                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.9
                         November 29, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.
It contains the security-relevant bugfix CVE-2018-14628:

    Wrong ntSecurityDescriptor values for "CN=Deleted Objects"
    allow read of object tombstones over LDAP
    (Administrator action required!)
    https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2018-14628.html


Description of CVE-2018-14628
-----------------------------

All versions of Samba from 4.0.0 onwards are vulnerable to an
information leak (compared with the established behaviour of
Microsoft's Active Directory) when Samba is an Active Directory Domain
Controller.

When a domain was provisioned with an unpatched Samba version,
the ntSecurityDescriptor is simply inherited from Domain/Partition-HEAD-Object
instead of being very strict (as on a Windows provisioned domain).

This means also non privileged users can use the
LDAP_SERVER_SHOW_DELETED_OID control in order to view,
the names and preserved attributes of deleted objects.

No information that was hidden before the deletion is visible, but in
with the correct ntSecurityDescriptor value in place the whole object
is also not visible without administrative rights.

There is no further vulnerability associated with this error, merely an
information disclosure.

Action required in order to resolve CVE-2018-14628!
---------------------------------------------------

The patched Samba does NOT protect existing domains!

The administrator needs to run the following command
(on only one domain controller)
in order to apply the protection to an existing domain:

  samba-tool dbcheck --cross-ncs --attrs=nTSecurityDescriptor --fix

The above requires manual interaction in order to review the
changes before they are applied. Typicall question look like this:

  Reset nTSecurityDescriptor on CN=Deleted Objects,DC=samba,DC=org back to provision default?
        Owner mismatch: SY (in ref) DA(in current)
        Group mismatch: SY (in ref) DA(in current)
        Part dacl is different between reference and current here is the detail:
                (A;;LCRPLORC;;;AU) ACE is not present in the reference
                (A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;SY) ACE is not present in the reference
                (A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;DA) ACE is not present in the reference
                (A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPSDRCWDWO;;;SY) ACE is not present in the current
                (A;;LCRP;;;BA) ACE is not present in the current
   [y/N/all/none] y
  Fixed attribute 'nTSecurityDescriptor' of 'CN=Deleted Objects,DC=samba,DC=org'

The change should be confirmed with 'y' for all objects starting with
'CN=Deleted Objects'.


Changes since 4.18.8
--------------------

o  Michael Adam <obnox@samba.org>
   * BUG 15497: Add make command for querying Samba version.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15487: smbd crashes if asked to return full information on close of a
     stream handle with delete on close disposition set.
   * BUG 15521: smbd: fix close order of base_fsp and stream_fsp in
     smb_fname_fsp_destructor().

o  Björn Jacke <bj@sernet.de>
   * BUG 15093: Files without "read attributes" NFS4 ACL permission are not
     listed in directories.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 13595: CVE-2018-14628 [SECURITY] Deleted Object tombstones visible in
     AD LDAP to normal users.

o  Christof Schmitt <cs@samba.org>
   * BUG 15507: vfs_gpfs stat calls fail due to file system permissions.

o  Christof Schmitt <christof.schmitt@us.ibm.com>
   * BUG 15497: Add make command for querying Samba version.

o  Martin Schwenke <mschwenke@ddn.com>
   * BUG 15479: ctdbd: setproctitle not initialized messages flooding logs.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


Release notes for older releases follow:
----------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.8
                          October 10, 2023
                   ==============================


This is a security release in order to address the following defects:


o CVE-2023-3961:  Unsanitized pipe names allow SMB clients to connect as root to
                  existing unix domain sockets on the file system.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-3961.html

o CVE-2023-4091:  SMB client can truncate files to 0 bytes by opening files with
                  OVERWRITE disposition when using the acl_xattr Samba VFS
                  module with the smb.conf setting
                  "acl_xattr:ignore system acls = yes"
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-4091.html

o CVE-2023-4154:  An RODC and a user with the GET_CHANGES right can view all
                  attributes, including secrets and passwords.  Additionally,
                  the access check fails open on error conditions.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-4154.html

o CVE-2023-42669: Calls to the rpcecho server on the AD DC can request that the
                  server block for a user-defined amount of time, denying
                  service.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-42669.html

o CVE-2023-42670: Samba can be made to start multiple incompatible RPC
                  listeners, disrupting service on the AD DC.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-42670.html


Changes since 4.18.7
--------------------

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15422: CVE-2023-3961.

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 15424: CVE-2023-4154.
   * BUG 15473: CVE-2023-42670.
   * BUG 15474: CVE-2023-42669.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15439: CVE-2023-4091.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15424: CVE-2023-4154.

o  Joseph Sutton <josephsutton@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15424: CVE-2023-4154.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.7
                         September 27, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.


Changes since 4.18.6
--------------------

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15419: Weird filename can cause assert to fail in
     openat_pathref_fsp_nosymlink().
   * BUG 15423: use-after-free in aio_del_req_from_fsp during smbd shutdown
     after failed IPC FSCTL_PIPE_TRANSCEIVE.
   * BUG 15432: TREE_CONNECT without SETUP causes smbd to use uninitialized
     pointer.

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 15401: Avoid infinite loop in initial user sync with Azure AD Connect.
   * BUG 15407: Samba replication logs show (null) DN.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15463: macOS mdfind returns only 50 results.

o  Remi Collet <rcollet@redhat.com>
   * BUG 14808: smbc_getxattr() return value is incorrect.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15481: GETREALFILENAME_CACHE can modify incoming new filename with
     previous cache entry value.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15464: libnss_winbind causes memory corruption since samba-4.18,
     impacts sendmail, zabbix, potentially more.

o  MikeLiu <mikeliu@qnap.com>
   * BUG 15453: File doesn't show when user doesn't have permission if
     aio_pthread is loaded.

o  Martin Schwenke <mschwenke@ddn.com>
   * BUG 15451: ctdb_killtcp fails to work with --enable-pcap and libpcap ≥
     1.9.1.

o  Joseph Sutton <josephsutton@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15476: The KDC in 4.18 (and older) is not able to accept tickets with
     empty claims pac blobs (from Samba 4.19 or Windows).
   * BUG 15477: The heimdal KDC doesn't detect s4u2self correctly when fast is
     in use.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.6
                          August 16, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.


Changes since 4.18.5
--------------------

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15420: reply_sesssetup_and_X() can dereference uninitialized tmp
     pointer.
   * BUG 15430: Missing return in reply_exit_done().

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 15289: post-exec password redaction for samba-tool is more reliable for
     fully random passwords as it no longer uses regular expressions
     containing the password value itself.
   * BUG 9959: Windows client join fails if a second container CN=System exists
     somewhere.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15342: Spotlight sometimes returns no results on latest macOS.
   * BUG 15417: Renaming results in NT_STATUS_SHARING_VIOLATION if previously
     attempted to remove the destination.
   * BUG 15427: Spotlight results return wrong date in result list.

o  Günther Deschner <gd@samba.org>
   * BUG 15414: "net offlinejoin provision" does not work as non-root user.

o  Pavel Filipenský <pfilipensky@samba.org>
   * BUG 15400: rpcserver no longer accepts double backslash in dfs pathname.
   * BUG 15433: cm_prepare_connection() calls close(fd) for the second time.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15346: 2-3min delays at reconnect with smb2_validate_sequence_number:
     bad message_id 2.
   * BUG 15441: samba-tool ntacl get segfault if aio_pthread appended.
   * BUG 15446: DCERPC_PKT_CO_CANCEL and DCERPC_PKT_ORPHANED can't be parsed.

o  Noel Power <noel.power@suse.com>
   * BUG 15390: Python tarfile extraction needs change to avoid a warning
     (CVE-2007-4559 mitigation).
   * BUG 15435: Regression DFS not working with widelinks = true.

o  Arvid Requate <requate@univention.de>
   * BUG 9959: Windows client join fails if a second container CN=System exists
    somewhere.

o  Jones Syue <jonessyue@qnap.com>
   * BUG 15441: samba-tool ntacl get segfault if aio_pthread appended.
   * BUG 15449: mdssvc: Do an early talloc_free() in _mdssvc_open().


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.5
                           July 19, 2023
                   ==============================


This is a security release in order to address the following defects:

o CVE-2022-2127:  When winbind is used for NTLM authentication, a maliciously
                  crafted request can trigger an out-of-bounds read in winbind
                  and possibly crash it.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2022-2127.html

o CVE-2023-3347:  SMB2 packet signing is not enforced if an admin configured
                  "server signing = required" or for SMB2 connections to Domain
                  Controllers where SMB2 packet signing is mandatory.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-3347.html

o CVE-2023-34966: An infinite loop bug in Samba's mdssvc RPC service for
                  Spotlight can be triggered by an unauthenticated attacker by
                  issuing a malformed RPC request.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-34966.html

o CVE-2023-34967: Missing type validation in Samba's mdssvc RPC service for
                  Spotlight can be used by an unauthenticated attacker to
                  trigger a process crash in a shared RPC mdssvc worker process.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-34967.html

o CVE-2023-34968: As part of the Spotlight protocol Samba discloses the server-
                  side absolute path of shares and files and directories in
                  search results.
                  https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-34968.html


Changes since 4.18.4
--------------------

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15072: CVE-2022-2127.
   * BUG 15340: CVE-2023-34966.
   * BUG 15341: CVE-2023-34967.
   * BUG 15388: CVE-2023-34968.
   * BUG 15397: CVE-2023-3347.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15072: CVE-2022-2127.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15418: Secure channel faulty since Windows 10/11 update 07/2023.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.4
                           July 05, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.


Changes since 4.18.3
--------------------

o  Douglas Bagnall <douglas.bagnall@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15404: Backport --pidl-developer fixes.

o  Samuel Cabrero <scabrero@samba.org>
   * BUG 14030: Named crashes on DLZ zone update.

o  Björn Jacke <bj@sernet.de>
   * BUG 2312: smbcacls and smbcquotas do not check // before the server.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15382: cli_list loops 100% CPU against pre-lanman2 servers.
   * BUG 15391: smbclient leaks fds with showacls.
   * BUG 15402: smbd returns NOT_FOUND when creating files on a r/o filesystem.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15355: NSS_WRAPPER_HOSTNAME doesn't match NSS_WRAPPER_HOSTS entry and
     causes test timeouts.

o  Noel Power <noel.power@suse.com>
   * BUG 15384: net ads lookup (with unspecified realm) fails.

o  Christof Schmitt <cs@samba.org>
   * BUG 15381: Register Samba processes with GPFS.

o  Andreas Schneider <asn@samba.org>
   * BUG 15390: Python tarfile extraction needs change to avoid a warning
     (CVE-2007-4559 mitigation).
   * BUG 15398: The winbind child segfaults when listing users with `winbind
     scan trusted domains = yes`.

o  Jones Syue <jonessyue@qnap.com>
   * BUG 15383: Remove comments about deprecated 'write cache size'.
   * BUG 15403: smbget memory leak if failed to download files recursively.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.3
                            May 31, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.


Changes since 4.18.2
--------------------

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15375: Symlinks to files can have random DOS mode information in a
     directory listing.
   * BUG 15378: vfs_fruit might cause a failing open for delete.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15361: winbind recurses into itself via rpcd_lsad.
   * BUG 15366: wbinfo -u fails on ad dc with >1000 users.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15338: DS ACEs might be inherited to unrelated object classes.
   * BUG 15362: a lot of messages: get_static_share_mode_data:
     get_static_share_mode_data_fn failed: NT_STATUS_NOT_FOUND.
   * BUG 15374: aes256 smb3 encryption algorithms are not allowed in
     smb3_sid_parse().

o  Andreas Schneider <asn@samba.org>
   * BUG 15360: Setting veto files = /.*/ break listing directories.

o  Joseph Sutton <josephsutton@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15363: "samba-tool domain provision" does not run interactive mode if
     no arguments are given.

o  Nathaniel W. Turner <nturner@exagrid.com>
   * BUG 15325: dsgetdcname: assumes local system uses IPv4.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.2
                           April 19, 2023
                   ==============================


This is the latest stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.


Changes since 4.18.1
--------------------

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15302: Log flood: smbd_calculate_access_mask_fsp: Access denied:
     message level should be lower.
   * BUG 15306: Floating point exception (FPE) via cli_pull_send at
     source3/libsmb/clireadwrite.c.

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 15328: test_tstream_more_tcp_user_timeout_spin fails intermittently on
     Rackspace GitLab runners.
   * BUG 15329: Reduce flapping of ridalloc test.
   * BUG 15351: large_ldap test is unreliable.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15143: New filename parser doesn't check veto files smb.conf parameter.
   * BUG 15354: mdssvc may crash when initializing.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15313: large directory optimization broken for non-lcomp path elements.
   * BUG 15357: streams_depot fails to create streams.
   * BUG 15358: shadow_copy2 and streams_depot don't play well together.

o  Rob van der Linde <rob@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15316: Flapping tests in samba_tool_drs_show_repl.py.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15317: winbindd idmap child contacts the domain controller without a
     need.
   * BUG 15318: idmap_autorid may fail to map sids of trusted domains for the
     first time.
   * BUG 15319: idmap_hash doesn't use ID_TYPE_BOTH for reverse mappings.
   * BUG 15323: net ads search -P doesn't work against servers in other domains.
   * BUG 15353: Temporary smbXsrv_tcon_global.tdb can't be parsed.

o  Joseph Sutton <josephsutton@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15316: Flapping tests in samba_tool_drs_show_repl.py.
   * BUG 15343: Tests use depricated and removed methods like
     assertRegexpMatches.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.1
                           March 29, 2023
                   ==============================


This is a security release in order to address the following defects:

o CVE-2023-0225: An incomplete access check on dnsHostName allows authenticated
                 but otherwise unprivileged users to delete this attribute from
                 any object in the directory.
                 https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-0225.html

o CVE-2023-0922: The Samba AD DC administration tool, when operating against a
                 remote LDAP server, will by default send new or reset
                 passwords over a signed-only connection.
                 https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-0922.html

o CVE-2023-0614: The fix in 4.6.16, 4.7.9, 4.8.4 and 4.9.7 for CVE-2018-10919
                 Confidential attribute disclosure via LDAP filters was
                 insufficient and an attacker may be able to obtain
                 confidential BitLocker recovery keys from a Samba AD DC.
                 Installations with such secrets in their Samba AD should
                 assume they have been obtained and need replacing.
                 https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-0614.html


Changes since 4.18.0
--------------------

o  Douglas Bagnall <douglas.bagnall@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15276: CVE-2023-0225.

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 15270: CVE-2023-0614.
   * BUG 15331: ldb wildcard matching makes excessive allocations.
   * BUG 15332: large_ldap test is inefficient.

o  Rob van der Linde <rob@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15315: CVE-2023-0922.

o  Joseph Sutton <josephsutton@catalyst.net.nz>
   * BUG 15270: CVE-2023-0614.
   * BUG 15276: CVE-2023-0225.


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ==============================
                   Release Notes for Samba 4.18.0
                           March 08, 2023
                   ==============================

This is the first stable release of the Samba 4.18 release series.
Please read the release notes carefully before upgrading.

NEW FEATURES/CHANGES
====================

SMB Server performance improvements
-----------------------------------

The security improvements in recent releases
(4.13, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16), mainly as protection against symlink races,
caused performance regressions for metadata heavy workloads.

While 4.17 already improved the situation quite a lot,
with 4.18 the locking overhead for contended path based operations
is reduced by an additional factor of ~ 3 compared to 4.17.
It means the throughput of open/close
operations reached the level of 4.12 again.

More succinct samba-tool error messages
---------------------------------------

Historically samba-tool has reported user error or misconfiguration by
means of a Python traceback, showing you where in its code it noticed
something was wrong, but not always exactly what is amiss. Now it
tries harder to identify the true cause and restrict its output to
describing that. Particular cases include:

 * a username or password is incorrect
 * an ldb database filename is wrong (including in smb.conf)
 * samba-tool dns: various zones or records do not exist
 * samba-tool ntacl: certain files are missing
 * the network seems to be down
 * bad --realm or --debug arguments

Accessing the old samba-tool messages
-------------------------------------

This is not new, but users are reminded they can get the full Python
stack trace, along with other noise, by using the argument '-d3'.
This may be useful when searching the web.

The intention is that when samba-tool encounters an unrecognised
problem (especially a bug), it will still output a Python traceback.
If you encounter a problem that has been incorrectly identified by
samba-tool, please report it on https://bugzilla.samba.org.

Colour output with samba-tool --color
-------------------------------------

For some time a few samba-tool commands have had a --color=yes|no|auto
option, which determines whether the command outputs ANSI colour
codes. Now all samba-tool commands support this option, which now also
accepts 'always' and 'force' for 'yes', 'never' and 'none' for 'no',
and 'tty' and 'if-tty' for 'auto' (this more closely matches
convention). With --color=auto, or when --color is omitted, colour
codes are only used when output is directed to a terminal.

Most commands have very little colour in any case. For those that
already used it, the defaults have changed slightly.

 * samba-tool drs showrepl: default is now 'auto', not 'no'

 * samba-tool visualize: the interactions between --color-scheme,
   --color, and --output have changed slightly. When --color-scheme is
   set it overrides --color for the purpose of the output diagram, but
   not for other output like error messages.

New samba-tool dsacl subcommand for deleting ACES
-------------------------------------------------

The samba-tool dsacl tool can now delete entries in directory access
control lists. The interface for 'samba-tool dsacl delete' is similar
to that of 'samba-tool dsacl set', with the difference being that the
ACEs described by the --sddl argument are deleted rather than added.

No colour with NO_COLOR environment variable
--------------------------------------------

With both samba-tool --color=auto (see above) and some other places
where we use ANSI colour codes, the NO_COLOR environment variable will
disable colour output. See https://no-color.org/ for a description of
this variable. `samba-tool --color=always` will use colour regardless
of NO_COLOR.

New wbinfo option --change-secret-at
------------------------------------

The wbinfo command has a new option, --change-secret-at=<DOMAIN CONTROLLER>
which forces the trust account password to be changed at a specified domain
controller. If the specified domain controller cannot be contacted the
password change fails rather than trying other DCs.

New option to change the NT ACL default location
------------------------------------------------

Usually the NT ACLs are stored in the security.NTACL extended
attribute (xattr) of files and directories. The new
"acl_xattr:security_acl_name" option allows to redefine the default
location. The default "security.NTACL" is a protected location, which
means the content of the security.NTACL attribute is not accessible
from normal users outside of Samba. When this option is set to use a
user-defined value, e.g. user.NTACL then any user can potentially
access and overwrite this information. The module prevents access to
this xattr over SMB, but the xattr may still be accessed by other
means (eg local access, SSH, NFS). This option must only be used when
this consequence is clearly understood and when specific precautions
are taken to avoid compromising the ACL content.

Azure Active Directory / Office365 synchronisation improvements
--------------------------------------------------------------

Use of the Azure AD Connect cloud sync tool is now supported for
password hash synchronisation, allowing Samba AD Domains to synchronise
passwords with this popular cloud environment.

REMOVED FEATURES
================


smb.conf changes
================

  Parameter Name                          Description     Default
  --------------                          -----------     -------
  acl_xattr:security_acl_name             New             security.NTACL
  server addresses                        New


CHANGES SINCE 4.18.0rc4
=======================

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15314: streams_xattr is creating unexpected locks on folders.

o  Volker Lendecke <vl@samba.org>
   * BUG 15310: New samba-dcerpc architecture does not scale gracefully.


CHANGES SINCE 4.18.0rc3
=======================

o  Andreas Schneider <asn@samba.org>
   * BUG 15308: Avoid that tests fail because other tests didn't do cleanup on
     failure.

o  baixiangcpp <baixiangcpp@gmail.com>
   * BUG 15311: fd_load() function implicitly closes the fd where it should not.


CHANGES SINCE 4.18.0rc2
=======================

o  Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>
   * BUG 15301: Improve file_modtime() and issues around smb3 unix test.

o  Ralph Boehme <slow@samba.org>
   * BUG 15299: Spotlight doesn't work with latest macOS Ventura.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15298: Build failure on solaris with tevent 0.14.0 (and ldb 2.7.0).
     (tevent 0.14.1 and ldb 2.7.1 are already released...)

o  John Mulligan <jmulligan@redhat.com>
   * BUG 15307: vfs_ceph incorrectly uses fsp_get_io_fd() instead of
     fsp_get_pathref_fd() in close and fstat.

o  Andreas Schneider <asn@samba.org>
   * BUG 15291: test_chdir_cache.sh doesn't work with SMBD_DONT_LOG_STDOUT=1.
   * BUG 15301: Improve file_modtime() and issues around smb3 unix test.


CHANGES SINCE 4.18.0rc1
=======================

o  Andrew Bartlett <abartlet@samba.org>
   * BUG 10635: Office365 azure Password Sync not working.

o  Stefan Metzmacher <metze@samba.org>
   * BUG 15286: auth3_generate_session_info_pac leaks wbcAuthUserInfo.

o  Noel Power <noel.power@suse.com>
   * BUG 15293: With clustering enabled samba-bgqd can core dump due to use
     after free.


KNOWN ISSUES
============

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Release_Planning_for_Samba_4.18#Release_blocking_bugs


#######################################
Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
#######################################

Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
joining the #samba-technical:matrix.org matrix room, or
#samba-technical IRC channel on irc.libera.chat

If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
the problem then you will probably be ignored.  All bug reports should
be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================

