[Samba] Can someone explain SMB passwords?

Paul D. DeRocco pderocco at ix.netcom.com
Sat Jul 20 23:41:31 MDT 2013


I've read what I can find about SMB passwords, but I don't get what they
are. Are they Unix passwords or an alternative to them? If I have a file
share, and the underlying file system requires some sort of credentials to
access it, what is the relationship between that and an SMB password?

If a client tries to access the share, using a user account that is listed
in the smbpasswd file, does the client have to provide a password that
matches the SMB password in order for the server to allow the access, and
having done that, does it then not need to know the Unix password? Or is the
SMB password the Unix password that the server will use to access the share,
so that the client doesn't have to supply a password at all?

I don't even understand if the SMB server runs as root, and can therefore
access anything, or if it can't access local files unless it is given a
password somehow. The smbpasswd(5) and smbpasswd(8) man pages, and
everything else I've read, seem to assume that whoever is reading them
already knows the answers to these questions.

-- 

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



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