AIX Tools

I didnt think Nessus was free in corporate nevironments, is this a limited version?

Does AIX support samba like other *nix distrobutions? I always wonder the overall risk if you misconfigure the linux equivalent of a network "share", and whether theres opportunities for AD accounts to access an AIX share were its security lapse, like you could a share on a windows server.

There is Samba (server) for AIX, and there is CIFS (client) for AIX.

Samba: http://pware.hvcc.edu/download/aix61/pware61.samba.3.5.8.0.bff.gz (3.5.8, installp)
and http://www.perzl.org/aix/index.php?n=Main.Samba (3.6.15, rpm)
CIFS: Base install DVD, bost.cifs_fs.rte, bos.cifs_fs.smit

So in theory its possible for a naive admin to expose data on the servers (if samba or cifs enabled) to windows (AD) users?

That's what Samba can do, yes.

So (totally new to AIX and Linux) does an out the box installation of Linux not "share" directories to external users, do you have to enable CIFS or Samba if requried? Is it common for Linux servers to not have either CIFS or Samba enabled?

Neither Samba nor the cifs client come preinstalled with AIX.

Samba isn't even part of the AIX distribution.

Many Linux distributions contain Samba, but it's generally not installed/activated by default.

>>Many Linux distributions contain Samba, but it's generally not installed/activated by default.

Is that because due to the server role, theres nothing they need to share to users outside those with a local account to access the System?

Can you elaborate slightly on what CIFS is? What is the difference between CIFS and Samba, why would one enable CIFS and not Samba? Sorry for the basic questions just need a degree of knowledge in this area, not expert.

CIFS is just the name of the protocol (formerly: SMB), and under AIX the pure client fileset is called bos.cifs_fs.

Samba is the name of a free CIFS protocol implementation on Unix/Linux providing server and client functionality.

Under Unix/Linux Samba (CIFS) is just one way to share files (and not the one native to these OSes).

The common file sharing method is NFS (Network File System) which is part of each and every Linux/Unix distribution.

Because NFS is ubiquitous file sharing between Unix servers is mostly done using this protocol, and because Windows did not have NFS in the early years one had to port the native Windows file sharing protocol (SMB/CIFS) to Unix - that's Samba.

Ah.... so modern Windows OS ship with NFS "compatibility", do you know if client Windows OS do as well, or just Server grade windows OS?

NFS server comes with the Windows server versions.

NFS client comes with SFU. For Windows 7 and up only in Ultimate or Business.

There are free NFS ports for Windows. Search the web for "NFS Server Windows"

Ok thanks, but I am struggling to see how a windows client essentially maps to a linux share via NFS, do they have to supply a linux username/password pair? I appreciate on Linux Samba share you probably assign an ACL with domain groups, but on an NFS share, what aside from knowing the full path, does the windows user need to supply before they can access the data on the NFS share (I assume its a password and usernmae of a local linux account). Where on the NFS Share do they (the admin) define which users can access these files remotely.

I think these new questions are far away from the original subject.

Try to get familiar with the concepts of NFS and CIFS by reading the appropriate literature or by asking new questions here at EE.

Thanks!

BTW,from the original part of your question,
the LazySystemAdmin free vulnerability scanner at:

http://www.lazysystemadmin.com/2010/05/nessus-vulnerability-and-port-scanner.html
 
says nothing about not being free in any environment.