linux file sharing

[ron.peterson at yellowbank.com (Ron Peterson)]

When discussing the barriers to Linux's widespread adoption on the
desktop, the usual discussion revolves around application compatibility
with MS Office.

There's another problem though, I think.  I'm hoping that it's only my
own ignorance, but I can't concieve of a way to /securely/ provide
centralized file sharing to Linux desktops.  At least not in a way that I
could easily maintain across a multitude of desktops.

NFSv2 and v3 are both insecure.  If the client computer is on my desktop,
I can reinstall Linux, give myself root, and then connect as any user I
want.  Samba's smbmount can prompt for a password, but not if you use
autofs.  This is the best solutions I can think of so far, particularly if
combined with SSL.

I really prefer autofs, however, as it allows a simple expression like

*	hostname:/path/to/home/&

to fill in for all users (nfs example, but you get the idea).  I.E. - easy
maintenance on the client side.  However, autofs will not prompt for
passwords.  So the aforementioned catchall config line doesn't work, and
you need to maintain individual user records containing usernames and
passwords in plain text.

Is there a way to out of this quandry that I'm not aware of?  NFSv4 seems
to recognize and address these concerns.  However, there only appear to be
two open implementations: a kernel level client and server at umich
(http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/), and a userspace client and
server being developed by the Samba folks (http://n4.samba.org).  both
projects, however, appear to be in the very early stages of development.

Is there other solutions to this problem that I'm not thinking of?

-- 

-Ron-
https://www.yellowbank.com/