[Samba] Passwording a simple anonymous share

[Paul D. DeRocco]

I have an embedded box (Yocto Project based linux distro) to which I'm
adding Samba 3.6 (from OpenEmbedded). All I need it for is to provide one
browsable file share that allows read/write access to anyone on the network.
But I want it to be password protected.

My best guess as to what goes into smb.conf is:

[global]
    workgroup=WORKGROUP
    netbios name=MACHINE
    security=share

[sharename]
    path=/sharedfiles
    force user=root
    read only=no

I use "root" because it's currently the only user I've got on my embedded
system. However, there is no password on the root account, because the only
way to use the root account is to open the box and connect a keyboard and
monitor to the motherboard inside, so security isn't an issue.

The docs mention the smbpasswd command, but it's not clear what this
actually does. Does it tell samba what password to demand from an external
client who wishes to access a particular share? Or does it tell samba what
password to use when accessing the underlying file system, so that an
external client doesn't need to know the password?

The question boils down to this: is there a way to add a password that a
samba client has to provide, without passwording the underlying Linux user,
or do I have to add another passworded user to the Linux user database in
order to have a passworded share?

-- 

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco at ix.netcom.com