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How UNIX file permissions provide access control when accessing files over SMB

Contributors netapp-aherbin
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A FlexVol volume can have one of three types of security style: NTFS, UNIX, or mixed. You can access data over SMB regardless of security style; however, appropriate UNIX file permissions are needed to access data with UNIX effective security.

When data is accessed over SMB, there are several access controls used when determining whether a user is authorized to perform a requested action:

  • Export permissions

    Configuring export permissions for SMB access is optional.

  • Share permissions

  • File permissions

    The following types of file permissions might be applied to the data on which the user wants to perform an action:

    • NTFS

    • UNIX NFSv4 ACLs

    • UNIX mode bits

For data with NFSv4 ACLs or UNIX mode bits set, UNIX style permissions are used to determine file access rights to the data. The SVM administrator needs to set the appropriate file permission to ensure that users have the rights to perform the desired action.

Note

Data in a mixed security-style volume might have either NTFS or UNIX effective security style. If the data has UNIX effective security style, then NFSv4 permissions or UNIX mode bits are used when determining file access rights to the data.