Enterprise Mac Administrator's Guide

2.2. Basic Binding

As mentioned earlier, there are two types of binding that can be performed. The first is trusted binding, where the computer and the directory service share a key, which allows each to trust the other. When a host performs a trusted bind, it creates a computer record in the directory database. Based on the record in the database and the key, the computer is then granted certain access to directory services information that it might not have otherwise been provided. For example, in a number of environments the directory service is configured to only allow a system to perform LDAP queries if it has successfully authenticated. This is a good way to lock down a system.

In an anonymous or non-trusted bind, the directory server ...