CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#web-servicesactive-directorydirectoryservices
smr5
smr5

Reputation: 2793

Get GUID or Native GUID from Active Directory

I'm writing a web service that checks if the user exists in Active Directory and if the user account is enabled. Once it checks that, I then go ahead validate their user account. Once they successfully enter username and password, I would like to get the GUID or NativeGuid for the person I'm authenticating. I would like to use GUID or NativeGUID to build a relationship inside SQL Server database.

Here's the approach I'm taking:

public string isAuthenticated (string serverName, string userName, string pwd)
{
    string _serverName, _userName, _pwd;
    _serverName = serverName;
    _userName = userName;
    _pwd = pwd;

    string message;

    if (DoesUserExist (_userName) == true)
    {
        if (isActive(userName) == true)
        {
            try
            {
                DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(_serverName, _userName, _pwd);
                object nativeObject = entry.NativeObject;
                //issue is here
                string GUID = entry.Guid.ToString();
                string GUIDID = entry.NativeGuid;
                //end of issue
                message = "Successfully authenticated";
            }
            catch(DirectoryServicesCOMException ex)
            {
                    message = ex.Message;
            }
        }
        else
        {
                message = "Account is disabled";
        }
    }
    else
    {
        message = "There's an issue with your account.";
    }
    return message;      
}

When I try to get the GUID or NativeGUID it's returning me the same ID every single time for different users.

Is there a different approach I can take to get a UNIQUE ID for different objects in Active Directory?

Thanks

Upvotes: 5

Views: 6479

Answers (1)

marc_s
marc_s

Reputation: 754548

If you're on .NET 3.5 and up, you should check out the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement (S.DS.AM) namespace. Read all about it here:

Basically, you can define a domain context and easily find users and/or groups in AD:

// set up domain context
using (PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain))
{
    // find a user
    UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, _userName);

    if(user != null)
    {
       // get the GUID
       var objectGuid = user.Guid;
    }
}

The new S.DS.AM makes it really easy to play around with users and groups in AD! I don't have an AD lying around right now to test - but I hope this will indeed give you the user object's objectGuid property value.

Upvotes: 6

Related Questions