Linuxconf: SAMBA shares menu: Users

Next Previous Contents

## 4. Users

## 4.1 User list

Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delimited list, in which case the supplied password will be tested against each username in turn (left to right).

The User List is needed only when the PC is unable to supply its own username. This is the case for the coreplus protocol or where your users have different WfWg usernames to UNIX usernames. In both these cases you may also be better using the \\server\share%user syntax instead.

The User List is not a great solution in many cases as it means Samba will try to validate the supplied password against each of the usernames in the User List in turn. This is slow and a bad idea for lots of users in case of duplicate passwords. You may get timeouts or security breaches using this parameter unwisely.

Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This parameter does not restrict who can login, it just offers hints to the Samba server as to what usernames might correspond to the supplied password. Users can login as whoever they please and they will be able to do no more damage than if they started a telnet session. The daemon runs as the user that they log in as, so they cannot do anything that user cannot do.

To restrict a service to a particular set of users you can use the Valid Users field.

If any of the usernames begin with a @ then the name will be looked up in the groups file and will expand to a list of all users in the group of that name. Note that search ing though a groups file can take quite some time, and some clients may time out during the search.

Default: The guest account if a guest service, else the nameof the service.

Examples: fred, mary, jack, jane, @users, @pcgroup

## 4.2 Only user may connect

This is a boolean option that controls whether connections with usernames not in the User List will be allowed. By default this option is disabled so a client can supply a username to be used by the server.

Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce user names from the service name. This can be annoying for the Homes section. To get around this you could use "user = %S" which means your "user" list will be just the service name, which for home directories is the name of the user.

Default: Off

## 4.3 Admin users

This is a list of users who will be granted administrative privileges on the share. This means that they will do all file operations as the super-user (root).

You should use this option very carefully, as any user in this list will be able to do anything they like on the share, irrespective of file permissions.

Default: No admin users.

Example: jason

## 4.4 Write list

This is a list of users that are given read-write access to a service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will be given write access, no matter what the Writable option is set to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.

Note that if a user is in both the read list and the write list then they will be given write access.

See also the Read List option

Default: No write list specified

Example: admin, root, @staff

## 4.5 Valid users

This is a list of users that should be allowed to login to this service. A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.

If this is empty (the default) then any user can login. If a username is in both this list and the Invalid users list then access is denied for that user.

The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the [homes] section.

See also Invalid users.

Default: No valid users list. (anyone can login)

Example: greg, @pcusers

## 4.6 Invalid users

This is a list of users that should not be allowed to login to this service. This is really a "paranoid" check to absolutely ensure an improper setting does not breach your security.

A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.

The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the Homes section.

See also Valid users.

Default: No invalid users.

Example: root fred admin @wheel

## 4.7 Read only user list

This is a list of users that are given read-only access to a service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will not be given write access, no matter what the Writable option is set to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.

See also the Write list option

Default: None

Example: mary, @students

Next Previous Contents