'guest only = yes' broken?

[Michael B Allen]

On Mon, 15 May 2006 14:35:10 -0500
"Gerald (Jerry) Carter" <jerry at samba.org> wrote:

> >>>> according to the manpage entry for 'guest only = yes' I
> >>>> would expect that I can not log in to [tmp] when having
> >>>> authenticated.
> >>>>
> >>>> But...:
> >>>>
> >>>> vlendec at delphin:~> smbclient //192.168.234.1/tmp -Uvl%asdf
> >>>> Domain=[DELPHIN] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.22]
> >>>> smb: \> 
> >>>>
> >>>> What should we change? Docs or code? The docs right now say
> >>> Fix the code I think. I'll try and take a look....
> >> I think the code is right.  I always took it as a short
> >> hand for 'force user = guest_account'.  If we change the
> >> code, it has the potential to break installations. If
> >> no one complained, I'd just fix the docs.
> > 
> > Hmmm. So are we sure it's forcing the logged on user
> > to guest ? We need to check that (IMHO).
> 
> ok.  So here's a question.  Do we really need this
> parameter?  I think it was originally more for share
> mode security.  Really you could get the same behavior
> if we set 'valid users = guest_account' and 'guest ok = yes'
> I think.  So do we really need a separate short
> hand parameter for this ?

Windows XP Home Edition has a setting called "Simple File Sharing" (or
something like that) that basically forces guest access always. Yes,
it seems insecure but many home users just want to drop the pants on
the thing so that it Just Works (tm). I don't know if the settings you
describe yield the same behavior but I think it would be a good idea if
Samba had an analygous mode.

Mike