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<chapter id="AccessControls">
<chapterinfo>
&author.jht;
&author.jeremy;
<pubdate>May 10, 2003</pubdate>
</chapterinfo>
<title>File, Directory and Share Access Controls</title>
<para>
Advanced MS Windows users are frequently perplexed when file, directory and share manipulation of
resources shared via Samba do not behave in the manner they might expect. MS Windows network
adminstrators are often confused regarding network access controls and what is the best way to
provide users with the type of access they need while protecting resources from the consequences
of untoward access capabilities.
</para>
<para>
Unix administrators frequently are not familiar with the MS Windows environment and in particular
have difficulty in visualizing what the MS Windows user wishes to achieve in attempts to set file
and directory access permissions.
</para>
<para>
The problem lies in the differences in how file and directory permissions and controls work
between the two environments. This difference is one that Samba can not completely hide, even
though it does try to make the chasm transparent.
</para>
<para>
POSIX Access Control List technology has been available (along with Extended Attributes)
for Unix for many years, yet there is little evidence today of any significant use. This
explains to some extent the slow adoption of ACLs into commercial Linux products. MS Windows
administrators are astounded at this given that ACLs were a foundational capability of the now
decade old MS Windows NT operating system.
</para>
<para>
The purpose of this chapter is to present each of the points of control that are possible with
Samba-3 in the hope that this will help the network administrator to find the optimum method
for delivering the best environment for MS Windows desktop users.
</para>
<para>
This is an opportune point to mention that it should be borne in mind that Samba was created to
provide a means of interoperability and interchange of data between two operating environments
that are quite different. It was never the intent to make Unix/Linux like MS Windows NT. Instead
the purpose was an is to provide a sufficient level of exchange of data between the two environments.
What is available today extends well beyond early plans and expections, yet the gap continues to
shrink.
</para>
<sect1>
<title>Features and Benefits</title>
<para>
Samba offers a lot of flexibility in file system access management. These are the key access control
facilities present in Samba today:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<title>Samba Access Control Facilities</title>
<listitem><para>
<emphasis>Unix File and Directory Permissions</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
Samba honours and implements Unix file system access controls. Users
who access a Samba server will do so as a particular MS Windows user.
This information is passed to the Samba server as part of the logon orr
connection setup process. Samba uses this user identity to validate
whether or not the user should be given access to file system resources
(files and directories). This chapter provides an overview for those
to whom the Unix permissions and controls are a little strange or unknown.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>
<emphasis>Samba Share Definitions</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
In configuring share settings and controls in the &smb.conf; file
the network administrator can exercise over-rides to native file
system permissions and behaviours. This can be handy and convenient
to affect behaviour that is more like what MS Windows NT users expect
but it is seldom the <emphasis>best</emphasis> way to achieve this.
The basic options and techniques are described herein.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>
<emphasis>Samba Share ACLs</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
Just like it is possible in MS Windows NT to set ACLs on shares
themselves, so it is possible to do this in Samba.
Very few people make use of this facility, yet it remains on of the
easiest ways to affect access controls (restrictions) and can often
do so with minimum invasiveness compared with other methods.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>
<emphasis>MS Windows ACLs through Unix POSIX ACLs</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
The use of POSIX ACLs on Unix/Linux is possible ONLY if the underlying
operating system supports them. If not, then this option will not be
available to you. Current Unix technology platforms have native support
for POSIX ACLs. There are patches for the Linux kernel that provide
this also. Sadly, few Linux paltforms ship today with native ACLs and
Extended Attributes enabled. This chapter has pertinent information
for users of platforms that support them.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>File System Access Controls</title>
<para>
Perhaps the most important recognition to be made is the simple fact that MS Windows NT4 / 200x / XP
implement a totally divergent file system technology from what is provided in the Unix operating system
environment. Firstly we should consider what the most significant differences are, then we shall look
at how Samba helps to bridge the differences.
</para>
<sect2>
<title>MS Windows NTFS Comparison with Unix File Systems</title>
<para>
Samba operates on top of the Unix file system. This means it is subject to Unix file system conventions
and permissions. It also means that if the MS Windows networking environment requires file system
behaviour that differs from unix file system behaviour then somehow Samba is responsible for emulating
that in a transparent and consistent manner.
</para>
<para>
It is good news that Samba does this to a very large extent and on top of that provides a high degree
of optional configuration to over-ride the default behaviour. We will look at some of these over-rides,
but for the greater part we will stay withing the bounds of default behaviour. Those wishing to explore
to depths of control ability should review the &smb.conf; man page.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<title>File System Feature Comparison</title>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Name Space</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows NT4 / 200x/ XP files names may be up to 254 characters long, Unix file names
may be 1023 characters long. In MS Windows file extensions indicate particular file types,
in Unix this is not so rigorously observed as all names are considered arbitrary.
</para>
<para>
What MS Windows calls a Folder, Unix calls a directory,
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Case Sensitivity</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows file names are generally Upper Case if made up of 8.3 (ie: 8 character file name
and 3 character extension. If longer than 8.3 file names are Case Preserving, and Case
Insensitive.
</para>
<para>
Unix file and directory names are Case Sensitive and Case Preserving. Samba implements the
MS Windows file name behaviour, but it does so as a user application. The Unix file system
provides no mechanism to perform case insensitive file name lookups. MS Windows does this
by default. This means that Samba has to carry the processing overhead to provide features
that are NOT native to the Unix operating system environment.
</para>
<para>
Consider the following, all are unique Unix names but one single MS Windows file name:
<programlisting>
MYFILE.TXT
MyFile.txt
myfile.txt
</programlisting>
So clearly, In an MS Windows file name space these three files CAN NOT co-exist! But in Unix
they can. So what should Samba do if all three are present? Answer, the one that is lexically
first will be accessible to MS Windows users, the others are invisible and unaccessible - any
other solution would be suicidal.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Directory Separators</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows and DOS uses the back-slash '\' as a directory delimiter, Unix uses the forward-slash '/'
as it's directory delimiter. This is transparently handled by Samba.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Drive Identification</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows products support a notion of drive letters, like <command>C:</command> to represent
disk partitions. Unix has NO concept if separate identifiers for file partitions since each
such file system is <filename>mounted</filename> to become part of the over-all directory tree.
The Unix directory tree begins at '/', just like the root of a DOS drive is specified like
<command>C:\</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>File Naming Conventions</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows generally never experiences file names that begin with a '.', while in Unix these
are commonly found in a user's home directory. Files that begin with a '.' are typically
either start up files for various Unix applications, or they may be files that contain
start-up configuration data.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Links and Short-Cuts</emphasis></para>
<para>
MS Windows make use of "links and Short-Cuts" that are actually special types of files that will
redirect an attempt to execute the file to the real location of the file. Unix knows of file and directory
links, but they are entirely different from what MS Windows users are used to.
</para>
<para>
Symbolic links are files in Unix that contain the actual location of the data (file OR directory). An
operation (like read or write) will operate directly on the file referenced. Symbolic links are also
referred to as 'soft links'. A hard link is something that MS Windows is NOT familiar with. It allows
one physical file to be known simulataneously by more than one file name.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
There are many other subtle differences that may cause the MS Windows administrator some temporary discomfort
in the process of becoming familiar with Unix/Linux. These are best left for a text that is dedicated to the
purpose of Unix/Linux training/education.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Managing Directories</title>
<para>
There are three basic operations for managing directories, <command>create, delete, rename</command>.
<programlisting>
Action MS Windows Command Unix Command
------ ------------------ ------------
create md folder mkdir folder
delete rd folder rmdir folder
rename rename oldname newname mv oldname newname
</programlisting>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>File and Directory Access Control</title>
<para>
The network administrator is strongly advised to read foundational training manuals and reference materials
regarding file and directory permissions maintenance. Much can be achieved with the basic Unix permissions
without having to resort to more complex facilities like POSIX Access Control Lists (ACLs) or Extended
Attributes (EAs).
</para>
<para>
Unix/Linux file and directory access permissions invloves setting three (3) primary sets of data and one (1) control set.
A Unix file listing looks as follows:-
<programlisting>
jht@frodo:~/stuff> ls -la
total 632
drwxr-xr-x 13 jht users 816 2003-05-12 22:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 37 jht users 3800 2003-05-12 22:29 ..
d--------- 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado00
d--x--x--x 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado01
dr-xr-xr-x 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado02
drwxrwxrwx 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado03
drw-rw-rw- 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado04
d-w--w--w- 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado05
dr--r--r-- 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado06
drwxrwxrwt 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado07
drwsrwsrwx 2 jht users 48 2003-05-12 22:29 muchado08
---------- 1 jht users 1242 2003-05-12 22:31 mydata00.lst
---x--x--x 1 jht users 1674 2003-05-12 22:33 mydata01.lst
--w--w--w- 1 jht users 7754 2003-05-12 22:33 mydata02.lst
--wx-wx-wx 1 jht users 260179 2003-05-12 22:33 mydata03.lst
-r--r--r-- 1 jht users 21017 2003-05-12 22:32 mydata04.lst
-r-xr-xr-x 1 jht users 206339 2003-05-12 22:32 mydata05.lst
-rw-rw-rw- 1 jht users 41105 2003-05-12 22:32 mydata06.lst
-rwxrwxrwx 1 jht users 19312 2003-05-12 22:32 mydata07.lst
jht@frodo:~/stuff>
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The columns above represent (from left to right): permissions, no blocks used, owner, group, size (bytes), access date, access time, file name.
</para>
<para>
The permissions field is made up of:
<programlisting>
[ type ] [ users ] [ group ] [ others ] [File, Directory Permissions]
[ d | l ] [ r w x ] [ r w x ] [ r w x ]
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |-----> Can Execute, List files
| | | | | | | | | |-------> Can Write, Create files
| | | | | | | | |---------> Can Read, Read files
| | | | | | | |---------------> Can Execute, List files
| | | | | | |-----------------> Can Write, Create files
| | | | | |-------------------> Can Read, Read files
| | | | |-------------------------> Can Execute, List files
| | | |---------------------------> Can Write, Create files
| | |-----------------------------> Can Read, Read files
| |-----------------------------------> Is a symbolic Link
|---------------------------------------> Is a directory
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
Any bit flag may be unset. An unset bit flag is the equivalent of 'Can NOT' and is represented as a '-' character.
<programlisting>
<title>Example File</title>
-rwxr-x--- Means: The owner (user) can read, write, execute
the group can read and execute
everyone else can NOT do anything with it
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
Additional posibilities in the [type] field are: c = character device, b = block device, p = pipe device, s = Unix Domain Socket.
</para>
<para>
The letters `rwxXst' set permissions for the user, group and others as: read (r), write (w), execute (or access for directories) (x),r
execute only if the file is a directory or already has execute permission for some user (X), set user or group ID on execution (s),
sticky (t).
</para>
<para>
When the sticky bit is set on a directory, files in that directory may be unlinked (deleted) or renamed only by root or their owner.
Without the sticky bit, anyone able to write to the directory can delete or rename files. The sticky bit is commonly found on
directories, such as /tmp, that are world-writable.
</para>
<para>
When the set user or group ID bit (s) is set on a directory, then all files created within it will be owned by the user and/or
group whose 'set user or group' bit is set. This can be very helpful in setting up directories that for which it is desired that
all users who are in a group should be able to write to and read from a file, particularly when it is undesirable for that file
to be exclusively owned by a user who's primary group is not the group that all such users belong to.
</para>
<para>
When a directory is set <command>drw-r-----</command> this means that the owner can read and create (write) files in it, but because
the (x) execute flags are not set files can not be listed (seen) in the directory by anyone. The group can read files in the
directory but can NOT create new files. NOTE: If files in the directory are set to be readable and writable for the group, then
group members will be able to write to (or delete) them.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Share Definition Access Controls</title>
<para>
Explain here about the smb.conf [share] Access Control parameters, Mode and Mask parameters, force user/group, valid/invalid users, etc.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Access Controls on Shares</title>
<para>
This section deals with how to configure Samba per share access control restrictions.
By default samba sets no restrictions on the share itself. Restrictions on the share itself
can be set on MS Windows NT4/200x/XP shares. This can be a very effective way to limit who can
connect to a share. In the absence of specific restrictions the default setting is to allow
the global user <emphasis>Everyone</emphasis> Full Control (ie: Full control, Change and Read).
</para>
<para>
At this time Samba does NOT provide a tool for configuring access control setting on the Share
itself. Samba does have the capacity to store and act on access control settings, but the only
way to create those settings is to use either the NT4 Server Manager or the Windows 200x MMC for
Computer Management.
</para>
<para>
Samba stores the per share access control settings in a file called <filename>share_info.tdb</filename>.
The location of this file on your system will depend on how samba was compiled. The default location
for samba's tdb files is under <filename>/usr/local/samba/var</filename>. If the <filename>tdbdump</filename>
utility has been compiled and installed on your system then you can examine the contents of this file
by: <userinput>tdbdump share_info.tdb</userinput>.
</para>
<sect2>
<title>Share Permissions Management</title>
<para>
The best tool for the task is platform dependant. Choose the best tool for your environmemt.
</para>
<sect3>
<title>Windows NT4 Workstation/Server</title>
<para>
The tool you need to use to manage share permissions on a Samba server is the NT Server Manager.
Server Manager is shipped with Windows NT4 Server products but not with Windows NT4 Workstation.
You can obtain the NT Server Manager for MS Windows NT4 Workstation from Microsoft - see details below.
</para>
<procedure>
<title>Instructions</title>
<step><para>
Launch the NT4 Server Manager, click on the Samba server you want to administer, then from the menu
select Computer, then click on the Shared Directories entry.
</para></step>
<step><para>
Now click on the share that you wish to manage, then click on the Properties tab, next click on
the Permissions tab. Now you can Add or change access control settings as you wish.
</para></step>
</procedure>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Windows 200x/XP</title>
<para>
On MS Windows NT4/200x/XP system access control lists on the share itself are set using native
tools, usually from filemanager. For example, in Windows 200x: right click on the shared folder,
then select 'Sharing', then click on 'Permissions'. The default Windows NT4/200x permission allows
<emphasis>Everyone</emphasis> Full Control on the Share.
</para>
<para>
MS Windows 200x and later all comes with a tool called the 'Computer Management' snap-in for the
Microsoft Management Console (MMC). This tool is located by clicking on <filename>Control Panel ->
Administrative Tools -> Computer Management</filename>.
</para>
<procedure>
<title>Instructions</title>
<step><para>
After launching the MMC with the Computer Management snap-in, click on the menu item 'Action',
select 'Connect to another computer'. If you are not logged onto a domain you will be prompted
to enter a domain login user identifier and a password. This will authenticate you to the domain.
If you where already logged in with administrative privilidge this step is not offered.
</para></step>
<step><para>
If the Samba server is not shown in the Select Computer box, then type in the name of the target
Samba server in the field 'Name:'. Now click on the [+] next to 'System Tools', then on the [+]
next to 'Shared Folders' in the left panel.
</para></step>
<step><para>
Now in the right panel, double-click on the share you wish to set access control permissions on.
Then click on the tab 'Share Permissions'. It is now possible to add access control entities
to the shared folder. Do NOT forget to set what type of access (full control, change, read) you
wish to assign for each entry.
</para></step>
</procedure>
<warning>
<para>
Be careful. If you take away all permissions from the Everyone user without removing this user
then effectively no user will be able to access the share. This is a result of what is known as
ACL precidence. ie: Everyone with NO ACCESS means that MaryK who is part of the group Everyone
will have no access even if this user is given explicit full control access.
</para>
</warning>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>MS Windows Access Control Lists and Unix Interoperability</title>
<sect2>
<title>Viewing and changing UNIX permissions using the NT
security dialogs</title>
<para>Windows NT clients can use their native security settings
dialog box to view and modify the underlying UNIX permissions.</para>
<para>Note that this ability is careful not to compromise
the security of the UNIX host Samba is running on, and
still obeys all the file permission rules that a Samba
administrator can set.</para>
<note>
<para>
All access to Unix/Linux system file via Samba is controlled at
the operating system file access control level. When trying to
figure out file access problems it is vitally important to identify
the identity of the Windows user as it is presented by Samba at
the point of file access. This can best be determined from the
Samba log files.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>How to view file security on a Samba share</title>
<para>From an NT4/2000/XP client, single-click with the right
mouse button on any file or directory in a Samba mounted
drive letter or UNC path. When the menu pops-up, click
on the <emphasis>Properties</emphasis> entry at the bottom of
the menu. This brings up the file properties dialog
box. Click on the tab <emphasis>Security</emphasis> and you
will see three buttons, <emphasis>Permissions</emphasis>,
<emphasis>Auditing</emphasis>, and <emphasis>Ownership</emphasis>.
The <emphasis>Auditing</emphasis> button will cause either
an error message <errorname>A requested privilege is not held
by the client</errorname> to appear if the user is not the
NT Administrator, or a dialog which is intended to allow an
Administrator to add auditing requirements to a file if the
user is logged on as the NT Administrator. This dialog is
non-functional with a Samba share at this time, as the only
useful button, the <command>Add</command> button will not currently
allow a list of users to be seen.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Viewing file ownership</title>
<para>Clicking on the <command>"Ownership"</command> button
brings up a dialog box telling you who owns the given file. The
owner name will be of the form :</para>
<para><command>"SERVER\user (Long name)"</command></para>
<para>Where <replaceable>SERVER</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of
the Samba server, <replaceable>user</replaceable> is the user name of
the UNIX user who owns the file, and <replaceable>(Long name)</replaceable>
is the descriptive string identifying the user (normally found in the
GECOS field of the UNIX password database). Click on the <command>Close
</command> button to remove this dialog.</para>
<para>If the parameter <parameter>nt acl support</parameter>
is set to <constant>false</constant> then the file owner will
be shown as the NT user <command>"Everyone"</command>.</para>
<para>The <command>Take Ownership</command> button will not allow
you to change the ownership of this file to yourself (clicking on
it will display a dialog box complaining that the user you are
currently logged onto the NT client cannot be found). The reason
for this is that changing the ownership of a file is a privileged
operation in UNIX, available only to the <emphasis>root</emphasis>
user. As clicking on this button causes NT to attempt to change
the ownership of a file to the current user logged into the NT
client this will not work with Samba at this time.</para>
<para>There is an NT chown command that will work with Samba
and allow a user with Administrator privilege connected
to a Samba server as root to change the ownership of
files on both a local NTFS filesystem or remote mounted NTFS
or Samba drive. This is available as part of the <emphasis>Seclib
</emphasis> NT security library written by Jeremy Allison of
the Samba Team, available from the main Samba ftp site.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Viewing file or directory permissions</title>
<para>The third button is the <command>"Permissions"</command>
button. Clicking on this brings up a dialog box that shows both
the permissions and the UNIX owner of the file or directory.
The owner is displayed in the form :</para>
<para><command>"SERVER\user (Long name)"</command></para>
<para>Where <replaceable>SERVER</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of
the Samba server, <replaceable>user</replaceable> is the user name of
the UNIX user who owns the file, and <replaceable>(Long name)</replaceable>
is the descriptive string identifying the user (normally found in the
GECOS field of the UNIX password database).</para>
<para>If the parameter <parameter>nt acl support</parameter>
is set to <constant>false</constant> then the file owner will
be shown as the NT user <command>"Everyone"</command> and the
permissions will be shown as NT "Full Control".</para>
<para>The permissions field is displayed differently for files
and directories, so I'll describe the way file permissions
are displayed first.</para>
<sect3>
<title>File Permissions</title>
<para>The standard UNIX user/group/world triple and
the corresponding "read", "write", "execute" permissions
triples are mapped by Samba into a three element NT ACL
with the 'r', 'w', and 'x' bits mapped into the corresponding
NT permissions. The UNIX world permissions are mapped into
the global NT group <command>Everyone</command>, followed
by the list of permissions allowed for UNIX world. The UNIX
owner and group permissions are displayed as an NT
<command>user</command> icon and an NT <command>local
group</command> icon respectively followed by the list
of permissions allowed for the UNIX user and group.</para>
<para>As many UNIX permission sets don't map into common
NT names such as <command>"read"</command>, <command>
"change"</command> or <command>"full control"</command> then
usually the permissions will be prefixed by the words <command>
"Special Access"</command> in the NT display list.</para>
<para>But what happens if the file has no permissions allowed
for a particular UNIX user group or world component ? In order
to allow "no permissions" to be seen and modified then Samba
overloads the NT <command>"Take Ownership"</command> ACL attribute
(which has no meaning in UNIX) and reports a component with
no permissions as having the NT <command>"O"</command> bit set.
This was chosen of course to make it look like a zero, meaning
zero permissions. More details on the decision behind this will
be given below.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Directory Permissions</title>
<para>Directories on an NT NTFS file system have two
different sets of permissions. The first set of permissions
is the ACL set on the directory itself, this is usually displayed
in the first set of parentheses in the normal <command>"RW"</command>
NT style. This first set of permissions is created by Samba in
exactly the same way as normal file permissions are, described
above, and is displayed in the same way.</para>
<para>The second set of directory permissions has no real meaning
in the UNIX permissions world and represents the <command>
"inherited"</command> permissions that any file created within
this directory would inherit.</para>
<para>Samba synthesises these inherited permissions for NT by
returning as an NT ACL the UNIX permission mode that a new file
created by Samba on this share would receive.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Modifying file or directory permissions</title>
<para>Modifying file and directory permissions is as simple
as changing the displayed permissions in the dialog box, and
clicking the <command>OK</command> button. However, there are
limitations that a user needs to be aware of, and also interactions
with the standard Samba permission masks and mapping of DOS
attributes that need to also be taken into account.</para>
<para>If the parameter <parameter>nt acl support</parameter>
is set to <constant>false</constant> then any attempt to set
security permissions will fail with an <command>"Access Denied"
</command> message.</para>
<para>The first thing to note is that the <command>"Add"</command>
button will not return a list of users in Samba (it will give
an error message of <command>"The remote procedure call failed
and did not execute"</command>). This means that you can only
manipulate the current user/group/world permissions listed in
the dialog box. This actually works quite well as these are the
only permissions that UNIX actually has.</para>
<para>If a permission triple (either user, group, or world)
is removed from the list of permissions in the NT dialog box,
then when the <command>"OK"</command> button is pressed it will
be applied as "no permissions" on the UNIX side. If you then
view the permissions again the "no permissions" entry will appear
as the NT <command>"O"</command> flag, as described above. This
allows you to add permissions back to a file or directory once
you have removed them from a triple component.</para>
<para>As UNIX supports only the "r", "w" and "x" bits of
an NT ACL then if other NT security attributes such as "Delete
access" are selected then they will be ignored when applied on
the Samba server.</para>
<para>When setting permissions on a directory the second
set of permissions (in the second set of parentheses) is
by default applied to all files within that directory. If this
is not what you want you must uncheck the <command>"Replace
permissions on existing files"</command> checkbox in the NT
dialog before clicking <command>"OK"</command>.</para>
<para>If you wish to remove all permissions from a
user/group/world component then you may either highlight the
component and click the <command>"Remove"</command> button,
or set the component to only have the special <command>"Take
Ownership"</command> permission (displayed as <command>"O"
</command>) highlighted.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Interaction with the standard Samba create mask
parameters</title>
<para>There are four parameters
to control interaction with the standard Samba create mask parameters.
These are :</para>
<para><parameter>security mask</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>force security mode</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>directory security mask</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>force directory security mode</parameter></para>
<para>Once a user clicks <command>"OK"</command> to apply the
permissions Samba maps the given permissions into a user/group/world
r/w/x triple set, and then will check the changed permissions for a
file against the bits set in the <ulink url="smb.conf.5.html#SECURITYMASK">
<parameter>security mask</parameter></ulink> parameter. Any bits that
were changed that are not set to '1' in this parameter are left alone
in the file permissions.</para>
<para>Essentially, zero bits in the <parameter>security mask</parameter>
mask may be treated as a set of bits the user is <emphasis>not</emphasis>
allowed to change, and one bits are those the user is allowed to change.
</para>
<para>If not set explicitly this parameter is set to the same value as
the <ulink url="smb.conf.5.html#CREATEMASK"><parameter>create mask
</parameter></ulink> parameter. To allow a user to modify all the
user/group/world permissions on a file, set this parameter
to 0777.</para>
<para>Next Samba checks the changed permissions for a file against
the bits set in the <ulink url="smb.conf.5.html#FORCESECURITYMODE">
<parameter>force security mode</parameter></ulink> parameter. Any bits
that were changed that correspond to bits set to '1' in this parameter
are forced to be set.</para>
<para>Essentially, bits set in the <parameter>force security mode
</parameter> parameter may be treated as a set of bits that, when
modifying security on a file, the user has always set to be 'on'.</para>
<para>If not set explicitly this parameter is set to the same value
as the <ulink url="smb.conf.5.html#FORCECREATEMODE"><parameter>force
create mode</parameter></ulink> parameter.
To allow a user to modify all the user/group/world permissions on a file
with no restrictions set this parameter to 000.</para>
<para>The <parameter>security mask</parameter> and <parameter>force
security mode</parameter> parameters are applied to the change
request in that order.</para>
<para>For a directory Samba will perform the same operations as
described above for a file except using the parameter <parameter>
directory security mask</parameter> instead of <parameter>security
mask</parameter>, and <parameter>force directory security mode
</parameter> parameter instead of <parameter>force security mode
</parameter>.</para>
<para>The <parameter>directory security mask</parameter> parameter
by default is set to the same value as the <parameter>directory mask
</parameter> parameter and the <parameter>force directory security
mode</parameter> parameter by default is set to the same value as
the <parameter>force directory mode</parameter> parameter. </para>
<para>In this way Samba enforces the permission restrictions that
an administrator can set on a Samba share, whilst still allowing users
to modify the permission bits within that restriction.</para>
<para>If you want to set up a share that allows users full control
in modifying the permission bits on their files and directories and
doesn't force any particular bits to be set 'on', then set the following
parameters in the &smb.conf; file in that share specific section :</para>
<para><parameter>security mask = 0777</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>force security mode = 0</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>directory security mask = 0777</parameter></para>
<para><parameter>force directory security mode = 0</parameter></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Interaction with the standard Samba file attribute
mapping</title>
<para>Samba maps some of the DOS attribute bits (such as "read
only") into the UNIX permissions of a file. This means there can
be a conflict between the permission bits set via the security
dialog and the permission bits set by the file attribute mapping.
</para>
<para>One way this can show up is if a file has no UNIX read access
for the owner it will show up as "read only" in the standard
file attributes tabbed dialog. Unfortunately this dialog is
the same one that contains the security info in another tab.</para>
<para>What this can mean is that if the owner changes the permissions
to allow themselves read access using the security dialog, clicks
<command>"OK"</command> to get back to the standard attributes tab
dialog, and then clicks <command>"OK"</command> on that dialog, then
NT will set the file permissions back to read-only (as that is what
the attributes still say in the dialog). This means that after setting
permissions and clicking <command>"OK"</command> to get back to the
attributes dialog you should always hit <command>"Cancel"</command>
rather than <command>"OK"</command> to ensure that your changes
are not overridden.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Common Errors</title>
<para>
Stuff from mailing lists here
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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