Understanding Output from the ldapsearch Command

Output from the ldapsearch command is represented by the following basic forms:

<attribute description>: <attribute value>
<attribute description>:: <base64-encoded-value>
<attribute description>:< <URL>

The value may be specified as UTF-8 text or as base64 encoded data, or a URI may be provided to the location of the attribute value.

Here is an example of text only output from an ldapsearch command:

dn: cn=Bjorn J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
cn: Bjorn J Jensen
cn: Bjorn Jensen
objectclass: person
sn: Jensen

If a value contains a non-printing character, or begins with a space or a colon ‘:’, the <attribute description> is followed by a double colon and the value is encoded in base 64 notation. For example, the value " begins with a space" would be encoded like this:

cn:: IGJlZ2lucyB3aXRoIGEgc3BhY2U=

More information can be found here:

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/ldif.5.html