While deploying a SAML identity-provider appliance in a screened subnet, you bind the device to a domain controller on TCP port 389 so it can query Active Directory for user authentication. The domain join succeeds, but only users from the controller's own domain can log on; accounts that live in other domains of the same forest are not found. Firewall logs confirm that traffic on ports 389, 53 and 88 is allowed. To enable the appliance to perform forest-wide LDAP searches without opening SMB or RPC services, which single destination port should you ask the security team to allow through the firewall?
Port 3268 is the standard LDAP Global Catalog port. Queries sent to 3268 are answered by the Global Catalog, which holds a read-only partial replica of every object in every domain of the forest, allowing forest-wide searches from a single connection. Port 389 (already open) limits searches to the local domain, port 636 is secure LDAP for a single domain, and ports 135 or 445 are unrelated RPC/SMB services that do not provide Global Catalog functionality. Therefore, opening TCP 3268 resolves the multi-domain lookup failure while avoiding unnecessary exposure of other services.