Active Directory answers any search based at a domain root with continuation
references (CN=Configuration, DC=ForestDnsZones, ...). With referral following
disabled -- the default, and what we want, since chasing one would re-bind
somewhere we never authenticated -- Novell surfaces each by throwing
LdapReferralException from Next().
That escaped NovellLdapConnection.Search, and LdapAuthService maps a failed
search to ServiceAccountBindFailed. So every login against
SearchBase = DC=nam,DC=zimmer,DC=com failed system-side on BOTH DCs in ~546 ms
while the directory, the credentials and the service account were all healthy.
Identical on each endpoint, so failover could not help either.
A continuation reference is a pointer to another naming context, never a
statement that this search failed, so the loop now skips them and continues --
returning exactly the entries in the naming context we bound to. Extracted as
ReadEntries(ILdapSearchResults) so the handling is unit-testable through the
Novell seam without a live directory. A 1000-referral cap guards a client that
throws without advancing, which would otherwise spin forever inside a
fail-closed auth path.
Non-referral faults still propagate untouched: swallowing those would turn
"the directory is broken" into "no such user", which is the wrong answer to
give about someone's credentials.
7 tests, 6 verified red against the pre-fix code; the seventh is the
non-referral control that must stay green either way. Suite 257/0, 2 skipped.
Live-proven against the ZB NAM domain root before and after.
Joseph Doherty
1f8ab8e3b3