Performing search queries in Active Directory with Node.js Application - node.js

Question

The web application I'm developing involves accessing the Active Directory in order to perform the necessary authorization and authentication operations. The backend of my application involves nodeJS and it should be using Active Directory NPM package in order to access the Active Directory of my organization. I happen to be totally new to Active Directory and I'm a bit confused with the usage of Active Directory NPM package. I read the usage section of this package and it shows that it (the config object variable) requires the user to input four arguments which are as follows: url, baseDN, username & password. Below is the code in the usage section:
var ActiveDirectory = require('activedirectory');
var config = { url: 'ldap://dc.domain.com',
baseDN: 'dc=domain,dc=com',
username: 'username#domain.com',
password: 'password' }
var ad = new ActiveDirectory(config);
Out of these 4 parameters that are there in the config object, I'm not able to understand the role of the baseDN parameter and how do we have to use it when performing search queries in Active Directory. ( I have highlighted this parameter in the above image. )
It would be really great if someone could explain the usage of this particular parameter and how do we have to use it, when performing search queries in Active Directory.
Also, I was wondering if someone could refer me to a source or a tutorial that offers a clear explanation regarding the performing search queries in Active Directory with Nodejs Application. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

The concept of the base DN is not specific to just Node.js. It's the same for all LDAP queries, regardless of where you do it from.
DN stands for Distinguished Name, which is an identifier for each object in the directory. The base DN (or sometimes called "search root") defines the scope of your search. In most cases, the baseDN will be the root of your domain, like DC=example,DC=com (if your domain name is example.com). However, you can set it to a specific OU if you only want results from that OU: OU=Users,DC=example,DC=com.
In short: the search will only return results where the DN ends with the baseDN you specified.
For documentation on how performing queries in AD in Node.js, you have to refer to the packages that are created for that purpose, like the activedirectory package you found. However, that package is no longer maintained (hasn't been touched in 4 years). The activedirectory2 was forked from that and is actively maintained. You are better off using that.

Answer 2

We can search user using fineUser method in activeDirectory in the following way after user Authentication
var options = {
url: domaincontroller,
tlsOptions: {
ca: [fs.readFileSync(caCertRoot), fs.readFileSync(caCertIntermediate)],
rejectUnauthorized: true,
},
baseDN: "DC=domain,DC=com",
bindDN: `${req.body.username}#domain.com`,
bindCredentials: `${req.body.password}`,
filter: "(objectClass=*)",
attributes: { user: ["givenName", "c", "co"], group: ["com"] },
};
/* Search Functionality */
const ad = new ActiveDirectory(Object.assign(config, options));
ad.findUser(req.body.username, function (err, user) {
if (err) {
res.writeHeader(401, { "Content-Type": "text/html" });
res.write(
`<h3>Username or Password is not valid, please try again!</h3>`
);
res.send();
return;
} else {
res.send({ msg: "user logged successfully", ...user });
}
});