Develop Reference

Trying to test LDAP-based authentication from forumsys?

I've not done any LDAP-based authentication before and also I've not worked with any LDAP server before. So I need a free online LDAP server to play with, I've found this https://www.forumsys.com/tutorials/integration-how-to/ldap/online-ldap-test-server/
However my code is not working (or the info there has become invalid, I'm not sure), the result of authen is always false, here is my code:
path = "ldap.forumsys.com:389/dc=example,dc=com";
using (var pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, null, path))
{
//this always returns false
var ok = pc.ValidateCredentials("read-only-admin", "password");
}
Could you make it work on your side? Or at least please assert that the info there is invalid, in that case if possible please give me some other info (from other free LDAP servers for testing).

I don't think the server is Active Directory. You can refer to this question for how to connect to a LDAP server in C#.
Second Edit:
Checked with MS people. They also suggest LdapConnection.
https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/31809
Edit:
I can use DirectoryEntry to bind to the server. I am not sure why PrincipalContext does not work, but you can try this way.
Here is a sample code for validating user and password.
Tested on .Net Core 2.1, with System.DirectoryServices package 4.5.0.
using System;
using System.DirectoryServices;
namespace LDAPTest
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string ldapServer = "LDAP://ldap.forumsys.com:389/dc=example,dc=com";
string userName = "cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com";
string password = "password";
var directoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry(ldapServer, userName, password, AuthenticationTypes.ServerBind);
// Bind to server with admin. Real life should use a service user.
object obj = directoryEntry.NativeObject;
if (obj == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Bind with admin failed!.");
Environment.Exit(1);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Bind with admin succeeded!");
}
// Search for the user first.
DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher(directoryEntry);
searcher.Filter = "(uid=riemann)";
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("*");
SearchResult rc = searcher.FindOne();
// First we should handle user not found.
// To simplify, skip it and try to bind to the user.
DirectoryEntry validator = new DirectoryEntry(ldapServer, "uid=riemann,dc=example,dc=com", password, AuthenticationTypes.ServerBind);
if (validator.NativeObject.Equals(null))
{
Console.WriteLine("Cannot bind to user!");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Bind with user succeeded!");
}
}
}
}
Reference:
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/forums/ldap-authentication2

I figure it out too, and having no LDAP knowledge I´ve come up with this.
The problem in your solution may be first, you are using "ldap://" instead of "LDAP://", since it was something I came into when coding this. But I use System.DirectoryServices library.
I tested against this magnificent free to test LDAP server
var path = "LDAP://ldap.forumsys.com:389/dc=example,dc=com";
var user = $#"uid={username},dc=example,dc=com";
var pass = "password";
var directoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry(path, user, pass, AuthenticationTypes.None);
var searcher = new DirectorySearcher(directoryEntry);
searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("*");
var searchResult = searcher.FindOne();
I don´t understand exactly what all of this lines does, however, and lookign for a solution I found some recommendations.
on the path the "LDAP://" string should be on block mayus.
in the user, sometimes you need to use "cn=username-admin" for validating admins, be sure to also set Authentication type to ServerBind.

It seems as if read-only-admin is not a valid user. Try replacing:
var ok = pc.ValidateCredentials("read-only-admin", "password");
with
var ok = pc.ValidateCredentials("tesla", "password");
If that does not work, the other other issue would be on the LDAP's server side.
A good option regardless is to set up an Amazon Web Services EC2 server (it is free) and load Windows Server onto it. This gives you your own server and you learn how to set up an LDAP server (which is pretty easy).

UserPrincipals.GetAuthorizationGroups An error (1301) occurred while enumerating the groups. After upgrading to Server 2012 Domain Controller

Research:
Similar Issue with workaround, but not actual solution to existing problem
Similar issue pointing to Microsoft End Point update as culprit
The above links are the most suited to my problem, I have also viewed every similar question listed by Stack Overflow upon creating this post, and only the above referenced questions fit my issue.
Background:
I have been using UserPrincipal.GetAuthorizationGroups for permissions for specific page access running IIS 7.5 on Server 2008 R2 in a C#.NET 4.0 web forms site for 2 and a half years. On May 15 2013 we removed a primary Domain controller running Server 2008 (not r2) and replaced it with a Server 2012 Domain Controller. The next day we started receiving the exception listed below.
I use Principal Context for Forms Authentication. The username/pass handshake succeeds and the auth cookie is properly set, but the subsequent Principal Context call that also calls UserPrincipal.GetAuthorizationGroups fails intermittently. We've resolved a few BPA issues that appeared in the Server 2012 Domain Controller but this has yet to resolve the issue. I also instituted a cron that runs on two separate servers. The two servers will fail at Group SID resolution at different times though they are running the same code base. (A dev environment and production environment).
The issue resolves itself temporarily upon web server reboot, and also on the dev server it will resolve itself after 12 hours of not functioning. The production server will usually stop functioning properly until a reboot without resolving itself.
At this point I am trying to refine the cron targeting specific Domain Controllers in the network as well as the new DC and using the standard LDAP query that is currently failing to yield more targeted exception times. Thus far we've found on one web server that there is no pattern to the days at which it fails, but it will recover within roughly 12 hours. The latest results show Group SID resolution failure between 8AM-8PM then it recovers, several days later it will fail at 8pm and recover at 8am then run fine for another 12 hours and fail again. We are hoping to see if it is just a specific server communication issue or to see if it is the entire set of Domain Controllers.
Exception:
Exception information:
Exception type: PrincipalOperationException
Exception message: An error (1301) occurred while enumerating the groups.
The group's SID could not be resolved.
at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.SidList.TranslateSids(String target, IntPtr[] pSids)
at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.SidList..ctor(SID_AND_ATTR[] sidAndAttr)
at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.AuthZSet..ctor(Byte[] userSid, NetCred credentials, ContextOptions contextOptions, String flatUserAuthority, StoreCtx userStoreCtx, Object userCtxBase)
at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.ADStoreCtx.GetGroupsMemberOfAZ(Principal p)
at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.UserPrincipal.GetAuthorizationGroups()
Question:
Given the above information, does anyone have any idea why decommissioning the Windows Server 2008 (not r2) and implementing a new Server 2012 DC would cause UserPrincipal.GetAuthorizationGroups to fail with the 1301 SID resolution error?
Ideas on eliminating possible causes would also be appreciated.
Disclaimer:
This is my first post to Stack Overflow, I often research here but have not joined in discussions until now. Forgive me if I should have posted elsewhere and feel free to point out better steps before posting.
UPDATE 13-JUN-2013:
On the 12th of June I addressed the possibility of items not disposed causing the issue.
The time frame has been too short to determine if the adjusted code has fixed the issue, but I will continue to update as we work towards a resolution such that maybe with any luck someone here can lend a hand.
Original Code
public bool isGroupMember(string userName, ArrayList groupList)
{
bool valid = false;
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, domain_server + ".domain.org:636", null, ContextOptions.Negotiate | ContextOptions.SecureSocketLayer);
// find the user in the identity store
UserPrincipal user =
UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(
ctx,
userName);
// get the groups for the user principal and
// store the results in a PrincipalSearchResult object
PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> groups =
user.GetAuthorizationGroups();
// display the names of the groups to which the
// user belongs
foreach (Principal group in groups)
{
foreach (string groupName in groupList)
{
if (group.ToString() == groupName)
{
valid = true;
}
}
}
return valid;
}
Updated Code
public bool isGroupMember(string userName, ArrayList groupList, string domain_server)
{
bool valid = false;
try
{
using (PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, domain_server + ".domain.org:636", null, ContextOptions.Negotiate | ContextOptions.SecureSocketLayer))
{
// find the user in the identity store
UserPrincipal user =
UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(
ctx,
userName);
try
{
// get the groups for the user principal and
// store the results in a PrincipalSearchResult object
using (PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> groups = user.GetAuthorizationGroups())
{
// display the names of the groups to which the
// user belongs
foreach (Principal group in groups)
{
foreach (string groupName in groupList)
{
if (group.ToString() == groupName)
{
valid = true;
}
}
group.Dispose();
}
}//end using-2
}
catch
{
log_gen("arbitrary info");
return false;
}
}//end using-1
}
catch
{
log_gen("arbitrary info");
return false;
}
return valid;
}

I have just run into this same issue and the info I have managed to track down may be helpful; as above we have seen this problem where the domain controller is running Server 2012 - firstly with a customer deployment and then replicated on our own network.
After some experimentation we found that our code would run fine on Server 2012, but hit the 1301 error code when the client system was running Server 2008. The key information about what was happening was found here:
MS blog translated from German
The hotfix referred to in the link below has fixed the problem on our test system
SID S-1-18-1 and SID S-1-18-2 can't be mapped
Hope this is helpful for someone! As many have noted this method call seems rather fragile and we will probably look at implementing some alternative approach before we hit other issues.
Gary

Here's my solution. It seems to work consistently well. Because the problem happens when iterating over the collection, I use a different approach when iterating in order to handle the exception without blocking the actual iterating:
private string[] GetUserRoles(string Username)
{
List<string> roles = new List<string>();
try
{
string domain = Username.Contains("\\") ? Username.Substring(0, Username.IndexOf("\\")) : string.Empty;
string username = Username.Contains("\\") ? Username.Substring(Username.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1) : Username;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(domain) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(username))
{
PrincipalContext principalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, domain);
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(principalContext, username);
if (user != null)
{
PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> groups = user.GetAuthorizationGroups();
int count = groups.Count();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
IEnumerable<Principal> principalCollection = groups.Skip(i).Take(1);
Principal principal = null;
try
{
principal = principalCollection.FirstOrDefault();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
//Error handling...
//Known exception - sometimes AD can't query a particular group, requires server hotfix?
//http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2830145
}
if (principal!=null && principal is GroupPrincipal)
{
GroupPrincipal groupPrincipal = (GroupPrincipal)principal;
if (groupPrincipal != null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(groupPrincipal.Name))
{
roles.Add(groupPrincipal.Name.Trim());
}
}
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
//Error handling...
}
return roles.ToArray();
}

We experienced this issue when our infrastructure team brought a 2012 Domain Controller online. We also had pre-2012 DCs in place and so we experienced the issue intermittently. We came up with a fix which I wanted to share - it has 2 parts.
First of all, install the hotfix mentioned by Gary Hill. This will resolve the following issue:
An error (1301) occurred while enumerating the groups. The group's SID could not be resolved.
We thought we were home free after installing this hotfix. However, after it was installed we got a different intermittent error. Certain groups that we were interrogating had a null sAMAccountName property. The actual property was populated in Active Directory but it was incorrectly being returned with a null value by the API. I presume this is a bug somewhere in the Active Directory API but I don't know any more than that.
Fortunately we were able to work around the issue by switching to use the group Name property instead of the sAMAccountName property. This worked for us. I believe, that sAMAccountName is effectively deprecated and exists only for backwards compatibility reasons. That being the case it seemed a reasonable change to make.
I enclose a cut down version of our GetRolesForUser code to demonstrate the change in place.
using (var context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, _domainName))
{
try
{
var p = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(context, IdentityType.SamAccountName, username);
if (p == null) throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity returned null for user: {0}, this can indicate a problem with one or more of the AD controllers", username));
var groups = p.GetAuthorizationGroups();
var domain = username.Substring(0, username.IndexOf(#"\", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).ToLower();
foreach (GroupPrincipal group in groups)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(group.Name))
{
var domainGroup = domain + #"\" + group.Name.ToLower();
if (_groupsToUse.Any(x => x.Equals(domainGroup, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)))
{
// Go through each application role defined and check if the AD domain group is part of it
foreach (string role in roleKeys)
{
string[] roleMembers = new [] { "role1", "role2" };
foreach (string member in roleMembers)
{
// Check if the domain group is part of the role
if (member.ToLower().Contains(domainGroup))
{
// Cache the Application Role (NOT the AD role)
results.Add(role);
}
}
}
}
}
group.Dispose();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new ProviderException("Unable to query Active Directory.", ex);
}
}
Hope that helps.

I experienced error code 1301 with UserPrincipal.GetAuthorizationGroups while using a brand new virtual development domain which contained 2 workstations and 50 users/groups (many of which are the built in ones). We were running Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials with two Windows 8.1 Enterprise workstations joined to the domain.
I was able to recursively obtain a list of a user's group membership using the following code:
class ADGroupSearch
{
List<String> groupNames;
public ADGroupSearch()
{
this.groupNames = new List<String>();
}
public List<String> GetGroups()
{
return this.groupNames;
}
public void AddGroupName(String groupName)
{
this.groupNames.Add(groupName);
}
public List<String> GetListOfGroupsRecursively(String samAcctName)
{
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, System.Environment.UserDomainName);
Principal principal = Principal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.SamAccountName, samAcctName);
if (principal == null)
{
return GetGroups();
}
else
{
PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> searchResults = principal.GetGroups();
if (searchResults != null)
{
foreach (GroupPrincipal sr in searchResults)
{
if (!this.groupNames.Contains(sr.Name))
{
AddGroupName(sr.Name);
}
Principal p = Principal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.SamAccountName, sr.SamAccountName);
try
{
GetMembersForGroup(p);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//ignore errors and continue
}
}
}
return GetGroups();
}
}
private void GetMembersForGroup(Principal group)
{
if (group != null && typeof(GroupPrincipal) == group.GetType())
{
GetListOfGroupsRecursively(group.SamAccountName);
}
}
private bool IsGroup(Principal principal)
{
return principal.StructuralObjectClass.ToLower().Equals("group");
}
}

I'm in an environment with multiple domain forests and trusts. I have pretty much this exact same code running on a web site form used to perform user security group lookups across the different domains.
I get this exact error in one of the very large domains where group membership can include 50+ different groups. It works fine in other domains forests.
In my research I found a thread that looks unrelated, but actually has the same stack trace. It is for a remote application running on SBS. The thread mentions that the error is caused by unresolvable SIDS in a group. I believe these would be what are known as "tombstoned" SIDS in active directory. See the thread here.
The thread suggests that finding the tombstoned enteries and removing them from the groups solves the problem. Is it possible the error you are receiving is because SIDS are getting tombstoned every 12 hours by a separate unrelated process? Ultimately, I believe this is a bug in the framework, and that the method should not crash because of tombstoned/unresolvable SIDS.
Good luck!

If anyone is interested this is a VB.NET version of the same code.
Few things you have to do before this code can work
1) You have to reference the assembly System.DirectoryServices
2) Make sure to pass "theusername" variable without the domain, so if your domain is "GIS" and your username is "Hussein" Windows generally authenticate you as GIS\Hussein. So you have to send in just purely the username "Hussein". I worked out the case sensitive stuff.
3) The method GetGroupsNew takes a username and returns a list of groups
4) The method isMemberofnew takes a username and a group and verifies that this user is part of that group or not, this is the one I was interested in.
Private Function getGroupsNew(theusername As String) As List(Of String)
Dim lstGroups As New List(Of String)
Try
Dim allDomains = Forest.GetCurrentForest().Domains.Cast(Of Domain)()
Dim allSearcher = allDomains.[Select](Function(domain)
Dim searcher As New DirectorySearcher(New DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + domain.Name))
searcher.Filter = [String].Format("(&(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(userPrincipalName=*{0}*)))", theusername)
Return searcher
End Function)
Dim directoryEntriesFound = allSearcher.SelectMany(Function(searcher) searcher.FindAll().Cast(Of SearchResult)().[Select](Function(result) result.GetDirectoryEntry()))
Dim memberOf = directoryEntriesFound.[Select](Function(entry)
Using entry
Return New With { _
Key .Name = entry.Name, _
Key .GroupName = DirectCast(entry.Properties("MemberOf").Value, Object()).[Select](Function(obj) obj.ToString()) _
}
End Using
End Function)
For Each user As Object In memberOf
For Each groupName As Object In user.GroupName
lstGroups.Add(groupName)
Next
Next
Return lstGroups
Catch ex As Exception
Throw
End Try
End Function
Private Function isMemberofGroupNew(theusername As String, thegroupname As String) As Boolean
Try
Dim lstGroups As List(Of String) = getGroupsNew(theusername)
For Each sGroup In lstGroups
If sGroup.ToLower.Contains(thegroupname.ToLower) Then Return True
Next
Return False
Catch ex As Exception
Throw
End Try
End Function

we had a similar issue after upgrading the domain controller to 2012. Suddenly my call to user.GetAuthorizationGroups() started failing; I was getting the same exception you were (error 1301). So, I changed it to user.GetGroups(). That worked for a little while, then started failing intermittently on "bad username or password". My latest workaround appears to fix it, for the moment at least. Instead of calling either of those, after constructing the user object, I also construct a group object, one for each group I want to see if the user is a member of. ie, "user.IsMemberOf(group)". That seems to work.
try
{
using (HostingEnvironment.Impersonate())
{
using (var principalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "MYDOMAIN"))
{
using (var user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(principalContext, userName))
{
if (user == null)
{
Log.Debug("UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity failed for userName = " + userName + ", thus not authorized!");
isAuthorized = false;
}
if (isAuthorized)
{
firstName = user.GivenName;
lastName = user.Surname;
// so this code started failing:
// var groups = user.GetGroups();
// adGroups.AddRange(from #group in groups where
// #group.Name.ToUpper().Contains("MYSEARCHSTRING") select #group.Name);
// so the following workaround, which calls, instead,
// "user.IsMemberOf(group)",
// appears to work (for now at least). Will monitor for issues.
// test membership in SuperUsers
const string superUsersGroupName = "MyApp-SuperUsers";
using (var superUsers = GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(principalContext, superUsersGroupName))
{
if (superUsers != null && user.IsMemberOf(superUsers))
// add to the list of groups this user is a member of
// then do something with it later
adGroups.Add(superUsersGroupName);
}

I had same exception. If someone don't wanna used "LDAP", use this code. Cause I'm had nested groups, I'm used GetMembers(true) and it's little bit longer in time than GetMembers().
https://stackoverflow.com/a/27548271/1857271
or download fix from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2830145

Facing the same problem enumerating authorization groups and the patches noted in the answer did not apply to our web server.
Manually enumerating and ignoring the trouble causing groups is working well, however:
private static bool UserIsMember(string usr, string grp)
{
usr = usr.ToLower();
grp = grp.ToLower();
using (var pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "DOMAIN_NAME"))
{
using (var user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(pc, usr))
{
var isMember = false;
var authGroups = user?.GetAuthorizationGroups().GetEnumerator();
while (authGroups?.MoveNext() ?? false)
{
try
{
isMember = authGroups.Current.Name.ToLower().Contains(grp);
if (isMember) break;
}
catch
{
// ignored
}
}
authGroups?.Dispose();
return isMember;
}
}
}

I had the problem that if i am connected over VPN and use groups=UserPrincipal.GetGroups() then the Exception occures when iterating over the groups.
If someone want to read all groups of a user there is following possibility (which is faster than using GetGroups())
private IList<string> GetUserGroupsLDAP(string samAccountName)
{
var groupList = new List<string>();
var domainConnection = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + serverName, serverUser, serverUserPassword); // probably you don't need username and password
var samSearcher = new DirectorySearcher();
samSearcher.SearchRoot = domainConnection;
samSearcher.Filter = "(samAccountName=" + samAccountName + ")";
var samResult = samSearcher.FindOne();
if (samResult != null)
{
var theUser = samResult.GetDirectoryEntry();
theUser.RefreshCache(new string[] { "tokenGroups" });
var sidSearcher = new DirectorySearcher();
sidSearcher.SearchRoot = domainConnection;
sidSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name");
sidSearcher.Filter = CreateFilter(theUser);
foreach (SearchResult result in sidSearcher.FindAll())
{
groupList.Add((string)result.Properties["name"][0]);
}
}
return groupList;
}
private string CreateFilter(DirectoryEntry theUser)
{
string filter = "(|";
foreach (byte[] resultBytes in theUser.Properties["tokenGroups"])
{
var SID = new SecurityIdentifier(resultBytes, 0);
filter += "(objectSid=" + SID.Value + ")";
}
filter += ")";
return filter;
}

How to get all members of a local WinNT group?

When I retrieve members of a local WinNT group, someway somehow not all members are returned. I do add:
Active Directory users
Active Directory groups
Both successful (see picture), but only the users show up afterwards.
Question is:
What happens to added groups?
See last method in code sample 'GetMembers()'
Is this a known issue?
Any workaround available?
Many thanks!!
string _domainName = #"MYDOMAIN";
string _basePath = #"WinNT://MYDOMAIN/myserver";
string _userName = #"MYDOMAIN\SvcAccount";
string _password = #"********";
void Main()
{
CreateGroup("lg_TestGroup");
AddMember("lg_TestGroup", #"m.y.username");
AddMember("lg_TestGroup", #"Test_DomainGroup");
GetMembers("lg_TestGroup");
}
// Method added for reference.
void CreateGroup(string accountName)
{
using (DirectoryEntry rootEntry = new DirectoryEntry(_basePath, _userName, _password))
{
DirectoryEntry newEntry = rootEntry.Children.Add(accountName, "group");
newEntry.CommitChanges();
}
}
// Add Active Directory member to the local group.
void AddMember(string groupAccountName, string userName)
{
string path = string.Format(#"{0}/{1}", _basePath, groupAccountName);
using (DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(path, _userName, _password))
{
userName = string.Format("WinNT://{0}/{1}", _domainName, userName);
entry.Invoke("Add", new object[] { userName });
entry.CommitChanges();
}
}
// Get all members of the local group.
void GetMembers(string groupAccountName)
{
string path = string.Format(#"{0}/{1}", _basePath, groupAccountName);
using (DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(path, _userName, _password))
{
foreach (object member in (IEnumerable) entry.Invoke("Members"))
{
using (DirectoryEntry memberEntry = new DirectoryEntry(member))
{
string accountName = memberEntry.Path.Replace(string.Format("WinNT://{0}/", _domainName), string.Format(#"{0}\", _domainName));
Console.WriteLine("- " + accountName); // No groups displayed...
}
}
}
}
Update #1
The sequence of the group members seems to be essential. As soon as the enumerator in GetMembers() stumbles on an Active Directory group, the remaining items are not displayed either. So if 'Test_DomainGroup' is listed first in this example, GetMembers() does not display anything at all.

I know it's an old question and you've likely found the answers you need, but just in case someone else stumbles accross this...
The WinNT ADSI provider you're using in your DirectoryEntry [ie. WinNT://MYDOMAIN/myserver] has pretty limited capabilities for working with Windows Domains that are not stuck in the old Windows 2000/NT functional level (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/322692).
In this case the problem is that the WinNT provider doesn't know how to handle Global or Universal security groups (which didn't exist in Windows NT and are activated as soon as you raise your domain level above Windows 2000 mixed mode). So, if any groups of those types are nested under a local group you'll generally have problems like the one you described.
The only solution/workaround I've found is to determine if the group you're enumerating is from a domain and if so, then switch to the LDAP provider which will display all members properly when invoking "Members".
Unfortunately I don't know of an "easy" way to just switch from using the WinNT provider to using the LDAP provider using the DirectoryEntry you already have bound to the WinNT provider. So, in the projects I've worked on, I generally prefer to get the SID of the current WinNT object and then use LDAP to search for domain objects with that same SID.
For Windows 2003+ domains you can convert your SID byte array to the usual SDDL format (S-1-5-21...) and then bind to an object with a matching SID using something like:
Byte[] SIDBytes = (Byte[])memberEntry.Properties["objectSID"].Value;
System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier SID = new System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier(SIDBytes, 0);
memberEntry.Dispose();
memberEntry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + _domainName + "/<SID=" + SID.ToString() + ">");
For Windows 2000 domains you can't bind directly to an object by SID. So, you have to convert your SID byte array to an array of the hex values with a "\" prefix (\01\06\05\16\EF\A2..) and then use the DirectorySearcher to find an object with a matching SID. A method to do this would look something like:
public DirectoryEntry FindMatchingSID(Byte[] SIDBytes, String Win2KDNSDomainName)
{
using (DirectorySearcher Searcher = new DirectorySearcher("LDAP://" + Win2KDNSDomainName))
{
System.Text.StringBuilder SIDByteString = new System.Text.StringBuilder(SIDBytes.Length * 3);
for (Int32 sidByteIndex = 0; sidByteIndex < SIDBytes.Length; sidByteIndex++)
SIDByteString.AppendFormat("\\{0:x2}", SIDBytes[sidByteIndex]);
Searcher.Filter = "(objectSid=" + SIDByteString.ToString() + ")";
SearchResult result = Searcher.FindOne();
if (result == null)
throw new Exception("Unable to find an object using \"" + Searcher.Filter + "\".");
else
return result.GetDirectoryEntry();
}
}

Create Active Directory user in .NET (C#)

I need to create a new user in Active Directory. I have found several examples like the following:
using System;
using System.DirectoryServices;
namespace test {
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
try {
string path = "LDAP://OU=x,DC=y,DC=com";
string username = "johndoe";
using (DirectoryEntry ou = new DirectoryEntry(path)) {
DirectoryEntry user = ou.Children.Add("CN=" + username, "user");
user.Properties["sAMAccountName"].Add(username);
ou.CommitChanges();
}
}
catch (Exception exc) {
Console.WriteLine(exc.Message);
}
}
}
}
When I run this code I get no errors, but no new user is created.
The account I'm running the test with has sufficient privileges to create a user in the target Organizational Unit.
Am I missing something (possibly some required attribute of the user object)?
Any ideas why the code does not give exceptions?
EDIT
The following worked for me:
int NORMAL_ACCOUNT = 0x200;
int PWD_NOTREQD = 0x20;
DirectoryEntry user = ou.Children.Add("CN=" + username, "user");
user.Properties["sAMAccountName"].Value = username;
user.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value = NORMAL_ACCOUNT | PWD_NOTREQD;
user.CommitChanges();
So there were actually a couple of problems:
CommitChanges must be called on user (thanks Rob)
The password policy was preventing the user to be created (thanks Marc)

I think you are calling CommitChanges on the wrong DirectoryEntry. In the MSDN documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.directoryservices.directoryentries.add.aspx) it states the following (emphasis added by me)
You must call the CommitChanges method on the new entry to make the creation permanent. When you call this method, you can then set mandatory property values on the new entry. The providers each have different requirements for properties that need to be set before a call to the CommitChanges method is made. If those requirements are not met, the provider might throw an exception. Check with your provider to determine which properties must be set before committing changes.
So if you change your code to user.CommitChanges() it should work, if you need to set more properties than just the account name then you should get an exception.
Since you're currently calling CommitChanges() on the OU which hasn't been altered there will be no exceptions.

Assuming your OU path OU=x,DC=y,DC=com really exists - it should work :-)
Things to check:
you're adding a value to the "samAccountName" - why don't you just set its value:
user.Properties["sAMAccountName"].Value = username;
Otherwise you might end up with several samAccountNames - and that won't work.....
you're not setting the userAccountControl property to anything - try using:
user.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value = 512; // normal account
do you have multiple domain controllers in your org? If you, and you're using this "server-less" binding (not specifying any server in the LDAP path), you could be surprised where the user gets created :-) and it'll take several minutes up to half an hour to synchronize across the whole network
do you have a strict password policy in place? Maybe that's the problem. I recall we used to have to create the user with the "doesn't require password" option first, do a first .CommitChanges(), then create a powerful enough password, set it on the user, and remove that user option.
Marc

Check the below code
DirectoryEntry ouEntry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://OU=TestOU,DC=TestDomain,DC=local");
for (int i = 3; i < 6; i++)
{
try
{
DirectoryEntry childEntry = ouEntry.Children.Add("CN=TestUser" + i, "user");
childEntry.CommitChanges();
ouEntry.CommitChanges();
childEntry.Invoke("SetPassword", new object[] { "password" });
childEntry.CommitChanges();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
}

What is the best way to get the current user's SID?

Prerequisite Detail
Working in .NET 2.0.
The code is in a common library that could be called from ASP.Net, Windows Forms, or a Console application.
Running in a Windows Domain on a corporate network.
The Question
What is the best way to get the current user's SID? I'm not talking about the identity that is executing the application, but the user who is accessing the interface. In background applications and desktop based applications this should be the identity actually executing the application, but in ASP.Net (without impersionation) this should be the HttpContext.Current.User SID.
The Current Method
This is what I've got right now. It just seems... wrong. It's nasty. Is there a better way to do this, or some built in class that does it for you?
public static SecurityIdentifier SID
{
get
{
WindowsIdentity identity = null;
if (HttpContext.Current == null)
{
identity = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();
}
else
{
identity = HttpContext.Current.User.Identity as WindowsIdentity;
}
return identity.User;
}
}

I don't think there is a better way at getting at this info--you've got to get at the WindowsPrincipal somehow and .NET's rather clean API abstracts that behind the User object. I'd just leave this nice and wrapped up in a method and call it a day.
Well, ok, there is one thing you should do (unless your web users are always going to be WindowsIdentity), which would be to check for null identity and handle it according to whatever rules you have.

Without the use of third-party libraries This code will give correct results, if the user changed his user name.
String SID = "";
string currentUserName = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name.ToString();
RegistryKey regDir = Registry.LocalMachine;
using (RegistryKey regKey = regDir.OpenSubKey(#"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\SessionData", true))
{
if (regKey != null)
{
string[] valueNames = regKey.GetSubKeyNames();
for (int i = 0; i < valueNames.Length; i++)
{
using (RegistryKey key = regKey.OpenSubKey(valueNames[i], true))
{
string[] names = key.GetValueNames();
for (int e = 0; e < names.Length; e++)
{
if (names[e] == "LoggedOnSAMUser")
{
if (key.GetValue(names[e]).ToString() == currentUserName)
SID = key.GetValue("LoggedOnUserSID").ToString();
}
}
}
}
}
}MessageBox.Show(SID);

The WindowsIdentity class is the "built in class that does it for you". You've got as simple a solution as you're going to get really, as long as you have a valid WindowsIdentity to work with.
Alternatively, if you have the username of the user in question and you want to get the SID directly from AD, you can build your own library to use the DirectoryServices namespace and retrieve the DirectoryEntry for your user (this is a fairly complicated process as DirectoryServices is tricky). You can even use LDAP to get it if you have a need.

//the current user
WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Owner
Returns the security identifier (SID) in SDDL format
you know them as S-1-5-9.
WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Owner.ToString()
Returns the account domain security identifier (SID)
If the SID does not represent a Windows account SID, this
property returns null
WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Owner.AccountDomainSid
You could use this as:
_pipeSecurity = new PipeSecurity();
var sid = new SecurityIdentifier(WellKnownSidType.BuiltinUsersSid, WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Owner);
var audid = new PipeAuditRule(sid, PipeAccessRights.FullControl, AuditFlags.Failure | AuditFlags.Success);
var access = new PipeAccessRule(sid, PipeAccessRights.ReadWrite, AccessControlType.Allow);
_pipeSecurity.AddAuditRule(audid);
_pipeSecurity.AddAccessRule(access);