Samba 4 Technology Preview Released

daria42 writes "Samba creator Andrew Tridgell has officially released a technology preview of Samba 4 at the Linux.conf.au conference in New Zealand, ending a three-year wait for users. But wait before upgrading those servers. 'It may eat your cat,' says the Samba team in a statement, 'but is far more likely to choose to munch on your password database.'" From the article: "'Samba 4 supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon environment used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain join and domain logon operations with these clients,' the group said in a statement on its Web site, noting this feature was 'the main emphasis' for the new software."

Jeremy Allison on Samba 4

Came across this (short but interesting) interview with Jeremy Allison, one of the project's lead developers, where he talks about Samba 4:

http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/modules.php?op=modloa d&name=News&file=article&sid=217 [linuxformat.co.uk]

Any software that has a 'Susan Stage' has got to be cool :-)

Re:Jeremy Allison on Samba 4

There's a very interesting quote at the end of that article:

"Let's be honest, we don't really care about selling it, we're just having fun doing it. So long as we're having fun and we're working on problems that interest us then other people can worry about market share and how you sell it to the government or whoever, because that's the stuff that interests them."

If you think about it for a minute, if you consider how Open Source functions, where people work on the things that interest them, the "suits" that are often derided from some quarters are just filling a non-technical need in the Open Source community. There are often calls for people to test, write manuals, and create artwork as something they can do if they aren't programmers, but perhaps "marketing, sales, build corporations" are things that also should be added to that list?

To clarify, I'm certainly not talking about the CherryOS-style GPL-theives, but honest and earnest businesspeople (even though their motives may be primarily cash, they still must abide by proper Open Source rules).

Anyway, thought it was interesting.

Re:Jeremy Allison on Samba 4

where people work on the things that interest them

Let's not kid ourselves: this is the good news/bad news of FOSS.
The genius of proprietary software: getting you to trade your sovreignty for code that does a lot of the less interesting stuff.
Unless you're actually selling that printer, are you going to want to spend all day writing a driver for it, much less testing it against a bazillion OS's?

Re:Jeremy Allison on Samba 4

RMS started the Free Software Movement because he wanted to improve a printer driver for an early laser printer and they wouln't give him the source.

What Kind of Passwords Does It Prefer?

Smooth or Crunchy?

Re:What Kind of Passwords Does It Prefer?

I was going to say that it likes them hashed.

Just Work (TM)

But can I make an anonymous read/write share without performing invasive surery on config files. And can I then easily mount that share?

Samba is great as a home network share, but it's not a single click system. Security on a home netowrk doesn't really interest me. I'd like to be able to "just share" the files without setting up users etc, etc.

Re:Just Work (TM)

Security on a home netowrk doesn't really interest me.

I know - thats why I'm posting this from your home PC.

I'd like to be able to "just share" the files without setting up users etc, etc.

Just post your requirements here I'll set them up for you... after all I don't want your home net to be locked down ;-)

Seriously - just because you would like software to be shipped insecure (and easy) by default doesn't mean that it should be. Have a look at this guide - Samba-3: A Simple Anonymous Read-Write Server [informit.com]

Re:Just Work (TM)

What he meant there should be definetly easy way to turn it on, of course, with warning that some security problems could arise. AFAIK, KDE and GNOME has both easy ways to create shares for now, but there is no way to configure SAMBA for just several default scenarios which could be - anonymous read-only, anonymous read-write, user-based read-only, user-based read-write, custom. Default could be user-based read-only. Or something like that.

For example, OS X Tiger server uses SAMBA for Windows support. Any mangling with configuration goes trough Server Admin GUI (you can mess with configuration file too), but any changes gets written back to standard smb.conf.

It could be very good and nice present for common crowd.

Re:Just Work (TM)

"[Samba is] not a single click system." Hooray for that. I'd love to be able to give the boot to these Windows servers with their sysadmin-hostile pointy-clicky interfaces and their million and one secret Registry keys that have no user interface at all. Go Samba Team!

it's in Debian

Debian allready has packages.
Install them by running:
aptitude install -t experimental samba

But you'll need to add an entry for experimental to /etc/apt/sources.list first.
If you don't know how to, you shouldn't be messing with experimental software anyway.

Re:it's in Debian

"If you don't know how to breathe, you shouldn't bother taking your first breath."

Or, closer to the original: "Breathing. If you don't know how to, you shouldn't be messing with environmental oxygenation anyway."

Here's a link to a howto [debian.org] for configuring your Debian installation to use the experimental packages. (It's in section 4.6.4.3, or just search on the page for "experimental".)

Samba 4

There has been info about Samba 4 for some time. Andrew Bartlett [samba.org] wrote a year ago an interesting thesis about Samba 4 and Active Directory [samba.org] (PDF).

But the release of this TP is good news, I hope that the use of Microsoft's Active Directory as an authentication service for Linux systems [securityfocus.com] is coming to an end. All what we need now is a nice GUI [samba.org].

What is this samba you speak of?

Since discovering the joys of NFS I've not looked back (yes I do know what samba is and I run a samba server). Compared to Samba, NFS is almost too simple and reliable. Give me my complixity and unreliablity back!

Re:What is this samba you speak of?

I'm not a sysadmin, but I never got how NFS prevented a user plugging a computer which they have root access on into the network, mounting a common NFS mount, "su"ing to somebody's UID and then deleting their files. AFAICS, SMB handles this by requiring credentials of some kind from the computer. Can anyone explain this?

Re:What is this samba you speak of?

I'm not a sysadmin, but I never got how NFS prevented a user plugging a computer which they have root access on into the network, mounting a common NFS mount, "su"ing to somebody's UID and then deleting their files. AFAICS, SMB handles this by requiring credentials of some kind from the computer. Can anyone explain this?

"Authentication" with NFS is IP based. You grant access to NFS mounts by specifying which hosts can mount that share. This implies that the hosts you allow are trusted, and that your network is trusted as well. So yes, if a computer you have root access to has been granted read/write access to an NFS mount then you can just su to someone else's UID and delete their files on that NFS mount.

Is it a good idea to use NFS in a security sensitive environment? Probably not.

Re:What is this samba you speak of?

That doesn't help when the root user creates a user account with the correct UID and then logs in as that user, does it?

My cat lost his password

'It may eat your cat,' says the Samba team in a statement, 'but is far more likely to choose to munch on your password database.'

Wow, it only took 25 days for Samba to break its New Year's resolution to eat less and lose weight.

NZ???

Linux.conf.au conference in New Zealand

What the ... HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD!

Since when did anything .au become New Zealands responsibility? Usually its the other way around! I.e blaming the existance of Russle Crow on Australians. This wasnt our fault HE WAS BORN IN NZ! Now they NZ is stealing our conferences. I for one find this an outrage!

But as an Active Directory replacement?

Can it do authorization of group access to a given application? How about publishing network resources (printers, workstations, etc.)? Can Samba 4 replicate its data between multiple sites? Is Samba 4's AD functionality even built off any sort of LDAP technology to begin with (probably OpenLDAP, if anything)?

For all MSFT's faults (and there are many, as /. routinely points out), AD *is* a decent NOS directory...

Re:But as an Active Directory replacement?

Yes, active directory is decent - if you only ever want windows clients. I confess that Ive got a samba3 server (Gentooooooo) as "full" member of our W2K ActiveDirectory - and even got the permissions synced up enough so that users can right-click files and play with permissions through the gui on the doze client. HOWEVER this setup took weeks of tweakage, involved a dozen or so actual software packages, and required violating some published microsoft specs on how AD (supposedly...) works. If samba4 gives me this without the BS, I'm happy. If samba4 lets me replace my domain controller and have the existing doze infrastructure not notice, I'm even more happy.

Which version of Active Directory?

This all sounds great, but will it work when(if) Vista comes out? Previously, I had samba setups running beautifully on Win2K networks. Then 2003 came out and it messed it all up. Eventually Samba (and supporting docs) caught up and 2003 now works reasonably well. So will Samba 4 come out with great support for 2003 then break as soon as Vista is released?

Will configuration be simplified ?

Will configuration be simplified ? Will it be more easy ?
I haver never understood thoses WINSserver/NetBIOS/User-Ressource-logins/sharing/r elationsWithIP/etc. mess at all. I have once or twice made it up to access some Win98 or Win95 files on a connected computer, but I it was with tries and errors, not knowing what was that last change that made it work finally.

Maybe it's I who has a problem, maybe it's Windows way of doing a network (why not plain old FTP ?), or maybe it's Samba that is complicated. Even if it's Windows or me, maybe there could be some way to structure Samba's configuration files so that it is becomes easier.

Are there plans for this for version 4 ?

Samba 3 Almost but not quite Active Directory,.

On my home network, I have been using Samba as an internal network file system for Linux to Linux networking. I use LDAP as my Database backend, Kerberos as my means of authentication too Samba.

You see I discovered something about Windows and SMB. Windows Cached its passwords. The passwords were replayed across the network whenever a new socket was opened. Konqueror would not replicate this behavior unless forced to by the KDE Control center. I have a big long thing that describes the whole thing.

It is not totally perfect but I want you to tell me if you think that
this constitutes Active Directory, or at least something close.
Eitherway, This is a major accomplishment for me, and I wanted some
suggestions or potential improvements because I know this isn't perfect
but it is a noticable advancement.

Abstract

The general idea is that we have a single unifying database system
(LDAP) a single protocol for Sign-On (Kerberos) Name resolution (Bind
DNS) And a network File system (CIFS by care of Samba.)

Basically, Kerberos now acts as a single sign-on (SSO) facility for my
home network.

When you log in Linux Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) verify the
account's credibility via LDAP, and request a ticket from the Kerberos
Key Distribution Center. based on the Principal (Username and Password)
and Policies in the Kerberos Realm.

These are DNS Service records thaat help clients find their KDC without the need for client side configuration files. This is how clients detect servers without Broadcast discovery protocols like Netbios Message Block,. The reason this is important is because it elimanates the "replay" attack threat from the fact that Windows likes to Cache its passwords in SAM files (PWL Files in the 9x Series). Even without the User's knowlege.

Some things I want to draw attention to.

First, this is a Windows 2000 Style Port 445 CIFS (SMBX) connection between two Linux machines. NOT a port 139 NT4 Netbios Session (SMB) connection.

The second thing I want you to notice is the fact that both servers are doing SPENGO, also known as "Sign and Seal" In Windows 2003 Server.

Finally that it aquaired the valid Kerberos Principal and ticket, and did a valid Kerberos setup.

Sorry if I sound incoherent. I'm tired.

Novell had it first

Back when win 2k was just being released with AD I was in the midst of a class on Novell's network security model, they look supprisingly similer... like Microsoft got inspired by something that Novell had done...

Unfortunetly both are very complex and potentialy confusing, but Novell had it out for a while, so it as least was stable. Since then I've gotten out of the networking and gone into asp, asp.net, and javascript programming, where things make a little sense..... right?... (even I don't believe it)

Easy Transition? Excellent.

This is going to be fantastic for consultants when Win2K Server support ends.

Many companies are not going to want something that isn't supported and will be looking where they should transition. Savvy consultants can propose a migration to Samba which could provide higher margins than reselling Microsoft solutions -- especially if they aren't a close partner of Microsoft -- and they will be able to fix problems and customize the solution themselves without having to point fingers (they still can, they just don't have to).

This quote from the article gets me all warm and tingly inside:
"Tridge demonstrated sucking the life out a Windows 2003 PDC [primary domain controller] in one click, importing all its user and machine information using SWAT."
"He then restarted [domain server] BIND on his Samba 4 server, changed the server role to PDC ... shut down the Windows PDC and then logged into the domain with an XP client using the new Samba 4 server as the PDC."

Samba 4 BDC to Windows PDC?

So does this mean that Samba 4 will be able to act as a BDC to a Windows 2k3 PDC? I'm going to be setting up a new box soon and would like to use Samba if possible, but the PDC has to remain Windows based.

Re:Only 6 years

True but this if free as in beer and as in $0.

Re:Only 6 years

Actually, windows copied in 2000 what was available in other environments for many years. AD is the bastard son of ldap+kerberos+smb.

What took years is reverse-engineering all the weird quirks MS introduced in the previously standard systems.

Besides, Samba can do a lot nifty things AD can't, so who's behind?

Re:Only 6 years

Actually I think its quite good concidering how they are doing all of it without looking at the windows source code. The linux NTFS driver is in a similar camp (implementing without access to the closed source).

Re:Only 6 years

Yes. Not bad going for reverse engineering a deliberatley obsfucated and poorly documented proprietary set of protocols plus an open standard security protocol that was subtley altered and therefore incompatible with other standard implementations. Yep. Pretty good job for something that was done completely voluntarily. Sheesh...

Re:Only 6 years

So, in 2006, Samba is finally able to do what windows was able in 2000?

Five years to reverse engineer a difficult, obfuscated protocol is quite frankly amazing.

And you see - they don't really have to offer full compatability immediately - but if they do it before win2k ends its lifecycle, SAMBA + *nix offers companies dependant on AD a way out without having to go the win2k3 route.

Way to innovate, OSS community!

Way to troll dJOEK!

There is virtually no innovation in software, proprietary or OSS - everyone is just copying everyone elses ideas & making incremental improvements...

I mean we're all using the same desktop paradigm from 30 years ago - and the only substatial innovation I've seen in that is overlapping windows (from maybe 25 years ago)

Re:Only 6 years

Yet Novell was able to do just the same in the early to mid 1990s, soundly beating Microsoft to that post (NDS, of which Active Directory is a poor ripoff).
And for the sharing of network filesystems, this was pegged in open release in 1985 by NFS. Which was on UNIX.
Yet again, Windows is late to the game in all aspects, playing catchup with the rest of the world.
Apart from Windows compatibility, which, for some older applications, it's currently almost as good as WINE and FreeDOS.
Not to knock Windows too much, it does what it was originally intended to do pretty well (i.e. be a desktop that people sit at and do work).

Re:Finally!

Finally, an Open Source Software Feature Set to help the love life of Geeks!

Re:Only 6 years

So, in 2006, Samba is finally able to do what windows was able in 2000?

Um, no. LDAP and Kerberos weren't invented by Microsoft. They put the two together and called it Active Directory, straying away from the RFCs and throwing in all manner of tweaks that required extensive reverse engineering on the part of the Samba team to figure out. That means figuring out the protocol from the packets, which is an incredible feat, especially as Microsoft's protocol designs aren't easily discerned and contain all sorts of weird gotchas (purposefully).

There's a lot of complexity under that GUI of yours and, whether you want to believe it or not, Microsoft isn't such an innovative organization. Generally, they poach something that's already widely available and tweak it so it won't be interoperable with other systems. If you call that innovation, then I guess that speaks for itself.

Re:Only 6 years

Well, actually Microsoft faced a difficult challenge when they decided to go with Kerberos. The NT security model wasn't a very good fit, but they were committed to it by years of investment and dependent design decisions, not to mention a huge installed base. They had to find a way to paste SIDs onto Kerberos. It was a long time before the rest of us got an unencumbered look at the TDATA that they worked out to do this, but once the format was known working with it should not be that complicated.

In terms of volume of proprietary information to work out, the plethora of interlocking directory object types that an ADS client depends on has got to be the big challenge. The static characteristics of these objects and their attributes are documented (I use the term loosely) in the PSDK, but how they are used or even what some values mean is not at all clear. Throw in a few obvious copy/paste errors in the doco. to cloud the issue further and it's not surprising that Samba took this long. Create a new ADS forest and look at all the stuff that was put into it out of nowhere.

Re:Only 6 years

Fine! Have fun spending $$$$$$$$ on Windows server. I'll just go ahead and pick up Samba 4 for free.

Re:Only 6 years

Let's not list all the things Windows can't do after 30 years