I hate adding "me toos" to problems with nothing to add, but... "me too". I hadn't had a chance to try this on a Lion Client, but our Mini server was exhibiting this same problem. I wouldn't have even noticed it if I hadn't accidentally mistyped my password and been surprised when it actually worked. Thankfully it was on a server which I was just mucking with, nothing anyone would be logging into in production.
For what it's worth... Lion Server 10.7.0, OpenLDAP server, we're using SSL (self-signed cert with TLS_REQCERT never in /etc/openldap/ldap.conf).
Also, one other thing observed... when I tried to change the password of someone using the bogus credentials (using the passwd command at the cli -- sorry, I'm a unix geek), it eventually fails with an internal error (at least I think that's what it was... I'd need to go back and boot the server up and try it again to know for sure).
I can't say I'm entirely surprised there's an authentication glitch. When we first got Snow Leopard (10.6.0), every time we tried to use SSL with LDAP, it'd cause directoryservices to hang after about 10 minutes (or less). They finally fixed it in like 10.6.1 or 10.6.2.
Has anyone tried reporting this to Apple directly? Since it looks like we're not alone, I think I might try calling them later on.
-Leigh
Again I am another one to add "Me Too's" - I would really appreciate some help if there is anyone out there who can solve this exact issue in layman's terms