[SGVLUG] A question for the security gurus

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message----- Of Charles N Wyble
> You asked a fairly open ended question without providing very 
> much information. Makes it kind of hard to help. :)

Heh heh heh -- yes, I know -- For those that know me and my situation, I
have a little too much free time on my hands right now, so I got into
thinking of theoreticals...

The system I'm using is windows and vb ".net" (though with an eye
towards conversion to mono...)  I've been digging through some of the
new security-related "stuff" that microsoft provides as part of .net,
and came to a realization: with all of the stuff "exposed" by this, it
seems the user's REAL NAME is not among the various properties (or if it
is, I've just missed it...)

So I've been trying to find out the user's name, which lead me to
consider LDAP (although I'm not 100% certain that "full name" is a
required attribute, I'm reasonably certain it is commonly
implemented...)  The library that microsoft provides for reading and
manipulating the "directory", however, needs an explicit reference to
the server (it seems everything ELSE can be derived)

I think of it as a "hello world 2.0" excersize.  The basic premise
behind hello world type programs is to generate recognizable output,
from there, "the rest should be easy..." (or so they say) ;)  For
working at this level, not only must the program generate useful
results, but it has to query (potentially) dissimilar systems to
retrieve "useful info" -- when you can do /THAT/ in whatever language
you're working with, the rest "really IS easy" :)