why is userPassword transferred binary?

[Jephte Clain <jephte.clain@univ-reunion.fr>]

hello,

just wondering: when I ldapsearch the userPassword attribute, it is 
returned as binary:

$ ldapsearch -LLL -H "ldap://xxx:389/"; -x -D xxx -W "(uid=xxx)" userPassword
dn: uid=xxx,dc=domain,dc=tld
userPassword:: Z290Y2hhCg==

however, I created a new attribute with the same schema as userPassword:

attributetype ( runUniv:1.1.2
    NAME 'runUnivPassword'
    DESC 'RFC2256/2307 password for special needs'
    EQUALITY octetStringMatch
    SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.40{128} )

when I search this attribute, it is returned as text:

$ ldapsearch -LLL -H "ldap://xxx:389/"; -x -D xxx -W "(uid=xxx)" 
runUnivPassword
dn: uid=xxx,dc=domain,dc=tld
runUnivPassword: gotcha

so my question is: does ldapsearch process userPassword as a special 
case and ask for binary transfer type?

or does slapd return userPassword as binary by default? if so, how do I 
configure runUnivPassword to be handled the same?

thanks in advance. best regards,

--
*Jephté CLAIN | Développeur, Intégrateur d'applications*
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