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4.1. Samba Security Modes
There are two security levels available to the Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) network protocol user- level and share-level. Samba's security mode implementation allows more flexibility, providing four ways of implementing user-level security and one way to implement share-level:
• security = user: requires clients to supply a username and password to connect to shares. Samba user accounts are separate from system accounts, but the libpam-winbind package will sync system users and passwords with the Samba user database.
• security = domain: this mode allows the Samba server to appear to Windows clients as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC), Backup Domain Controller (BDC), or a Domain Member Server (DMS). See Section 5, “As a Domain Controller” [p. 317] for further information.
• security = ADS: allows the Samba server to join an Active Directory domain as a native member. See
Section 6, “Active Directory Integration” [p. 321] for details.
• security = server: this mode is left over from before Samba could become a member server, and due to some security issues should not be used. See the Server Security13 section of the Samba guide for more details.
• security = share: allows clients to connect to shares without supplying a username and password.
The security mode you choose will depend on your environment and what you need the Samba server to accomplish.