Definition of Attribute Property in Network Encyclopedia.
What is Attribute Property?
Attribute Property is a property of an object in Active Directory. Attributes are the actual information stored in an object. For example, a user class object is composed of attributes, such as a First Name attribute for a user account object.
Attributes define the actual characteristics of objects in Active Directory. Every class of objects has its own defining set of attributes. Different objects within this class are distinguished by the values of their attributes. Some attributes, such as the First Name attribute for a user account object, must have a value assigned to them when they are created. Other attributes, such as Phone Number, can optionally be left unvalued.
Each attribute in Active Directory is defined only once and can be used for many different object classes. All objects of the same type have the same set of attributes. Different objects of the same type are distinguished by different attribute values. It is, therefore, the values of the attributes of a particular object that make that object unique in Active Directory.
Attributes are defined in a special portion of Active Directory. An attribute definition includes
- The syntax (type of information) of the attribute, such as integer, date, or string
- Whether the attribute is single-valued or multivalued
Each syntax type is specified by an object identifier, which is a globally unique identifier (GUID) issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The allowable syntax types for attributes of objects in Active Directory are shown in this table.
Allowable Syntax Types for Object Attributes
| Syntax | Object Identifier | Description |
| Undefined | 2.5.5.0 | Not a legal syntax |
| Distinguished name | 2.5.5.1 | The fully qualified name of an object in the directory |
| Object identifier | 2.5.5.2 | Identifies an object |
| Case-sensitive string | 2.5.5.3 | Differentiates uppercase and lowercase |
| Case-insensitive string | 2.5.5.4 | Does not differentiate uppercase and lowercase |
| Print case string | 2.5.5.5 | Printable string |
| Numeric string | 2.5.5.6 | A sequence of digits |
| OR name | 2.5.5.7 | An x400 e-mail address |
| Boolean | 2.5.5.8 | TRUE or FALSE |
| Integer | 2.5.5.9 | A 32-bit number |
| Octet string | 2.5.5.10 | A string of bytes |
| Time | 2.5.5.11 | The number of seconds elapsed since 1/1/1970 |
| Unicode | 2.5.5.12 | Wide string |
| Address | 2.5.5.13 | Internal |
| Distname-address | 2.5.5.14 | Internal |
| NT security descriptor | 2.5.5.15 66 | Windows NT Security Descriptor |
| Large integer | 2.5.5.16 | A 64-bit number |
| Security identifier (SID) | 2.5.5.17 4 | SID |
See also: Object Identifier in Active Directory