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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt | 42 |
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 17 deletions
diff --git a/docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt b/docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt index 92167a9e84..88a7324dd7 100644 --- a/docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt +++ b/docs/textdocs/UNIX-SMB.txt @@ -1,3 +1,9 @@ +Contributor: Andrew Tridgell <samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au> +Date: April 1995 + +Subject: Discussion of NetBIOS in a Unix World +============================================================================ + This is a short document that describes some of the issues that confront a SMB implementation on unix, and how Samba copes with them. They may help people who are looking at unix<->PC @@ -6,9 +12,6 @@ interoperability. It was written to help out a person who was writing a paper on unix to PC connectivity. -Andrew Tridgell -April 1995 - Usernames ========= @@ -88,16 +91,14 @@ specified number of case changes, or by using the "password server" option which allows Samba to do it's validation via another machine (typically a WinNT server). -Samba also doesn't support the password encryption method used by SMB -clients. This is because the spec isn't sufficiently detailed for an -implementation (although Jeremy Allison is working on it, to try and -work it out). Also, there is a fundamental problem with what we -understand so far in the algorithm, as it seems that the server would -need to store somewhere on disk a reversibly encrypted (effectively -plaintext) copy of the users password in order to use the -algorithm. This goes against the unix policy that "even the super-user -doesn't know your password" which comes from the use of a one-way hash -function. +Samba supports the password encryption method used by SMB +clients. Note that the use of password encryption in Microsoft +networking leads to password hashes that are "plain text equivalent". +This means that it is *VERY* important to ensure that the Samba +smbpasswd file containing these password hashes is only readable +by the root user. See the documentation ENCRYPTION.txt for more +details. + Locking ======= @@ -140,10 +141,12 @@ allowed by anyone else who tries to use the file at the same time. If DENY_READ is placed on the file, for example, then any attempt to open the file for reading should fail. -Unix has no equivalent notion. To implement these Samba uses lock +Unix has no equivalent notion. To implement this Samba uses either lock files based on the files inode and placed in a separate lock -directory. These are clumsy and consume processing and file resources, -so they are optional and off by default. +directory or a shared memory implementation. The lock file method +is clumsy and consumes processing and file resources, +the shared memory implementation is vastly prefered and is turned on +by default for those systems that support it. Trapdoor UIDs ============= @@ -219,5 +222,10 @@ this protocol level much easier. There is also a problem with the SMB specications. SMB is a X/Open spec, but the X/Open book is far from ideal, and fails to cover many -important issues, leaving much to the imagination. +important issues, leaving much to the imagination. Microsoft recently +renamed the SMB protocol CIFS (Common Internet File System) and have +published new specifications. These are far superior to the old +X/Open documents but there are still undocumented calls and features. +This specification is actively being worked on by a CIFS developers +mailing list hosted by Microsft. |