INTERNET-DRAFT                                     Christopher R. Hertel
draft-crhertel-smb-url-08.txt                                 Samba Team
Expires July 8, 2005                                     January 8, 2005


                      SMB File Sharing URI Scheme

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
   of section 3 of RFC 3667.  By submitting this Internet-Draft, the
   author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of
   which he is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which
   he becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   Discussions regarding this document and the SMB URI scheme should
   take place on the uri@w3.org mailing list.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on July 8, 2005.


Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).


Abstract

   The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol is one of the most widely
   used network file system protocols in existence.  This document
   describes the format of the SMB Uniform Resource Indicator (SMB URI).
   The SMB URI can be used to indicate SMB workgroups, servers, shares,
   directories, files, inter-process communications pipes, print queues,
   and devices--the objects in the SMB network file system space.






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Table of Contents

1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   1.1. Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. NBT Transport Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.1. The NetBIOS Name Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.2. The NetBIOS Datagram Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.3. The NetBIOS Session Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.4  Accommodating NBT in the SMB URI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. NetBIOS-Based Workgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. SMB URI Scheme Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. SMB URI Definition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. SMB URI Syntax Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   6.1. scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
   6.2. smb_service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
   6.3. auth_domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
   6.4. smb_srv_name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
   6.5. port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
   6.6. scope_id . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
   6.7. nbt_context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
7. The Relationship Between the SMB URI and the UNC Format . . . . . .13
8. Authentication and Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . .14
9. Character Encoding Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
10. Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
12. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
13. Copyright Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
14. Disclaimer of Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Appendix A. Working with NetBIOS Names (Implementation Notes). . . . .17
   A.1. NetBIOS Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
   A.2. SMB Sessions via NBT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
   A.3. Resolving DNS names and IP addresses to SMB server names . . .18
   A.4. Determining the Namespace of the smb_srv_name. . . . . . . . .19
   A.5. Workgroup vs. SMB Server Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20




















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1. Introduction

   The Server Message Block protocol (SMB) was created in the 1980's by
   Dr. Barry Feigenbaum at IBM Corporation.  It was later extended by
   various contributors at 3Com, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft.  During the
   mid 1990's SMB was renamed CIFS (Common Internet File System).  Both
   names are in general use today.

   SMB was originally carried via a proprietary network transport, the
   interface to which was called NetBIOS (Network Basic Input Output
   System).  Two Internet RFCs ([RFC1001], [RFC1002]) were published
   which describe a mechanism for implementing the NetBIOS API on top
   of TCP and UDP, thus allowing SMB to be carried over IP inter-
   networks.  Those RFCs arard #19, and the transport protocol that they describe is
   commonly called NBT (or, sometimes, NetBT) for "NetBIOS over TCP/IP."

   In addition to transport via NBT, newer implementations of SMB
   typically support SMB over TCP/IP without the intervening NetBIOS
   emulation layer.  This is known as SMB over "native TCP" or "naked
   transport".

   Several attempts have been made to document and even standardize the
   SMB protocol ([XOPENSMB], [ONET], [SNIACIFS], [IMPCIFS]), yet the
   further development of SMB remains under the control of Microsoft.
   Despite its proprietary nature, the workings of SMB are sufficiently
   well known that SMB file sharing has been successfully implemented
   by several third-party commercial vendors and in Open Source.  SMB
   server and client software is available for a wide variety of
   operating system platforms.  The very large number of systems which
   support this form of file sharing make an SMB URI scheme both
   practical and desirable.


   1.1. Purpose

   This document does not attempt to detail the implementation of SMB,
   or the workings of the NBT transport layer.  The goal is to present
   the syntax of the SMB URI, and to describe how it is mapped to the
   semantics of the SMB protocol suite.  A limited set of implementation
   guidelines is provided in the appendices.













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2. NBT Transport Semantics

   The NBT transport maps the semantics of the NetBIOS API onto TCP and
   UDP.  In order to accomplish this, three services are defined in
   RFC1001/1002:

   - The NetBIOS Name Service
   - The NetBIOS Datagram Service
   - The NetBIOS Session Service

   The use of NBT as a transport for SMB is widespread, so the syntax
   and semantics of the SMB URI scheme have been adapted to accommodate
   NetBIOS naming conventions and context requirements.


   2.1. The NetBIOS Name Service

   The NetBIOS API uses names to identify communications endpoints.
   NetBIOS names are the addresses used in "NetBIOS networks".  The
   NetBIOS Name Service is responsible for transparently mapping these
   names to IP addresses so that NetBIOS applications and services can
   find one another.  In essence, the Name Service is used to create
   virtual "NetBIOS LANs" on top of IP internetworks.

   The set of nodes that are connected to the same virtual NetBIOS LAN
   is known as the "scope" of the LAN.  NBT scopes are always given a
   name, or Scope Identifier, though this normally goes unnoticed
   because the default Scope ID is the empty string ("").  Multiple
   scopes, each having a different Scope ID, may intersect across the
   same IP internetworks without conflict.


   2.2. The NetBIOS Datagram Service

   The SMB URI scheme does not make direct use of the Datagram Service,
   so it does not include any special syntax to support the handling of
   NetBIOS datagram messages.


   2.3. The NetBIOS Session Service

   The Session Service maps NetBIOS Sessions to TCP sessions.  Multiple
   NetBIOS sessions may be carried over a single TCP connection.

   SMB file sharing over NBT transport is carried via the Session
   Service.  It is worth noting that the protocol for transport of SMB
   messages over NBT is nearly identical to transport via native TCP.
   The differences are:

   - The NBT Session Service uses TCP port 139 by default.  SMB over
     native TCP transport uses port 445.



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   - NBT transport expects a Session Request/Session Response exchange
     in order to initiate a new NetBIOS session over the Session Service
     (see [RFC1001], section 16.1.1).  Native TCP transport does not
     expect this exchange (though some implementations allow the Session
     Request to be optional on both transports).


   2.4  Accommodating NBT in the SMB URI

   The SMB URI scheme supports both NBT and native TCP transport of SMB.
   The syntax of the scheme provides for the inclusion of NBT context
   information so that NetBIOS names can be properly resolved and
   NetBIOS sessions established.

   The scheme provides the ability to specify the following NBT context
   information:

   - Broadcast Address for NBT broadcast name resolution (B mode)
   - NBNS Address for point-to-point name resolution (P mode)
   - Name resolution mode selection
   - NBT Scope ID
   - NetBIOS CALLED name (destination address)
   - NetBIOS CALLING name (source address)

   Most SMB implementations use configuration files or DHCP to
   establish an initial NBT context.  The starting context is referred
   to as the "base context" in the remainder of this document.  NBT
   context information given in absolute URIs is applied against the
   base context to create the "current context".  NBT context
   information given in relative URIs is applied against the current
   context to update the current context.

   The current NBT context is always used to interpret the meaning of a
   given URI string.  A relative URI containing updated NBT context
   information will cause the resulting URI to be re-evaluated.


3. NetBIOS-Based Workgroups

   The "workgroup" system is built on top of NetBIOS.  Workgroups are
   identified by their NetBIOS name.  The workgroup system allows SMB
   file servers to be organized into named groups, with the goal of
   making it easier to locate resources by categorizing them.

   Within each workgroup, a list of member servers is maintained.  In
   addition to the server list, each workgroup maintains a list of all
   known workgroups.  The combined list is known as the "browse list".
   A copy of the browse list may be obtained by sending a specific query
   via SMB.




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4. SMB URI Scheme Overview

   The SMB URI scheme views the SMB file sharing environment
   hierarchically.  Conceptually, the hierarchy is arranged as follows:

      List of workgroups (from the browse list)
      + List of servers within a given workgroup (from the browse list)
        + List of shares (shared objects) offered by a server
          + Directories, files, etc. within a share

   That hierarchy is mapped to the SMB URI scheme as follows:

      smb://                     Known workgroups
      smb://smb_browse/            + SMB servers within a workgroup
      smb://smb_server/              + Shares offered by an SMB server
      smb://smb_server/abs_path        + Directories, files, etc.

   Note that the scheme may be used to access the NBT browse list as
   well as SMB file services.

   The SMB URI provides syntax that indicates requests for subsets of
   the browse list.  In particular, the form:

      smb://

   represents a request for the list of all known workgroups, while the
   form:

      smb://smb_browse/

   represents a request for the list of servers that are members of a
   particular workgroup.

   A problem arises, however, because the syntax used for requesting the
   list of servers in a workgroup is indistinguishable from that of a
   request for the list of shares offered by an SMB file server.  The
   two requests must be differentiated semantically.  Consider the
   following example:

      smb://corgi/

   If the name "corgi" is a NetBIOS name and it resolves to a workgroup
   name then a user agent would return a list of servers in the CORGI
   workgroup.  Otherwise, if the name resolves to a server name, the
   user agent would return a list of file shares offered by the server
   named CORGI.

   It is rare, but possible (in a misconfigured NBT network), that a
   NetBIOS name will represent both a workgroup and an SMB file server.
   In this situation, SMB file services take precedence.  Some user



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   agents may be capable of returning both the list of servers in the
   workgroup and the list of shares provided by the SMB file server, and
   allowing the user to determine which is correct.

   There is a special case to be considered when using relative
   references to move between a workgroup reference and a reference to a
   server in the workgroup.  Consider a workgroup named "corgis" and a
   server named "cue" that is a member of that workgroup.

   Presented with the URI string

      smb://corgis/

   a user agent may return a list of servers that are members of the
   CORGIS workgroup, including node CUE, and allow the user to select
   one of those SMB servers.  The relative reference from

      smb://corgis/
   to
      smb://cue/

   would be "../cue/".  It may be simpler, however, for the user agent
   to provide absolute references to the workgroup member servers.

   When moving upward in the hierarchy, one might might expect:

      "smb://cue/" + ".." ==> "smb://"

   but in this example the user agent is aware that node "cue" is a
   member of the "corgis" workgroup, so:

      "smb://cue/" + ".." ==> "smb://corgis/"

   The NBT workgroup membership of an SMB server may be determined
   either by sending a Node Status Request query to the server (see
   [RFC1001], section 15.1.4) or by maintaining a local cache of
   workgroup information, or both.  Obviously, the choice is
   implementation dependent.  If the server's workgroup membership is
   not available via either of these methods, then it is acceptable to
   move directly to the top of the hierarchy (smb://).














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5. SMB URI Definition

   The following grammar defines the syntax of the SMB URI.  It is
   based upon the grammar given in Appendix A of [RFC2396], and amended
   by [RFC2732].  Refer to those RFCs (or later RFCs that supercede
   them) for token definitions missing from the grammar below.

      smb_URI        = ( smb_absURI | smb_relURI )
      smb_absURI     = scheme "://" smb_service [ "?" [ nbt_context ] ]
      smb_relURI     = abs_path | rel_path

      scheme         = "smb" | "cifs"
      smb_service    = ( smb_browse | smb_net_path )

      smb_browse     = [ smb_userinfo "@" ] [ smb_srv_name ]
                         [ ":" port ] [ "/" ]
      smb_net_path   = smb_server [ abs_path ]
      smb_server     = [ smb_userinfo "@" ] smb_srv_name [ ":" port ]

      smb_srv_name   = nbt_name | host
      nbt_name       = netbiosname [ "." scope_id ]
      netbiosname    = 1*( netbiosnamec ) *( netbiosnamec | "*" )
      netbiosnamec   = ( alphanum | escaped  | ":" | "=" | "+" | "$" |
                         "," | "-" | "_" | "!" | "~" | "'" | "(" | ")" )
      scope_id       = domainlabel *( "." domainlabel )

      smb_userinfo   = [ auth_domain ";" ] userinfo_nosem
      auth_domain    = smb_srv_name
      userinfo_nosem = *( unreserved | escaped |
                         ":" | "&" | "=" | "+" | "$" | "," )

      nbt_context   = nbt_param *(";" nbt_param )

      nbt_param     = ( "BROADCAST=" IPv4address [ ":" port ]
                      | "CALLED=" netbiosname
                      | "CALLING=" netbiosname
                      | ( "NBNS=" | "WINS=" ) host [ ":" port ]
                      | "NODETYPE=" ("B" | "P" | "M" | "H")
                      | ( "SCOPEID=" | "SCOPE=" ) scope_id
                      )


6. SMB URI Syntax Elements

   The SMB URI scheme is more or less comparable to other URI schemes
   used for remote filesystem access.  It differs primarily in its
   support for the NBT transport and NBT workgroups.  This section
   provides further explanation and description of those syntax
   elements that are most likely to require it.





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   6.1. scheme

   An SMB URI is identified by one of two scheme names: "smb" or "cifs".
   These are equivalent.  Support for both names is provided because
   both are in common usage today and because there are existing
   implementations of the SMB URI scheme that support one or the other
   or both.

   New and updated implementations must support both scheme names.

   As of this writing, the "smb" prefix appears to be the more popular
   of the two.


   6.2. smb_service

   The SMB URI can be used to access workgroup information or SMB file
   server services.  There are minor differences in SMB URI syntax
   depending up on which of these service types is being accessed.

   It is possible, for instance, to request workgroup information
   without specifying a destination server name.  In particular,
   the URI:

      smb://

   represents a request for the list of locally available workgroups.

   In some situations the workgroup list may not be available to
   unauthenticated users, so the SMB URI scheme allows inclusion of
   smb_userinfo information without the need to specify an smb_srv_name
   (a workgroup name).  Thus, the following is permitted:

      smb://neko@/

   In the above, the username "neko" is being supplied.  (The user agent
   should prompt for a password to prevent the password from being
   exposed.)

   As with the smb_userinfo field, an SMB URI may include a port
   reference without an smb_srv_name, as in the following example:

      smb://:4220/

   This is an example of an attempt to retrieve an NBT workgroup list
   via SMB using destination TCP port 4220.








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   Another difference between workgroup and SMB file server references
   is that a workgroup reference may not be followed by a path.  The
   browse list does not offer shares, directories, or files so an SMB
   URI string such as the following cannot represent a workgroup query:

      smb://corgis/puppies/


   6.3. auth_domain

   The auth_domain field is passed to the underlying SMB layer for
   interpretation.  It is used to specify the SMB authentication
   authority, (typically a "Domain Controller").  The interpretation of
   this field is specific to the workings of the SMB protocol and should
   be handled by the underlying SMB implementation.


   6.4. smb_srv_name

   The SMB URI supports the use of NetBIOS names and Scope IDs to
   identify SMB servers and services.  When included as part of an SMB
   URI, the syntax of the NetBIOS name is a superset of the syntax of a
   DNS domain name label.  For example:

      smb://jcifs/

   Syntactically, the string "jcifs" in the smb_srv_name field of the
   above string may be seen as either a DNS host name (unqualified), or
   as a NetBIOS name.  The underlying SMB implementation must determine
   the namespace of the name.  (This is a common problem in SMB
   implementations and is typically solved by first attempting to
   resolve the name as a NetBIOS name and then, if that fails, as a DNS
   host name.)

   Likewise, given:

      smb://jcifs.samba.org/

   the string "jcifs.samba.org" may be interpreted either as a qualified
   DNS name, or as a NetBIOS name with appended Scope ID.

   A NetBIOS name is simply a string of octets with a maximum length of
   15 octets.  (The actual maximum length of the NetBIOS name is
   16-octets, but the 16th is reserved.)  In practice, the only
   restriction on the syntax of a NetBIOS name is that it may not begin
   with an ASCII asterisk character (0x2A).  Octet values that are
   permitted by NetBIOS name syntax but excluded by the SMB URI syntax
   must be escaped.  Note, in particular, that the dot character (0x2E)
   must be escaped if used in a NetBIOS name.

   The resolution of NetBIOS names to IP addresses is described in
   [RFC1001] and [RFC1002].


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   6.5. port

   RFC1001/1002 includes a mechanism for retargeting Session Service
   connections to alternate ports (see [RFC1001], section 16.1.1.)
   which means that non-standard ports may be used for SMB over NBT
   transport.  There may be other valid reasons for providing SMB
   services on on-standard ports.

   The URI port field may be used to specify an alternate service
   port for SMB over either NBT or native TCP transport.  (The
   transport type must be detected by the underlying SMB
   implementation.)


   6.6. scope_id

   The SMB URI scheme provides two mechanisms for specifying an NBT
   Scope ID.  The first, as shown in the grammar above, is to append the
   Scope ID to the NetBIOS name as part of the smb_srv_name field, using
   a dot (".") as a delimiter.  This mechanism is included to support
   existing implementations.

   The other mechanism is to include the Scope ID as part of the
   nbt_context.  The two examples given below are equivalent:

      smb://netbios.scope.id/
      smb://netbios/?SCOPE=scope.id

   The latter format is less ambiguous and, therefore, preferred.  User
   Agents that rewrite URI strings for display purposes should rewrite
   SMB URI strings that contain a Scope ID to conform to the preferred
   format.


   6.7. nbt_context

   NBT context information is appended to the tail end of an SMB URI
   string in the form of a URI query string.  Context information is
   specified using key/value pairs.  Multiple context elements may be
   specified by separating the key/value pairs with semi-colons.

   The nbt_context may be used to provide information about the NBT
   transport layer and related support servers.  Information provided
   in the nbt_context overrides the current NBT context maintained by
   the user agent.  The nbt_context is interpreted locally by the user
   agent.

   The nbt_context is made up of zero or more nbt_params fields, which
   are specified as key/value pairs.  For example:

      smb://jcifs/?CALLED=VIRTSERV;NBNS=172.24.19.18



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   In the above example, the CALLED parameter is assigned a value of
   "VIRTSERV", and the NBNS parameter is assigned a value of
   "172.24.19.18".

   The following keywords are defined:

      BROADCAST:  The IPv4 broadcast address to which to send NBT
                  broadcast name queries.  This may, for example, be
                  used on multi-homed hosts to specify a target subnet.

                  The value assigned to the BROADCAST keyword may
                  optionally include a port number (delimited by
                  a colon).  The standard port for NBT name resolution
                  is UDP/137.  It is rare that a different port will
                  be used for broadcast name resolution.

         CALLED:  Specifies the NetBIOS name of the SMB server (the
                  NetBIOS destination address.)  A CALLED name is
                  required by the NBT Session Request message (see
                  [RFC1002], Section 4.3.2).

                  If NBT transport is used and the CALLED name is not
                  specified within the URI string, the underlying SMB
                  implementation must deduce the CALLED name from
                  available information.  (See Appendix A, below.)

        CALLING:  Specifies the NetBIOS name of the client (the NetBIOS
                  source address.)  This value is only used with NBT
                  transport.  It is required by the NBT Session Request
                  message (see [RFC1002], Section 4.3.2).

                  If NBT transport is used and the CALLING name is not
                  specified in the current NBT context, the underlying
                  SMB implementation must generate a suitable name.
                  (Typically, this will be based on the system's host
                  name.)

           NBNS:  Specifies the NetBIOS Name Server (NBNS) to be used
                  for point-to-point NBT Name Resolution.  The NBNS may
                  be specified using a DNS name or an IP address.  See
                  [RFC1001] for information on the NBNS.

                  The value assigned to this parameter may, optionally,
                  include a port number (delimited by a colon).  The
                  standard port for NBT name resolution is UDP/137.
                  Use of a non-standard port for point-to-point NBT
                  name resolution is rare (but less so than it is for
                  broadcast name resolution).





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       NODETYPE:  One of B, P, M, H, or the empty string.  These
                  represent the different mechanisms by which a NetBIOS
                  name may be resolved to an IP address on an NBT
                  network.  The first three types are defined in RFC
                  1001/1002.  H mode is the inverse of M mode (in H mode
                  the NBNS is queried before a broadcast query is sent).
                  An empty NODETYPE, indicates that NBT name resolution
                  should not be attempted (use DNS name resolution
                  instead).  Some examples:

                     smb://smedley/?NBNS=172.24.19.18;NODETYPE=H
                     smb://corgis/?NODETYPE=B
                     smb://jcifs.samba.org/?NODETYPE=;CALLED=SMBSERV

          SCOPE:  Specifies the NBT Scope Identifier.  Use of the SCOPE
                  keyword is preferred over inclusion of the Scope ID in
                  the nbt_name field.  User agents must support both
                  mechanisms.

                  The default Scope ID is the empty string.  This can be
                  specified in the SMB URI by assigning an empty value
                  to the SCOPE keyword.  For example:

                     smb://bran/SCOPE=
                     smb://marika/SCOPE=;NODETYPE=B

        SCOPEID:  A synonym for SCOPE.

           WINS:  A synonym for NBNS.

   Although all of the keywords and values are shown in upper case, case
   is not significant.

   The client implementation should provide a means for setting the base
   context.  The nbt_context is used to override default values or to
   supply values missing from the local configuration.  Most of all, the
   nbt_context makes it possible for an SMB URI string to maintain a
   consistent interpretation as it travels from one NBT scope to
   another.


7. The Relationship Between the SMB URI and the UNC Format

   Some operating systems support a format known as Universal Naming
   Convention (UNC).  UNC is a means for identifying network resources.
   SMB is one of the protocols supported by UNC.

   In general, a UNC string specifying a resource available via SMB
   protocol can be converted into an SMB URI string by simply adding
   the "smb:" or "cifs:" prefix and reversing the direction of all of
   the separating slashes.  For example:



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   UNC form                          URI form
   -------------------------------   -----------------------------------
   \\corgis\docs\                    smb://corgis/docs/
   \\corgis\docs\jolyon\             smb://corgis/docs/jolyon/
   \\corgis\docs\jolyon\rabbit.txt   smb://corgis/docs/jolyon/rabbit.txt


8. Authentication and Security Considerations

   SMB authentication can be divided into the following categories:

      o None
      o Share-based
      o User-based
      o Authentication Server-based (NT Domain and Kerberos)

   The authentication mechanism to be used is negotiated during
   client/server session setup.  Client applications, therefore, are
   aware of the server's authentication requirements and may prompt for
   appropriate input (password, username, authentication domain).  By
   prompting for authentication information, an application ensures that
   such information is entered by the user in a controlled manner, and
   that security measures (if any) such as password encryption or
   password hash generation are applied by the SMB protocol handler
   before the data are transmitted.

   Some authentication values may also be provided within the SMB URI
   string.  In particular, the following fields may optionally be
   included in the URI:

      auth_domain - The authentication domain (single-signon database
                    server) to use for authorization
      userinfo    - User account identifier (username)


9. Character Encoding Issues

   The only restriction that RFC1001/1002 places on the octet values
   that may be used in a NetBIOS name is that the name may not begin
   with an asterisk ('*', ASCII value 0x2A).  No other values are
   excluded by those RFCs.  For historical reasons, however, some
   implementations disallow the use of a nul byte (0x00) within a
   NetBIOS name.  NetBIOS names are interpreted as a string of octets,
   so common mutli-byte character sets may cause problems with older
   implementations.

   Octet values less than 128 (0x80) in a NetBIOS name are typically
   interpreted as US-ASCII characters.  The interpretation of octet
   values above 127 is dependent upon host configuration; there is no
   protocol mechanism to specify which codepage or character set is in



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   use.  URI escape sequences should be used to represent characters
   with Octet values above 127.

   NetBIOS names, share names, and the directory paths and filenames
   offered by an SMB server may all contain characters from outside the
   7-bit US-ASCII character set.  Applications MUST support the use of
   the URI escape sequence as described in [RFC2396] to accommodate
   octet values that represent non-US-ASCII characters.

   The SMB protocol has evolved over time to include support for various
   character encoding schemes.  A complete discussion of SMB and NBT
   character encoding issues is way beyond the scope of this document.


10. Acknowledgments

   The creation of this document would not have been possible without
   the help and guidance of

   Michael B. Allen
   David Farmer
   Roy T. Fielding
   Steven French
   Larry Masinter
   Richard Sharpe

   and the aggregate knowledge and wisdom of

   The jCIFS Team
   The Samba Team
   The Samba-TNG Team
   The SNIA CIFS Working Group
   The samba-technical and jCIFS mailing list participants
   The IETF URI-review and W3C URI mailing list participants

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.

















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11. References

    [RFC1001] Karl Auerbach, et. al., "Protocol Standard For a NetBIOS
              Service on a TCP/UDP Transport: Concepts and Methods", RFC
              1001, March 1987.

    [RFC1002] Karl Auerbach, et. al., "Protocol Standard For a NetBIOS
              Service on a TCP/UDP Transport: Detailed Specifications",
              RFC 1002, March 1987.

    [RFC2396] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396,
              August 1998.

    [RFC2732] R. Hinden, B. Carpenter, L. Masinter, "Format for Literal
              IPv6 Addresses in URL's", RFC 2732, December 1999.

   [XOPENSMB] "Protocols for X/Open PC Interworking: SMB, Version 2",
              ISBN 1-872630-45-6, The Open Group, October 1992.

       [ONET] Microsoft Corporation, Intel Corporation, "Microsoft
              Networks/OpenNET Filesharing Protocol", Document Version
              2, Intel Part No. 138446, November 7, 1988.

   [SNIACIFS] Storage Network Industry Association CIFS Documentation
              Work Group, "Common Internet File System (CIFS) Technical
              Reference", Version: CIFS-TR 1.0, March 1, 2002.

    [IMPCIFS] Hertel, Christopher R., "Implementing CIFS -- the Common
              Internet File System", ISBN 0-13-047116-X, Prentice Hall
              PTR, August 2003
              (http://ubiqx.org/cifs/)


12. Author's Address

    Christopher R. Hertel
    University of Minnesota
    Networking and Telecommunications
    2218 University Avenue SE
    Minneapolis, MN  55414-3029, USA

    E'mail: crh@samba.org
            crh@ubiqx.mn.org


13. Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).  This document is subject
   to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
   except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.



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14. Disclaimer of Validity

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
   INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
   INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


Appendix A. Working with NetBIOS Names (Implementation Notes)

   The information presented in this section is intended as a guide for
   implementors.

   Name resolution, particularly with the inclusion of support for
   RFC1001/1002 NBT naming, may result in ambiguous meaning for some SMB
   URI strings.  This problem is reduced if correct NBT context
   information is included in URI strings, and can be eliminated if all
   implementations follow the same basic sequence when resolving server
   names to addresses.


   A.1. NetBIOS Names

   NetBIOS names are addresses.  They represent communication end-points
   within a NetBIOS LAN.  [RFC1001] and [RFC1002] provide a mechanism
   for creating virtual NetBIOS LANs over TCP and UDP transport.  The
   core of that mechanism is the NetBIOS Name Service, which provides
   for mapping between NetBIOS names and IP addresses.  A given host
   system may register several NetBIOS names, each representing an
   application or service that can communicate with other applications
   or services through the NetBIOS API.


   A.2. SMB Sessions via NBT

   SMB sessions are established and messages transferred via the NetBIOS
   session service (see [RFC[1001], section 5.3 and [RFC1002] section
   4.3). The system that originates the connection is the "calling"
   node, and the target node is the "called" node.  In order to
   establish an SMB session, a TCP connection must be established
   between the calling and called nodes.  If a TCP connection already
   exists, the SMB session may make use of the existing connection.

   Before a NetBIOS session can be established, the calling node must
   discover the IP address of the called node.  This is done using the
   NetBIOS Name Service (see [RFC1001] section 5.2 and [RFC1002] section
   4.2).  NetBIOS names are always 16 octets, padded with spaces (0x20)



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   if necessary, as specified in the RFCs.  By convention, however, the
   16th octet is reserved for use as a service type indicator.  This
   field is known as the "suffix".

   The suffix byte is NEVER specified in an SMB URI string, but is
   appended by the client implementation.


   A.3. Resolving DNS names and IP addresses to SMB server names

   The NetBIOS Session Service requires that the client provide the
   NetBIOS names of both the calling and called nodes.  When connecting
   to an SMB server, the calling name is the default NetBIOS name of the
   client, space padded as described, with a suffix byte value of 0x00.
   The called name is the NetBIOS name of the server with a suffix byte
   value of 0x20.

   Applications which support the SMB URI must include support for the
   use of DNS names or IP addresses in addition to NetBIOS names when
   initiating SMB connections via NetBIOS over TCP/IP transport.  This
   functionality is an extension to the NetBIOS over TCP/IP behavior
   specified in RFC 1001 and RFC 1002, and is not part of that standard.
   It is, however, a common extension and must be supported for
   compatibility reasons, and to provide access to SMB shares in
   situations in which the NetBIOS name space cannot be guaranteed to be
   consistent.

   As stated above, the Session Request packet requires a called and a
   calling name, both of which are NetBIOS names.  In order to create an
   NBT Session Request packet, the DNS name or IP address of the server
   must be reverse-mapped to the server's NetBIOS name.  Mechanisms for
   doing so include:

   - Issuing a NetBIOS Adapter Status Query

     A NetBIOS Adapter Status Query is sent to the target IP address.
     (See [RFC1001] section 15.1.4 and [RFC1002] sections 4.2.17 &
     4.2.18.)  If a response is received, and if the target node is
     running an SMB server service, then the response will include a
     NetBIOS name with a suffix byte value of 0x20.  This NetBIOS name
     may be used as the called name in a Session Request packet.

     It is possible that multiple entries will have a suffix byte of
     0x20.  If this is the case each name may be tried in turn, or one
     of the other methods must be used to discover the name of the SMB
     server service.

   - Generic Server Name

     This method is not supported by all SMB server implementations.




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     Some SMB servers will accept the generic SMB server name
     "*SMBSERVER".  A client can simply use the name "*SMBSERVER" as
     the called name in a Session Request packet.  As with all SMB
     server NetBIOS names, the "*SMBSERVER"  name must be space padded
     and terminated with a suffix byte value of 0x20.

     The "*SMBSERVER" begins with an asterisk character, so it is an
     illegal NetBIOS name (see [RFC1001], section 5.2) and it is never
     registered with the NetBIOS Name Service.  It will not be returned
     in a NetBIOS Adapter Status Response.

     If the target does not support the "*SMBSERVER" generic name, or
     if it is not running SMB services, it will return a CALLED NAME
     NOT PRESENT error.

     Some SMB servers are capable of providing multiple SMB file
     services, each under a different NetBIOS name.  In order to support
     the generic server name, these servers must designate one service
     as a default that will answer to "*SMBSERVER".

   - Parsing the DNS Name or IP address (guessing)

     This is the least reliable method for discovering an SMB server
     name.

     Systems which support STD 19 transport will often use the same
     base host name within the DNS and NetBIOS name spaces.  Thus, the
     first label of the DNS name is a good guess at the NetBIOS name of
     the target.  If the input is an IP address rather than a DNS name,
     the a reverse lookup against the DNS may be performed to determine
     the DNS name.

     The first label of the DNS name consists of the initial portion of
     the DNS name string up to but not including the first dot
     character ('.').  If the label is greater than 15 bytes in length,
     it is cannot be a NetBIOS name.  The label must be space padded
     to a total of 15 bytes, with a suffix value 0x20 added.  This forms
     a valid NetBIOS name that may be used as a called name in a Session
     Request packet.

     If the target returns a CALLED NAME NOT PRESENT error, then the
     DNS name guess is incorrect.

   Any of the above may be tried in any order.


   A.4. Determining the Namespace of the smb_srv_name

   NetBIOS names, DNS names, and IP addresses can not be easily
   distinguished syntactically.  For example, the string "192.168.101.1"
   might be an IP address, but it is also a valid NetBIOS name and may



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   even be a partially qualified DNS name.  The appropriate mechanism
   for distinguishing between these server specifier types is the
   trial-and-error method.

   Implementations should begin with the assumption that the specifier
   is a NetBIOS name.  The following process is used to test this
   assumption:

      If the NODETYPE is the empty string then no NetBIOS name
      resolution mechanism has been selected and the name cannot be
      resolved as a NetBIOS name.  Exit.

      If the name string contains dot characters ('.', ASCII 0x2E), then
      separate the name into NetBIOS name and Scope ID at the first dot.
      Otherwise use the entire string as the NetBIOS name, and assume an
      Scope ID of "".

      REPEAT

        If the resulting NetBIOS name is greater than 15 octets in
        length, then the name is not a NetBIOS name.  Exit.

        Issue an STD 19 Name Query using the NetBIOS name and Scope ID.
        A suffix value of 0x20, 0x1B, and/or 0x1D should be used.  (See
        section A.5., below.)

        If a Positive Name Query Response is received, then the name is
        a NetBIOS name.  Exit, indicating success and returning the
        NetBIOS name and scope ID as parsed.

      END


   If the server specifier is not a NetBIOS name, then it is either a
   DNS name or an IP address.  These are semantically equivalent.


   A.5. Workgroup vs. SMB Server Names

   If the URI string is of the form

     smb://smb_srv_name/

   then the smb_srv_name may represent either an SMB server name or a
   workgroup name.  The name MUST NOT be interpreted as a workgroup name
   if:

      - There is path information following the trailing slash.

        Workgroups do not make shares or directories available.




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      - The server field is entered as a DNS name or an IP address.

        Workgroups, conceptually, represent a group of servers rather
        than an individual server and the browse list may be retrieved
        from one or more browse servers.  (A workgroup name is a NetBIOS
        group name.)

   In these cases, the server name is interpreted as a reference to an
   SMB server only.  Thus, workgroups may only be accessed via their
   NetBIOS names.

   When testing the name using the algorithm presented in section A.4, a
   NetBIOS name suffix value of 0x20 is used to find an SMB server, and
   a suffix value of 0x1D or 0x1B is used to find a workgroup browse
   server.

   A system operating in B mode will use the 0x1D suffix to search for a
   Local Master Browser operating on the same subnet.  A system
   operating in P mode must use the 0x1B suffix to query the NBNS for
   the Domain Master Browser.  An M mode system will first send a
   broadcast query for the 0x1D name and, if that fails, query the NBNS
   for the 0x1B name.  H mode behavior is the opposite of M mode.
































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