article I mentioned above.

Here is the code that worked for me:
public ArrayList GetBBGroups(WindowsIdentity identity)
{
ArrayList groups = new ArrayList();
try
{
String userName = identity.Name;
int pos = userName.IndexOf(#"\");
if (pos > 0) userName = userName.Substring(pos + 1);
PrincipalContext domain = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "riomc.com");
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(domain, IdentityType.SamAccountName, userName);
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://RIOMC.com");
DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher(de);
search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=group)(member=" + user.DistinguishedName + "))";
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("samaccountname");
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("cn");
String name;
SearchResultCollection results = search.FindAll();
foreach (SearchResult result in results)
{
name = (String)result.Properties["samaccountname"][0];
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
{
name = (String)result.Properties["cn"][0];
}
GetGroupsRecursive(groups, de, name);
}
}
catch
{
// return an empty list...
}
return groups;
}
public void GetGroupsRecursive(ArrayList groups, DirectoryEntry de, String dn)
{
DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher(de);
search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=group)(|(samaccountname=" + dn + ")(cn=" + dn + ")))";
search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("memberof");
String group, name;
SearchResult result = search.FindOne();
if (result == null) return;
group = #"RIOMC\" + dn;
if (!groups.Contains(group))
{
groups.Add(group);
}
if (result.Properties["memberof"].Count == 0) return;
int equalsIndex, commaIndex;
foreach (String dn1 in result.Properties["memberof"])
{
equalsIndex = dn1.IndexOf("=", 1);
if (equalsIndex > 0)
{
commaIndex = dn1.IndexOf(",", equalsIndex + 1);
name = dn1.Substring(equalsIndex + 1, commaIndex - equalsIndex - 1);
GetGroupsRecursive(groups, de, name);
}
}
}
I measured it's performance in a loop of 200 runs against the code that uses the AttributeValuesMultiString recursive method; and it worked 1.3 times faster.
It might be so because of our AD settings. Both snippets gave the same result though.

I would like to say that Microsoft LDAP has some special ways to search recursively for all of memberships of a user.
The Matching Rule you can specify for the "member" attribute. In particular, using the Microsoft Exclusive LDAP_MATCHING_RULE_IN_CHAIN rule for "member" attribute allows recursive/nested membership searching. The rule is used when you add it after the member attribute. Ex. (member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:= XXXXX )
For the same Domain as the Account, The filter can use <SID=S-1-5-21-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX> instead of an Accounts DistinguishedName attribute which is very handy to use cross domain if needed. HOWEVER it appears you need to use the ForeignSecurityPrincipal <GUID=YYYY> as it will not resolve your SID as it appears the <SID=> tag does not consider ForeignSecurityPrincipal object type. You can use the ForeignSecurityPrincipal DistinguishedName as well.
Using this knowledge, you can LDAP query those hard to get memberships, such as the "Domain Local" groups an Account is a member of but unless you looked at the members of the group, you wouldn't know if user was a member.
//Get Direct+Indirect Memberships of User (where SID is XXXXXX)
string str = "(& (objectCategory=group)(member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=<SID=XXXXXX>) )";
//Get Direct+Indirect **Domain Local** Memberships of User (where SID is XXXXXX)
string str2 = "(& (objectCategory=group)(|(groupType=-2147483644)(groupType=4))(member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=<SID=XXXXXX>) )";
//TAA DAA
Feel free to try these LDAP queries after substituting the SID of a user you want to retrieve all group memberships of. I figure this is similiar if not the same query as what the PowerShell Command Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership uses behind the scenes. The command states "If you want to search for local groups in another domain, use the ResourceContextServer parameter to specify the alternate server in the other domain."
If you are familiar enough with C# and Active Directory, you should know how to perform an LDAP search using the LDAP queries provided.
Additional Documentation:
<SID> Binding String
<GUID> Binding String

If you have a LDAP connection with a username and password to connect to Active Directory, here is the code I used to connect properly:
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;
// ...
// Connection information
var connectionString = "LDAP://domain.com/DC=domain,DC=com";
var connectionUsername = "your_ad_username";
var connectionPassword = "your_ad_password";
// Get groups for this user
var username = "myusername";
// Split the LDAP Uri
var uri = new Uri(connectionString);
var host = uri.Host;
var container = uri.Segments.Count() >=1 ? uri.Segments[1] : "";
// Create context to connect to AD
var princContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, host, container, connectionUsername, connectionPassword);
// Get User
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(princContext, IdentityType.SamAccountName, username);
// Browse user's groups
foreach (GroupPrincipal group in user.GetGroups())
{
Console.Out.WriteLine(group.Name);
}

there is a helpers class based in curtisk response:
public static class ActiveDirectoryHelpers
{
private static readonly Regex keyValuePair = new Regex($"(?<key>[^=]+)=(?<value>[^,]+),?");
public enum X500DirectorySpecification
{
/// <summary>Common Name</summary>
CN,
/// <summary>Organizational Unit</summary>
OU,
/// <summary>Domain Component</summary>
DC
}
public static IEnumerable<string> GetUserMemberOfNodeValue(this PrincipalContext principalContext, string userName, X500DirectorySpecification node)
{
return principalContext.GetUserMemberOf(userName)
.SelectMany(memberOf =>
GetUserMemberOfKeyValues(memberOf).Where(item => item.Key == node.ToString()).Select(item => item.Value));
}
private static IEnumerable<string> GetUserMemberOf(this PrincipalContext principalContext, string userName)
{
using var user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(principalContext, userName);
IEnumerable<string> result = null;
if (user != null)
{
var directoryEntry = (DirectoryEntry)user.GetUnderlyingObject();
var directorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(directoryEntry);
directorySearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("memberOf");
result = directorySearcher.FindOne().Properties["memberOf"].Cast<string>();
}
return result ?? Enumerable.Empty<string>();
}
private static IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, string>> GetUserMemberOfKeyValues(string memberOfValue)
{
return keyValuePair.Matches(memberOfValue).OfType<Match>()
.Select(item => new KeyValuePair<string, string>(item.Groups["key"].Value.Trim(), item.Groups["value"].Value));
}
}

PrincipalContext pc1 = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "DomainName", UserAccountOU, UserName, Password);
UserPrincipal UserPrincipalID = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(pc1, IdentityType.SamAccountName, UserID);
searcher.Filter = "(&(ObjectClass=group)(member = " + UserPrincipalID.DistinguishedName + "));