# LDAP Authentication fails with ñ character i n password

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 19, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930 "2008-06-19T22:02:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jim)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930/1 "2008-06-19T22:02:38Z")

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Hi Guys,

I’ve got a rails application that uses activeldap to authenticate  
users. Its been working great for about 6 months now, but a user from  
mexico started using it recently, but can’t seem to login. I’ve  
narrowed it down to the fact that his password contains a ñ character  
in it. This problem is also present in a test user account I’ve setup.  
ActiveLDAP uses ruby/ldap libarary and from what I can tell it fails  
there as well. I’ve also tried the net-ldap code and it fails there as  
well. Is seems like a low level encoding issue and I could really use  
the help to solve it. It looks like everyone of the ruby LDAP  
libraries are dead in development, so I’m seeking help from a much  
larger community.

Any ideas? Perhaps I need to encode the unicode password or something?

Your suggestions are both welcome and really needed.

Thanks Everyone,  
Jim

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**Author:** ![jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jim)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930/2 "2008-06-20T15:30:10Z")

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Do you guys need more information? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks?

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**Author:** ![jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jim)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930/3 "2008-06-20T15:48:32Z")

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On Fri, 2008-06-20 at 06:27 -0700, jim wrote:

> > ActiveLDAP uses ruby/ldap libarary and from what I can tell it fails  
> > there as well. I’ve also tried the net-ldap code and it fails there as  
> > well. Is seems like a low level encoding issue and I could really use  
> > the help to solve it. It looks like everyone of the ruby LDAP  
> > libraries are dead in development, so I’m seeking help from a much  
> > larger community.
> > 
> > Any ideas? Perhaps I need to encode the unicode password or something?
> > 
> > Your suggestions are both welcome and really needed.

* * *

I’d recommend that you use the forums for ruby/activeldap or contact  
Will Drewry directly…he will respond if you give him time.

[http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-activeldap/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-activeldap/)

Craig

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**Author:** ![jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jim](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jim)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ldap-authentication-fails-with-a-character-i-n-password/140930/4 "2008-06-20T15:57:28Z")

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Thanks, I’ll give it a try.