Using Active Directory for user authentication and authorization

There is no escaping the fact that a large proportion of enterprise systems are built on top of a Microsoft technology stack. For the management of a domain, and the control of users and access rights, this will more often than not mean the use of Active Directory. Love it or hate it, Active Directory is a fact of life in most organizations. If we integrate GeoServer into our enterprise, then we must consider how we can utilize Active Directory to manage access to the mapping data. We can, of course, just utilize the default username/password authentication provider, but that will mean users having yet another username and password to remember, or more likely, forget. This can also represent a security risk as the provider uses an HTTP Basic authentication, where the username and password are sent in the clear. Our users will already have a centrally managed username and password, so it will be much better for us to tap into...