Password Protected Samba Share

This article describes how to create a basic password protected samba share on Linux. This share can be accessed via Windows, OSX, or Linux.

We'll be making a share called smallshare. It will be accessible via UNC paths in windows as \\x.x.x.x\smallshare where x.x.x.x is the server's IP address. The share will reside on disk at /images/smallshare

On CentOS 7, Fedora, Ubuntu, and probably Debian, the process is almost identical.

Install Samba

For CentOS 7 and older, and Fedora 21 and older, install samba:

yum install samba samba-client -y

For Fedora 22 and newer, and probably CentOS 8 and newer, install samba:

dnf install samba samba-client -y

For Ubuntu and Debian, install samba:

apt-get install samba samba-client -y

Start Samba

Start Samba on Fedora/CentOS/RHEL:

systemctl start smb

Start Samba on Ubuntu/Debian:

service smb start

Make the directory

Make the directory you want to share:

mkdir /images/smallshare

Create user and set password

Make a user specifically for it:

useradd smalluser

Set the user's password:

passwd smalluser

Set samba password for the user “small user”, this should match the previous password:

smbpasswd -a smalluser

Set permissions

Set permissions on the local directory:

chown smalluser:smalluser /images/smallshare
chmod 770 /images/smallshare

Configure Samba

Setup the samba configuration script:

vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

Instructions on using Vi: vi

Below is the Samba configuration file. Things above [smallshare] are global and apply to all shares. Then below each bracket name, is settings specific to the share. Feel free to copy/paste.

security = user
passdb backend = tdbsam
unix charset = utf-8
dos charset = cp932

[smallshare]
path = /images/smallshare
read only = no
create mode = 0777
directory mode = 0777
writable = yes
valid users = smalluser

Restart Samba

Then restart Samba in Fedora/CentOS/RHEL:

systemctl restart smb

Restart Samba on Ubuntu/Debian:

service smb restart