[Samba] samba-3.0.23d, smbpasswd, and "NO PASSWORD" behaviour

[Todd Pfaff]

We've recently started using samba-3.0.23d on Mandriva 2007.0 linux 
systems and we've noticed a change in behaviour of smbpasswd when a 
non-root user tries to change their password from "NO PASSWORD".

Here's an example smbpasswd entry (all one line):

   testuser:12345:NO PASSWORDXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:
   NO PASSWORDXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:[NU         ]:LCT-00000000:


The possibly related settings in our smb.conf are:

   encrypt passwords = yes
   security = user
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *password:* %n\n *password* %n\n *successfully*
   null passwords = no


Since "null passwords = no" a user with "NO PASSWORD" should not be able 
to login to the samba account.  That's working as expected.

In past versions of samba, testuser could login to the linux account, run 
smbpasswd, enter an empty old password, and set a new password.

Now when we try this we get this failure:

   [testuser at localhost ~]$ smbpasswd
   Old SMB password:
   New SMB password:
   Retype new SMB password:
   Could not connect to machine 127.0.0.1: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
   Failed to change password for testuser


Does anyone know why this failure is happening now?

Was the behaviour of smbpasswd changed intentionally?
If so, in what samba version did this change happen?

Is there an alternative way to achieve the smbpasswd
behaviour that we had in the past?


Thanks,
--
Todd Pfaff <pfaff at mcmaster.ca>
Research & High-Performance Computing Support
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
http://www.rhpcs.mcmaster.ca/~pfaff