ldapgate 0.1.1

Lightweight LDAP/AD authentication proxy and FastAPI middleware

LDAPGate

Lightweight LDAP/AD authentication gateway for Python web apps. Install it, configure it, done.

Features

• Two deployment modes — standalone reverse proxy or drop-in FastAPI middleware
• Pure Python LDAP — no OS-level libs required, uses ldap3
• Signed cookie sessions — stateless, no server-side session storage
• OpenLDAP and Active Directory — uid= and sAMAccountName= out of the box
• Optional group gating — restrict access to members of a specific LDAP group
• Header injection — injects X-Forwarded-User for apps that support it
• Bundled login form — responsive, dark/light mode, works air-gapped

Install

pip install ldapgate

Config file

Both modes share the same ldapgate.yaml:

ldap:
  url: ldaps://dc.example.com:636
  bind_dn: CN=svc,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com
  bind_password: secret
  base_dn: DC=example,DC=com
  user_filter: "(sAMAccountName={username})"        # AD; OpenLDAP: (uid={username})
  group_dn: CN=app-users,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com # optional

proxy:
  listen_host: 0.0.0.0
  listen_port: 9000
  backend_url: http://localhost:8080
  secret_key: change-me-to-something-random
  session_ttl: 3600
  user_header: X-Forwarded-User
  login_path: /_auth/login
  app_name: MyApp

All settings can also be provided via environment variables with __ separators (e.g. LDAP__URL, PROXY__SECRET_KEY).

Mode 1 — Standalone Reverse Proxy

Run ldapgate as a standalone process in front of any app. Only authenticated requests are forwarded to the backend.

Browser → ldapgate :9000 → backend app :8080

ldapgate serve --config ldapgate.yaml

Example: copyparty

Start copyparty with IDP header auth and point its logout at ldapgate:

copyparty -p 8080 --idp-h-usr X-Forwarded-User --idp-logout /_auth/logout -v ~/Documents:/:rw

copyparty trusts the X-Forwarded-User header injected by ldapgate, and its logout button redirects to /_auth/logout which clears the ldapgate session before sending the user back to the login page.

Mode 2 — FastAPI Middleware

Drop ldapgate auth directly into an existing FastAPI app — no separate process needed.

from fastapi import FastAPI
from ldapgate.config import load_config
from ldapgate.middleware import add_ldap_auth

app = FastAPI()
config = load_config("ldapgate.yaml")
add_ldap_auth(app, config)

@app.get("/api/data")
async def data(request):
    return {"user": request.state.user}  # authenticated username

Example: lagun — see lagun and torrus for real-world integrations.

CLI Options

ldapgate serve --config PATH   Path to ldapgate.yaml [default: ldapgate.yaml]
               --host TEXT     Override listen host
               --port INTEGER  Override listen port
               --backend TEXT  Override backend URL
               --reload        Enable auto-reload (dev)

Development

Requires uv.

git clone https://github.com/anudeepd/ldapgate
cd ldapgate
uv sync
pytest tests/

License

MIT