[Samba] Samba, AD Server, possibilities?

[Diego Rivera]

Hello all!

It's been asked several times whether Samba can act as an
ActiveDirectory server, and the answer has always been a categorical NO.

However, I don't recall seeing any thread dealing with the question of
whether such functionality COULD be developed.

Obviously, it WOULD be *possible* to develop this functionality (in the
strict sense of the word possible), but would doing it cause legal
problems for anyone?

Mostly, I'm not sure whether M$-held patent issues would come into play,
and thus I'd like to see comments from the development team leads to see
what their thoughts on this are (I'm sure they have many).

AFAIK ActiveDirectory's authentication/access control core is a modified
MIT-Kerberos V authentication ticket mechanism, coupled with an (I think
modified) LDAP directory, and I'm not sure what other aspects are in
there.  The former two can already be provided by Linux, but I don't
know about the additional stuff...

Anybody care to help educate me a little more on the subject?  Or at
least direct me to relevant docs that explore ActiveDirectory's
techincal aspects with some depth?

Thus, the question is not only can it be done, but also will it be done
eventually, and what functionality is required to achieve it?

Best

Diego