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Services for Macintosh Passwords

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Passwords

A Macintosh user logs on to a computer running Services for Macintosh in one of three ways:

  • As a guest.

  • As a user with a plaintext password.

  • As a user with an encrypted password.

Guest logons

To allow Macintosh clients to connect to a server running Services for Macintosh without providing user credentials, you need to enable guest logons. To do so, you need to enable the guest account in the Computer Management snap-in. The guest account is disabled by default in the Windows Server 2003 family. For more information on enabling guest accounts, see Default local groups, Local user accounts, and Create a local user account.

Once the guest account has been enabled, you can set guest permissions on a volume. To do this, use the options available in the Permissions for Guests box in the Security tab of the Microsoft UAM Volume Properties dialog box.

For more information on how to set guest permissions on Macintosh volumes, see Set permissions on a Macintosh-accessible volume or folder. To understand how permissions work, see Access Control.

Plaintext passwords

Plaintext password protection is part of the AppleShare client software on Macintosh computers. It provides less security than encrypted password protection because the passwords are sent over computer networks and can be detected by sniffers (network monitors that can look for passwords). Moreover, the AppleShare passwords can contain no more than eight characters, making them relatively easy to guess with conventional methods like dictionary attacks. Plaintext password protection is offered for Macintosh users who use the standard AppleShare client software or System 7 File Sharing.

Encrypted passwords

An encrypted password is more secure than a plaintext password. The Windows Server 2003 family encrypts passwords and stores them so that they cannot be directly stolen from the client itself. Encrypted passwords can contain up to 14 characters. File Server for Macintosh offers encrypted passwords to Macintosh clients.