samba - Feb 2016 - Samba on Win7?

In an environment with Win7 Embedded server and client where UNC pathnames
are used to pull files, can Samba >= 3 be used on both sides (and
Windows'
own SMB disabled) so that communications can be encrypted?

(We can't use IPsec, and it doesn't look like SMB 3.0 will be coming to
Win7. Next thought was Samba. If not that, then I guess I'll look into a
VPN.)

I will admin that I have never heard of Win 7 embedded server.   Or 
actually Win 7 embedded.     But I presume it is a preconfigured win 7 
pro system with some file sharing and that you don't have sufficient 
access to config ipsec?

What are you trying to do ?  Are you trying to protect communications 
between two devices on the same LAN  or over the internet?  VPN's are 
typically using IPsec anyway, although in a tunnel.


On 02/03/16 11:29, Jeff Van Epps wrote:
> In an environment with Win7 Embedded server and client where UNC pathnames
> are used to pull files, can Samba >= 3 be used on both sides (and
Windows'
> own SMB disabled) so that communications can be encrypted?
>
> (We can't use IPsec, and it doesn't look like SMB 3.0 will be
coming to
> Win7. Next thought was Samba. If not that, then I guess I'll look into
a
> VPN.)

I have seen the occasional post asking about running samba on 
windows.  The only semi-valid reason to even try this would be to  get 
around the 5 user share limit on Windows 7.    (Although I think that 
would will violate the license.)


If you have two machines on the same LAN and using an ethernet switch 
(not ethernet hub)  it is more difficult for someone else on the LAN to 
sniff  or capture traffic between the two systems (unless the switch 
itself is compromised with some sort of attack that makes it fail open.)

There is also a different between using ipsec with a VPN (either ipsec 
transport over L2TP or Ipsec tunnel) , and just using IPSec transport to 
encrypt traffic between machines on the same LAN.       I think this is 
something you may need to just log into the machine and see what network 
settings are available .





On 02/04/16 08:09, Jeff Van Epps wrote:
> Windows 7 Embedded is Windows 7 minus some stuff. We use it on consumer
> retail kiosks. I'm told it can't do IPsec.
>
> I was using "server" and "client" in the sense of
"machine which serves
> the file" and "machine which accesses the file remotely". In
our case
> the exact same version of the OS is on both machines.
>
> We are trying to protect communications (specifically SMB file access)
> between computers on the same LAN.
>
> Does anyone run Samba on Windows? Or has no one ever had any reason to?
>
> On 02/03/2016 03:45 PM, Gaiseric Vandal wrote:
>> I will admin that I have never heard of Win 7 embedded server.   Or
>> actually Win 7 embedded.     But I presume it is a preconfigured win 7
>> pro system with some file sharing and that you don't have
sufficient
>> access to config ipsec?
>>
>> What are you trying to do ?  Are you trying to protect communications
>> between two devices on the same LAN  or over the internet?  VPN's
are
>> typically using IPsec anyway, although in a tunnel.
>>
>>
>> On 02/03/16 11:29, Jeff Van Epps wrote:
>>> In an environment with Win7 Embedded server and client where UNC
>>> pathnames
>>> are used to pull files, can Samba >= 3 be used on both sides
(and
>>> Windows'
>>> own SMB disabled) so that communications can be encrypted?
>>>
>>> (We can't use IPsec, and it doesn't look like SMB 3.0 will
be coming to
>>> Win7. Next thought was Samba. If not that, then I guess I'll
look into a
>>> VPN.)
>>
>>