NSE7 Advanced VPN and Zero Trust Practice Question
A FortiGate administrator configures SAML SSO with FortiGate as the Service Provider (SP) and an external IdP. Users report that they are prompted for credentials repeatedly without successful authentication. What is the most likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The IdP certificate is not imported or trusted on the FortiGate
SAML SSO requires certificate trust. If the IdP certificate is not trusted by the FortiGate, the SAML assertion will not be validated, causing authentication failures. The clock skew is another common issue.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The SAML attribute mapping is incorrect
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect mapping would allow authentication but fail to assign user/group; repeated prompts suggest a signature validation issue.
- ✗
The FortiGate's clock is synchronized via NTP
Why it's wrong here
Clock sync is necessary but if it were the issue, it would likely cause a different error, not repeated prompts.
- ✗
The firewall policy does not allow SAML traffic
Why it's wrong here
SAML uses HTTPS; if the policy blocked it, the connection would fail entirely, not prompt repeatedly.
- ✓
The IdP certificate is not imported or trusted on the FortiGate
Why this is correct
FortiGate must trust the IdP's signing certificate to validate SAML responses; otherwise, authentication fails.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This NSE7 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Fortinet certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the NSE7 exam.