Query AD Group Membership Recursively Through SQL

Question

Background

I'm creating some SQL to assist with security auditing; this will take security info from various systems databases and from Active Directory and will produce a list of all anomalies (i.e. cases where accounts are closed in one system but not others.

Current Code

To get a list of users who are a member of a security group I run the below SQL:

if not exists(select 1 from sys.servers where name = 'ADSI') 
    EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 'ADSI', 'Active Directory Services 2.5', 'ADSDSOObject', 'adsdatasource'

SELECT sAMAccountName, displayName, givenName, sn, isDeleted --, lastLogonTimestamp --, lastLogon (Could not convert the data value due to reasons other than sign mismatch or overflow.)
FROM OPENQUERY(ADSI
, 'SELECT sAMAccountName, displayName, givenName, sn, isDeleted
FROM ''LDAP://DC=myDomain,DC=myCompany,DC=com''
WHERE objectCategory = ''Person''
AND objectClass = ''user'' 
AND memberOf = ''CN=mySecurityGroup,OU=Security Groups,OU=UK,DC=myDomain,DC=myCompany,DC=com''
')
order by sAMAccountName

Problem / Question

I'd like this code to be able to work recursively; i.e. if a user is a member of a group which is a member of the specified group, they should be included too (for the full hierarchy). Does anyone know how to do this through SQL?

UPDATE

I've now resolved a few issues (not related to the quoted problem, but some other issues I'd had).

• lastLogon was throwning an error. This was because the server version was x86. Using an x64 database resolved the problem.
• lastLogon was returned as a number. Added some code to convert this to DateTime2.
• I was able to move the group name out of a hard coded string by making OpenQuery itself dynamic, so within the context of OpenQuery the generated string looks static.

..

--create linked server
if not exists(select 1 from sys.servers where name = 'ADSI')
begin
    --EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 'ADSI', 'Active Directory Services 2.5', 'ADSDSOObject', 'adsdatasource'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver 'ADSI', 'Active Directory Service Interfaces', 'ADSDSOObject', 'adsdatasource'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'collation compatible',  @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'data access', @optvalue=N'true'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'dist', @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'pub', @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'rpc', @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'rpc out', @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'sub', @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'connect timeout', @optvalue=N'0'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'collation name', @optvalue=null
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'lazy schema validation',  @optvalue=N'false'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'query timeout', @optvalue=N'0'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'use remote collation',  @optvalue=N'true'
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'ADSI', @optname=N'remote proc transaction promotion', @optvalue=N'true'
end


declare @path nvarchar(1024) = 'DC=myDomain,DC=myCompany,DC=com'
declare @groupCN nvarchar(1024) = 'CN=My Security Group,OU=Security Groups,OU=UK,' + @path
, @sql nvarchar(max)

--construct the query we send to AD
set @sql = '
SELECT sAMAccountName, displayName, givenName, sn, isDeleted, lastLogon
FROM ''LDAP://' + replace(@path,'''','''''') + '''
WHERE objectCategory = ''Person''
AND objectClass = ''user'' 
AND memberOf = ''' + replace(@groupCN,'''','''''') + '''
'

--now wrap that query in the outer query
set @sql = 'SELECT sAMAccountName, displayName, givenName, sn, isDeleted
, case     
    when cast([lastLogon] as bigint) = 0 then null
    else dateadd(mi,(cast([lastlogon] as bigint) / 600000000), cast(''1601-01-01'' as datetime2)) 
  end LastLogon
FROM OPENQUERY(ADSI, ''' + replace(@sql,'''','''''') + ''')
order by sAMAccountName'

--now run it
exec(@sql)

Answer 1

Though this is an old post, Google still likes to toss it to the top of the results, so as I struggled with this same problem a great deal, I wanted to post my findings/solution, with credit to Riverway for getting me on the right track.

Create a Stored Procedure:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetLdapUserGroups]
    (
    @LdapUsername NVARCHAR(max)
    )
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Query NVARCHAR(max), @Path NVARCHAR(max)

SET @Query = '
    SELECT @Path = distinguishedName
    FROM OPENQUERY(ADSI, ''
        SELECT distinguishedName 
        FROM ''''LDAP://DC=DOMAIN,DC=COM''''
        WHERE 
            objectClass = ''''user'''' AND
            sAMAccountName = ''''' + @LdapUsername + '''''
    '')
'

EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @Query, N'@Path NVARCHAR(max) OUTPUT', @Path = @Path OUTPUT 

  SET @Query = '
    SELECT cn AS [LdapGroup]
    FROM OPENQUERY (ADSI, ''<LDAP://DOMAIN.COM>;
    (&(objectClass=group)(member:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:= ' + @Path + '));
    cn, adspath;subtree'')
    ORDER BY cn;
'

EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @Query
END

Then, call your SP by just passing the username:

DECLARE @UserGroup table (LdapGroup nvarchar(max))
INSERT INTO @UserGroup exec Datamart.dbo.GetLdapUserGroups @LdapUser

I'm then using a hash table to correctly match the AD group to the SQL data and what the end user should see.

DECLARE @RptPermissions table (ldapGroup nvarchar(max),scholarshipCode nvarchar(50),gender nvarchar(2))
INSERT INTO @RptPermissions VALUES('EMP_Enrollment_Admissions','ALL','MF')

In my case, I'm using this to pull the SSRS user variable and pass it into the query for selecting the records based on AD group membership.

;WITH CTE_Permissions AS
(
    SELECT
        p.scholarshipCode
        ,p.gender
    FROM @UserGroup AS g
    JOIN @RptPermissions AS p ON
        g.ldapGroup = p.ldapGroup
)

... Later in the query

JOIN CTE_Permissions AS p ON
         s.SCHOLARSHIP_ID = p.scholarshipCode
         OR p.scholarshipCode = 'ALL'

Hope this helps.