The exhibit includes these key debug lines:
start_search_dn-base: ' DC=TAC,DC=ottawa,DC=fortinet,DC=com ' filter:sAMAccountName=jsmith
get_all_dn-Found DN 1:CN=John Smith,CN=Users,DC=TAC,DC=ottawa,DC=fortinet,DC=com
The study guide explains that in regular bind , LDAP authentication has four steps , and that during step 2 , FortiGate searches the LDAP tree to find the user’s DN:
“During the second step, FortiGate does a search query in the LDAP database to find the user’s location—in other words, the user’s DN. If the user is found, the server replies with the user’s DN.”
It also states for the real-time debug of step 2:
“An fnbamd_ldap_build_dn_search_req-base message indicates that FortiGate is performing step two: searching for the user in the LDAP tree. This message includes the base branch (distinguished name setting) and the name of the attribute used to locate the user... If the LDAP server finds the user, the output shows the user’s full DN.”
That directly proves:
A is correct because the base DN and found DN are under DC=TAC,DC=ottawa,DC=fortinet,DC=com, which corresponds to the LDAP domain/tree root TAC.ottawa.fortinet.com
Why the other options are wrong:
B is wrong because binding with the user’s credentials is step 3 , not the step shown here. The study guide says: “Step 3 – Bind user credentials” and shows that this happens later with fnbamd_ldap_build_userbind_req / __ldap_build_bind_req-Binding to ' CN=John Smith... '
C is wrong because collecting user group information is step 4 , not the step shown in the exhibit. The study guide says: “The last step is to get the user group information” and shows step 4 with Attr query / memberOf search
