[Samba] smbpasswd truncates password to 8 chars on Solaris sparc?

[Zube]

Good Day.  In June, I posted a small query under the Subject of

_odd smbpasswd / smbclient error from Linux to Solaris_

Briefly, a Solaris sparc server running 3.0.25a would not accept passwords 
from the Linux smbclient program if the password was 9 characters or greater.
Instead, one would get this:

session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE

but it worked fine with the Solaris sparc smbclient.  Again, this with
just with a passwd backend, very simple.

Now running 3.0.25b and after digging deeper, it appears that things are
worse than I first thought.  smbpasswd is truncating passwords at 8 
characters.  For example, set a 9+ character password for a user with:

smbpasswd dummy

then try to mount the dummy share from windows using the dummy user and 
password or use smbclient from linux.  In both cases, it fails.  However,
if one types only the first 8 characters of the password, it works fine.

Any pointers are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Zube