This is a Django authentication backend that authenticates against an LDAP service. Configuration can be as simple as a single distinguished name template, but there are many rich configuration options for working with users, groups, and permissions.

This version requires at least Django 1.3 and python-ldap 2.0. Full documentation can be found at http://packages.python.org/django-auth-ldap/; following is an example configuration, just to whet your appetite:

import ldap
from django_auth_ldap.config import LDAPSearch, GroupOfNamesType


# Baseline configuration.
AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI = "ldap://ldap.example.com"

AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN = "cn=django-agent,dc=example,dc=com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD = "phlebotinum"
AUTH_LDAP_USER_SEARCH = LDAPSearch("ou=users,dc=example,dc=com",
    ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(uid=%(user)s)")
# or perhaps:
# AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE = "uid=%(user)s,ou=users,dc=example,dc=com"

# Set up the basic group parameters.
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH = LDAPSearch("ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
    ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(objectClass=groupOfNames)"
)
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE = GroupOfNamesType()

# Simple group restrictions
AUTH_LDAP_REQUIRE_GROUP = "cn=enabled,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com"
AUTH_LDAP_DENY_GROUP = "cn=disabled,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com"

# Populate the Django user from the LDAP directory.
AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP = {
    "first_name": "givenName",
    "last_name": "sn",
    "email": "mail"
}

AUTH_LDAP_PROFILE_ATTR_MAP = {
    "employee_number": "employeeNumber"
}

AUTH_LDAP_USER_FLAGS_BY_GROUP = {
    "is_active": "cn=active,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
    "is_staff": "cn=staff,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
    "is_superuser": "cn=superuser,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com"
}

AUTH_LDAP_PROFILE_FLAGS_BY_GROUP = {
    "is_awesome": "cn=awesome,ou=django,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
}

# Use LDAP group membership to calculate group permissions.
AUTH_LDAP_FIND_GROUP_PERMS = True

# Cache group memberships for an hour to minimize LDAP traffic
AUTH_LDAP_CACHE_GROUPS = True
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_CACHE_TIMEOUT = 3600


# Keep ModelBackend around for per-user permissions and maybe a local
# superuser.
AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = (
    'django_auth_ldap.backend.LDAPBackend',
    'django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend',
)