Samba configuration for public shares

Question

yesterday I upgraded my fedora box to the latest version, and with that, I also upgraded samba, now using samba 4. I used to access those share from any computer at home without user/password, but now there seems to be something wrong with the configuration.

Here is my smb.conf

[global]
    workgroup = mygroup
    server string = Samba Server Version %v
    netbios name = HOME-WS
    log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
    max log size = 50
    guest ok = yes
    security = share

[Media]
    path = /mnt/Media
    read only = yes
    browseable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    guest only = yes

[Music]
    path = /mnt/Music
    read only = yes
    browseable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    guest only = yes

Looking at the logs, there is a warning related to the security parameter

 WARNING: Ignoring invalid value 'share' for parameter 'security'

Does that means that samba 4 has finally removed 'share' as an option, is there any alternative to it, so that I can configure shares without passwords.

See the "guest access" section at the bottom of this page. http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions — JasonAzze, Jan 19 '13 at 18:23
You are my hero. I don't believe anyone else with only 158 reputation has a gold badge :). — Daniel, Feb 28 '16 at 09:00

score 33 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 31 '13 at 02:20

33

If you follow the FAQ link from JasonAzze, you will see there is a "map to guest" line which is also required, so you need both of these lines:

security = user
map to guest = Bad Password

I had the same problem as the OP, and I have tested that this solution works on Fedora 18

answered Mar 31 '13 at 02:20

banjo67xxx

600
4
7

1

Thanks, worked great! From smb.conf man page: "(map to guest) Bad User - Means user logins with an invalid password are rejected, unless the username does not exist, in which case it is treated as a guest login and mapped into the guest account." Combined with a "guest ok = yes" directive under a share will enable user/password-less browsing. – joelpet Dec 12 '13 at 21:31
2

for map to guest "Bad User" is better: `map to guest = Bad User` - Means user logins with an invalid password are rejected, unless the username does not exist, in which case it is treated as a guest login and mapped into the guest account. As the man page says (`man smb.conf`) users can get confused by the Bad Password option. – Matthew Hannigan Dec 29 '17 at 04:45

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 18 '17 at 01:15

I feel obligated to share this after spending hours trying to get this to work under SAMBA4 - here is my working SAMBA4 smb.conf that does NOT require a password to get to the share from windows

  [global]
  workgroup = HOME
  server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
  dns proxy = no
  log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
  max log size = 1000
  syslog = 0
  panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
  server role = standalone server
  security = user
  map to guest = Bad Password
  passdb backend = tdbsam
  obey pam restrictions = yes
  unix password sync = yes
  passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
  passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:*        %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
  pam password change = yes
  usershare allow guests = yes

  # VIDEO SHARE
    [HD]
    comment = HD Video Share
    path = /RAID/HD
    public = yes
    writable = yes
    available = yes
    browsable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    create mask = 0777
    directory mask = 0777

Thank you for sharing, but I still can't make it work. Maybe I'm missing some directory permission... Windows is no longer asking for a password, but says that there's no permission to access the shared folder. — Edgar Carvalho, Aug 03 '15 at 02:25
You probably also need to chown your shared folder (in his case RAID/HD) or chmod it so it's globally Readable and eXecutable (chmod o+rX /your/dir) — Warren P, Mar 25 '16 at 19:58

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 03:40

4

Change "security = share" to "security = user"

Reason: both share and server have been deprecated in Samba4.

answered Feb 06 '13 at 03:40

binaryhat

41
1

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 19 '15 at 20:46

3

I had to remember to do one other thing before I could get this to work... it was to make sure the permissions on my shared unix directory were read/write for the nobody user or the nogroup group. Debian Jessie, Samba 4.1.

answered Oct 19 '15 at 20:46

desierto

151
2

How exactly do you do that? What the heck is the nobodyuser/nobodygroup? – Warren P Mar 25 '16 at 20:02

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 04 '21 at 14:18

1

It work for me very quick

source : https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Standalone_Server

[global]
    map to guest = Bad User
    log file = /var/log/samba/%m
    log level = 1

[guest]
    # This share allows anonymous (guest) access
    # without authentication!
    path = /srv/samba/guest/
    read only = no
    guest ok = yes

edited Jan 04 '21 at 14:18

Andrew Schulman

8,561
21
31
47

answered Nov 09 '18 at 03:27

Gustavo Paredes

11
1

Samba configuration for public shares

5 Answers5