The development team of samba announced the first stable release of the 4.20 series, bringing significant updates and improvements to the software. The release focuses on enhancing Samba’s functionality as a full-fledged controller of the Active Directory domain and service, with compatibility extended from Windows 2008 to now supporting Windows customers up to Windows 11. Samba 4 serves as a comprehensive server solution, encompassing file sharing, printing capabilities, and Winbind integration.
A key highlight of this release is the emphasis on security and management enhancements. To operate as an Active Directory domain controller, a minimum version of MIT KRB5 1.21 is now required to address vulnerabilities such as cve-2022-37967, which was related to the dependency on the JSON module in Perl. This update also simplifies the assembly requirements for Samba.
Some of the notable updates in this release include improved password management options through the Samba-Tool tool, support for customer features related to group managed services accounts with automatic password changes, and the introduction of a Windows Search Protocol client for sending searches to servers supporting this protocol.
- Enhancements to SMBCACLS for saving and restoring access control lists
- New capabilities for managing AD statements, authentication policies, and containers Political (Authentication Silos)
- Introduction of support for conditional and resource ACEs for more flexible access control
- Service Witness Protocol support in CTDB clusters for monitoring connection status with the SMB server
- Removal of the locally logged users list output function based on /Var/Run/UTMP file due to format restrictions related to the year 2038 problem
In addition to these updates, the release includes revisions to the SMB.conf configuration file and bug fixes to address identified issues. The Samba development team encourages active engagement from users to provide feedback and suggestions for further product improvement. More details about the release can be found on this page.