Comments on Fedora 19 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend

Hi

Thank you for the nice How-To.

Just to add that the samba and samba-client should also be allowed through the firewall for the user to be able to map the samba share from a windows machine.

 Many thanks

thank you for this tutorial. worked like a charm on FC 20

given that selinux is the MAJOR security component of the system overall... how do you propose the safety of sharing files over the network being worth opening the machine without selinux on it if that machine is connected to the internet?
Doesn't that leave the entire network vulnerable to compromise through the share? Sounds like one heck of a trade off... is there really no way to allow selinux to run and use this package to share files locally over the LAN?

selinux is treating symptoms and if you're running samba exposed to the world, then you have other worries entirely.

 Shouldn't be too hard to train selinux to handle samba though, but why would you bother?

There are options for SELinux to give Samba certain permissions.

[root@myserver /]# getsebool -a | grep "samba"
samba_create_home_dirs --> off
samba_domain_controller --> off
samba_enable_home_dirs --> off
samba_export_all_ro --> off
samba_export_all_rw --> off
samba_portmapper --> off
samba_run_unconfined --> off
samba_share_fusefs --> off
samba_share_nfs --> off
sanlock_use_samba --> off
use_samba_home_dirs --> off
virt_sandbox_use_samba --> off
virt_use_samba --> off

For example, this is how SELinux can be configured to allow Samba access to users' home directories.

[root@myserver /]# setsebool samba_enable_home_dirs 1

If it doesn't work, check the logs!

[root@myserver /]# tail /var/log/messages 
[root@myserver /]# grep "denied" /var/log/audit/audit.log

Heck, /etc/samba/smb.conf even tells you how to do it!

# Turn the samba_domain_controller Boolean on to allow Samba to use the useradd
# and groupadd family of binaries. Run the following command as the root user to
# turn this Boolean on:
# setsebool -P samba_domain_controller on
#
# Turn the samba_enable_home_dirs Boolean on if you want to share home
# directories via Samba. Run the following command as the root user to turn this
# Boolean on:
# setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on
#
# If you create a new directory, such as a new top-level directory, label it
# with samba_share_t so that SELinux allows Samba to read and write to it. Do
# not label system directories, such as /etc/ and /home/, with samba_share_t, as
# such directories should already have an SELinux label.
#
# Run the "ls -ldZ /path/to/directory" command to view the current SELinux
# label for a given directory.
#
# Set SELinux labels only on files and directories you have created. Use the
# chcon command to temporarily change a label:
# chcon -t samba_share_t /path/to/directory
#
# Changes made via chcon are lost when the file system is relabeled or commands
# such as restorecon are run.
#
# Use the samba_export_all_ro or samba_export_all_rw Boolean to share system
# directories. To share such directories and only allow read-only permissions:
# setsebool -P samba_export_all_ro on
# To share such directories and allow read and write permissions:
# setsebool -P samba_export_all_rw on
#
# To run scripts (preexec/root prexec/print command/...), copy them to the
# /var/lib/samba/scripts/ directory so that SELinux will allow smbd to run them.
# Note that if you move the scripts to /var/lib/samba/scripts/, they retain
# their existing SELinux labels, which may be labels that SELinux does not allow
# smbd to run. Copying the scripts will result in the correct SELinux labels.
# Run the "restorecon -R -v /var/lib/samba/scripts" command as the root user to
# apply the correct SELinux labels to these files.

That's all.

Stop disabling SELinux.