<question><para>I can't get LDAP authentication to work. What's wrong with my configuration?</para></question>
<answer>
<para>
Note that the permissions for an LDAP directory often do not allow you to read the password
for a user. Hence it is often not possible to use the <linkxlink:href="#faq-what-is-userdetailservice"><interfacename>UserDetailsService</interfacename>
approach</link> where Spring Security compares the stored password with the one submitted by the user.
The most common approach is to use LDAP <quote>bind</quote>, which is one of the operations
supported by <linkxlink:href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol">the LDAP protocol</link>.
With this approach, Spring Security validates the password by attempting to authenticate to the directory
as the user.
</para>
<para>The most common problem with LDAP authentication is a lack of knowledge of the
directory server tree structure and configuration. This will be different in different
companies, so you have to find it out yourself. Before adding a Spring Security LDAP