Overview#

Distinguished Name Case Sensitivity is dependent on the LDAP Server Implementation and the LDAP Protocol Exchange you are performing.

During a bind Request, the Distinguished Name SHOULD NOT be case sensitive regardless of the makeup of the attributes (RDNs) within the Distinguished Name.

During a Search Request Distinguished Name Case Sensitivity is dependent on the LDAP Server Implementation:

• Microsoft Active Directory - Distinguished Names are not case sensitive.
• eDirectory - Distinguished Names are not case sensitive, even if one of the naming attributes is case sensitive."

Compare Request and Search Request#

According to the LDAP RFC 4517 and the distinguishedNameMatch MatchingRule, each Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) which is part of the Distinguished Name Case Sensitivity should be evaluated independently. This implies if a RDN within the Distinguished Name is case-sensitive then the comparison should be done case-insensitive for that RDN. Although most common Distinguished Name attributes are case-insensitive (CommonName, Organization, , OrganizationDomain) it would be possible to have a case-insensitive RDN component within the Distinguished Name which should be evaluated in a case-sensitive fashion according to the MatchingRule that applies ot the LDAPSyntaxes.

More Information#

There might be more information for this subject on one of the following:

• DN Syntax
• Distinguished Names

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• [#1] - http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=101405&seqNum=7 - based on information obtained 2016-09-13-