OUD - How to Specify Special Characters in Search Filters.

Last updated on MAY 17, 2018

Applies to:

Goal

Let's suppose the following:

1 - There is an end-user application which lets users create their profile in an OUD backend.

2 - This application doesn't prevent the use of special characters.

3 - The following Common Name (CN) gets created:
cn: Special\>Characters

4 - The LDAP Administrator wants to delete the entry with the CN above.
He only knows the CN of the entry.

5 - He tries to run a search with the asterisk character but it happens that there were too many entries
returned for the filter "cn=Special*Characters".

6 - Using the special characters in the search filter triggers an error message:
===================================================================
$ ./ldapsearch -h <HOST> -p <PORT> -b "dc=example,dc=com" "cn=Special\>Characters" cn givenName displayName
The provided search filter "cn=Special\>Characters" had an invalid escaped
byte value at position 11.  A backslash in a value must be followed by two
hexadecimal characters that define the byte that has been encoded
===================================================================
 

Solution