A simple example of using Spring LDAP to authenticate a user against Active Directory.

SpringAdLdapTest.java

// Setup the LDAP client (normally done via Spring context file).
LdapContextSource contextSource = new LdapContextSource();
contextSource.setUrl("ldap://adserver.mycompany.com:3268");
contextSource.setBase("DC=AD,DC=MYCOMPANY,DC=COM");
contextSource.setUserDn("readonlyuser@ad.mycompany.com");
contextSource.setPassword("password1");
contextSource.afterPropertiesSet();

LdapTemplate ldapTemplate = new LdapTemplate(contextSource);
ldapTemplate.afterPropertiesSet();

// Perform the authentication.
Filter filter = new EqualsFilter("sAMAccountName", "mpilone");

boolean authed = ldapTemplate.authenticate("OU=CorpUsers",
    filter.encode(),
    "user-entered-password");

// Display the results.
System.out.println("Authenticated: " + authed);