1.1 Glossary
This document uses the following terms:
@GMT token: A special token that can be present as part of a file path to indicate a request to see a previous version of the file or directory. The format is "@GMT-YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM.SS". This 16-bit Unicode string represents a time and date in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), with YYYY representing the year, MM the month, DD the day, HH the hour, MM the minute, and SS the seconds.
ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One. ASN.1 is used to describe Kerberos datagrams as a sequence of components, sent in messages. ASN.1 is described in the following specifications: [ITUX660] for general procedures; [ITUX680] for syntax specification, and [ITUX690] for the Basic Encoding Rules (BER), Canonical Encoding Rules (CER), and Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) encoding rules.
authenticated context: The runtime state that is associated with the successful authentication of a security principal between the client and the server, such as the security principal itself, the cryptographic key that was generated during authentication, and the rights and privileges of this security principal.
Branch Cache: Branch Cache is intended to reduce bandwidth consumption on branch-office wide area network (WAN) links. Branch Cache clients retrieve content from distributed caches within a branch instead of remote servers. Distributed caches in the branch can either be on peer clients within the branch or be on dedicated caching servers. Branch Cache details are discussed in [MS-PCCRR].
channel: A logical entity that associates a transport connection to a session.
compounded requests and responses: A method of combining multiple SMB 2 Protocol requests or responses into a single transmission request for submission to the underlying transport.
connection: Either a TCP or NetBIOS over TCP connection between an SMB 2 Protocol client and an SMB 2 Protocol server.
content: Items that correspond to a file that an application attempts to access. Examples of content include web pages and documents stored on either HTTP servers or SMB file servers. Each content item consists of an ordered collection of one or more segments.
content information: An opaque blob of data containing a set of hashes for a specific file that can be used by the application to retrieve the contents of the file using the branch cache. The details of content information are discussed in [MS-PCCRC].
content information file: A file that stores Content Information along with a HASH_HEADER (see section 2.2.32.4.1).
create context: A variable-length attribute that is sent with an SMB2 CREATE Request or SMB2 CREATE Response that either gives extra information about how the create will be processed, or returns extra information about how the create was processed. See sections 2.2.13.2 and 2.2.14.2.
credit: A value that is granted to an SMB 2 Protocol client by an SMB 2 Protocol server that limits the number of outstanding requests that a client can send to a server.
discretionary access control list (DACL): An access control list (ACL) that is controlled by the owner of an object and that specifies the access particular users or groups can have to the object.
Distributed File System (DFS): A file system that logically groups physical shared folders located on different servers by transparently connecting them to one or more hierarchical namespaces. DFS also provides fault-tolerance and load-sharing capabilities.
Distributed File System (DFS) root: The starting point of the DFS namespace. The root is often used to refer to the namespace as a whole. A DFS root maps to one or more root targets, each of which corresponds to a share on a separate server. A DFS root has one of the following formats "\\<ServerName>\<RootName>" or "\\<DomainName>\<RootName>". Where <ServerName> is the name of the root target server hosting the DFS namespace; <DomainName> is the name of the domain that hosts the DFS root; and <RootName> is the name of the root of a domain-based DFS. The DFS root has to reside on an NTFS volume.
durable open: An open to a file that allows the client to attempt to preserve and reestablish the open after a network disconnect. It cannot be permissible to a directory, named pipe, or printer.
file system: A system that enables applications to store and retrieve files on storage devices. Files are placed in a hierarchical structure. The file system specifies naming conventions for files and the format for specifying the path to a file in the tree structure. Each file system consists of one or more drivers and DLLs that define the data formats and features of the file system. File systems can exist on the following storage devices: diskettes, hard disks, jukeboxes, removable optical disks, and tape backup units.
file system control (FSCTL): A command issued to a file system to alter or query the behavior of the file system and/or set or query metadata that is associated with a particular file or with the file system itself.
fully qualified domain name (FQDN): An unambiguous domain name that gives an absolute location in the Domain Name System's (DNS) hierarchy tree, as defined in [RFC1035] section 3.1 and [RFC2181] section 11.
globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] have to be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).
guest account: A security account available to users who do not have an account on the computer.
handle: Any token that can be used to identify and access an object such as a device, file, or a window.
I/O control (IOCTL): A command that is issued to a target file system or target device in order to query or alter the behavior of the target; or to query or alter the data and attributes that are associated with the target or the objects that are exposed by the target.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4): An Internet protocol that has 32-bit source and destination addresses. IPv4 is the predecessor of IPv6.
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6): A revised version of the Internet Protocol (IP) designed to address growth on the Internet. Improvements include a 128-bit IP address size, expanded routing capabilities, and support for authentication and privacy.
lease: A mechanism that is designed to allow clients to dynamically alter their buffering strategy in a consistent manner in order to increase performance and reduce network use. The network performance for remote file operations can be increased if a client can locally buffer file data, which reduces or eliminates the need to send and receive network packets. For example, a client might not have to write information into a file on a remote server if the client confirms that no other client is accessing the data. Likewise, the client can buffer read-ahead data from the remote file if the client confirms that no other client is writing data to the remote file. There are three types of leases: a read-caching lease allows a client to cache reads and can be granted to multiple clients, a write-caching lease allows a client to cache writes and byte range locks and can only be granted to a single client and a handle-caching lease allows a client to cache open handles and can be granted to multiple clients. A lease can be a combination of one or more of the lease types listed above. When a client opens a file, it requests that the server grant it a lease on the file. The response from the server indicates the lease that is granted to the client. The client uses the granted lease to adjust its buffering policy. A lease can span multiple opens as well as multiple connections from the same client.
Lease Break: An unsolicited request that is sent by an SMB 2 Protocol server to an SMB 2 Protocol client to inform the client to change the lease state for a file.
Local object store: A system that provides the ability to create, query, modify, or apply policy to a local resource on behalf of a remote client. The object store is backed by a file system, a named pipe, or a print job that is accessed as a file.
named pipe: A named, one-way, or duplex pipe for communication between a pipe server and one or more pipe clients.
named stream: A place within a file in addition to the main stream where data is stored, or the data stored therein. File systems support a mode in which it is possible to open either the main stream of a file and/or to open a named stream. Named streams and the main stream each have different data than each other and can be read and written independently. Not all file systems support named streams. See also stream.
NetBIOS: A particular network transport that is part of the LAN Manager protocol suite. NetBIOS uses a broadcast communication style that was applicable to early segmented local area networks. A protocol family including name resolution, datagram, and connection services. For more information, see [RFC1001] and [RFC1002].
network byte order: The order in which the bytes of a multiple-byte number are transmitted on a network, most significant byte first (in big-endian storage). This does not always match the order in which numbers are normally stored in memory for a particular processor.
normalized path name: A full pathname of a directory or a file relative to the root of the share on which it resides.
open: A runtime object that corresponds to a currently established access to a specific file or a named pipe from a specific client to a specific server, using a specific user security context. Both clients and servers maintain opens that represent active accesses.
oplock break: An unsolicited request sent by a Server Message Block (SMB) server to an SMB client to inform the client to change the oplock level for a file.
opportunistic lock (oplock): A mechanism designed to allow clients to dynamically alter their buffering strategy in a consistent manner to increase performance and reduce network use. The network performance for remote file operations can be increased if a client can locally buffer file data, which reduces or eliminates the need to send and receive network packets. For example, a client might not have to write information into a file on a remote server if the client knows that no other process is accessing the data. Likewise, the client can buffer read-ahead data from the remote file if the client knows that no other process is writing data to the remote file.
reparse point: An attribute that can be added to a file to store a collection of user-defined data that is opaque to NTFS or ReFS. If a file that has a reparse point is opened, the open will normally fail with STATUS_REPARSE, so that the relevant file system filter driver can detect the open of a file associated with (owned by) this reparse point. At that point, each installed filter driver can check to see if it is the owner of the reparse point, and, if so, perform any special processing required for a file with that reparse point. The format of this data is understood by the application that stores the data and the file system filter that interprets the data and processes the file. For example, an encryption filter that is marked as the owner of a file's reparse point could look up the encryption key for that file. A file can have (at most) 1 reparse point associated with it. For more information, see [MS-FSCC].
security context: An abstract data structure that contains authorization information for a particular security principal in the form of a Token/Authorization Context (see [MS-DTYP] section 2.5.2). A server uses the authorization information in a security context to check access to requested resources. A security context also contains a key identifier that associates mutually established cryptographic keys, along with other information needed to perform secure communication with another security principal.
security descriptor: A data structure containing the security information associated with a securable object. A security descriptor identifies an object's owner by its security identifier (SID). If access control is configured for the object, its security descriptor contains a discretionary access control list (DACL) with SIDs for the security principals who are allowed or denied access. Applications use this structure to set and query an object's security status. The security descriptor is used to guard access to an object as well as to control which type of auditing takes place when the object is accessed. The security descriptor format is specified in [MS-DTYP] section 2.4.6; a string representation of security descriptors, called SDDL, is specified in [MS-DTYP] section 2.5.1.
security identifier (SID): An identifier for security principals that is used to identify an account or a group. Conceptually, the SID is composed of an account authority portion (typically a domain) and a smaller integer representing an identity relative to the account authority, termed the relative identifier (RID). The SID format is specified in [MS-DTYP] section 2.4.2; a string representation of SIDs is specified in [MS-DTYP] section 2.4.2 and [MS-AZOD] section 1.1.1.2.
security principal: A unique entity that is identifiable through cryptographic means by at least one key. It frequently corresponds to a human user, but also can be a service that offers a resource to other security principals. Also referred to as principal.
sequence number: A number that uniquely identifies a request and response that is sent on an SMB 2 Protocol connection. For a description of how sequence numbers are allocated, see [MS-SMB2] sections 3.2.4.1.6 and 3.3.1.1.
session: An authenticated context that is established between an SMB 2 Protocol client and an SMB 2 Protocol server over an SMB 2 Protocol connection for a specific security principal. There could be multiple active sessions over a single SMB 2 Protocol connection. The SessionId field in the SMB2 packet header distinguishes the various sessions.
SHA1 hash: A hashing algorithm defined in [FIPS180] that was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA).
share: A local resource that is offered by an SMB 2 Protocol server for access by SMB 2 Protocol clients over the network. The SMB 2 Protocol defines three types of shares: file (or disk) shares, which represent a directory tree and its included files; pipe shares, which expose access to named pipes; and print shares, which provide access to print resources on the server. A pipe share as defined by the SMB 2 Protocol has to always have the name "IPC$". A pipe share has to allow only named pipe operations and DFS referral requests to itself.
share level redirection: Occurs when a client supports moving connections to a more optimal node and establishes a separate set of connections to a share flagged with an asymmetric capability that is present on a server configuration that allows dynamic changes in the ownership of the share on a scale-out file server (SOFS).
snapshot: The point in time at which a shadow copy of a volume is made.
stream: A sequence of bytes written to a file on the target file system. Every file stored on a volume that uses the file system contains at least one stream, which is normally used to store the primary contents of the file. Additional streams within the file can be used to store file attributes, application parameters, or other information specific to that file. Every file has a default data stream, which is unnamed by default. That data stream, and any other data stream associated with a file, can optionally be named.
symbolic link: A symbolic link is a reparse point that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target. Symbolic links are transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories, and can be acted upon by the user or application in exactly the same manner. Symbolic links can be created using the FSCTL_SET_REPARSE_POINT request as specified in [MS-FSCC] section 2.3.81. They can be deleted using the FSCTL_DELETE_REPARSE_POINT request as specified in [MS-FSCC] section 2.3.5. Implementing symbolic links is optional for a file system.
system access control list (SACL): An access control list (ACL) that controls the generation of audit messages for attempts to access a securable object. The ability to get or set an object's SACL is controlled by a privilege typically held only by system administrators.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): A protocol used with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. TCP handles keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.
tree connect: A connection by a specific session on an SMB 2 Protocol client to a specific share on an SMB 2 Protocol server over an SMB 2 Protocol connection. There could be multiple tree connects over a single SMB 2 Protocol connection. The TreeId field in the SMB2 packet header distinguishes the various tree connects.
Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).
X.509: An ITU-T standard for public key infrastructure subsequently adapted by the IETF, as specified in [RFC3280].
MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.