Samba file transfer creates zone identifier files...

[pezball]

This issue applies to files which are marked as "unsafe" by Windows XP, for example files which has been downloaded from internet. It does not happen with local files, or files which has been manually marked as "safe".

When I transfer those "unsafe" files from my Windows XP Pro through Samba to my openSUSE 11.0 server, it creates an additional file with same name and one.Identifier:$DATA padded to the filename, which of course is impossible to delete from the remote PC since : is not a valid character in a Windows filename. This strange behaviour has never been seen in previous versions of openSUSE, so there must be something special about the Samba package in openSUSE 11.0

Since I need to remove those extra files manually from the server, it's rather annoying to say the least.

Any tips about avoiding this is welcome, or hopefully there will soon come a patch for Samba to solve this problem. I seriously doubt that I am the only one with this problem, since it worked excellent on Suse 10.3, and I have not done any changes in my Windows PC...

[raguiarunav]

It happens exactly the same with my samba server. Has anybody found the solution?

Thanks.

[swerdna]

Read this: XP SP2 using Alternate Data Streams for Security Warnings - David Cumps
It appears that Internet Explorer generates the invisible files. If you use Firefox they aren't generated.

They have been generated it seems since XP SP2. I wonder why they didn't appear in Samba until now. Can you give me the web address of a file that (when downloaded in IE) does this so I can see for myself, and perhaps better understand it?

[raguiarunav]

Thanks for the reply. I am sorry to tell that it happens when I use Firefox 3.01. I am not sure, but I think it happens when downloading any file. For example, I have just downloaded Virtual Dub portable: SourceForge.net: Downloading ...

Thanks once again.

[swerdna]

Thanks for the reply. I am sorry to tell that it happens when I use Firefox 3.01. I am not sure, but I think it happens when downloading any file. For example, I have just downloaded Virtual Dub portable: SourceForge.net: Downloading ...

Thanks once again.

I just downloaded that file in my desktop Firefox (ver 3.0) in Linux and got no zone file. And downloaded it in IE 6 in windows and got no zone file. So its a real puzzle.

Just a thought: You can setup a cron job to purge files in the server directory, files that have a naming structure defined by you, like *.one.Identifier:$DATA, on a cycle like hourly, daily, on each boot etc.

[raguiarunav]

Thanks for giving it a try. I think it is a samba issue, because it doesn�t happen when I download files using KDE in Suse 11.0, but only in the machines connected to it, as clients of a winodws domain. I mean, I use the samba server as a PDC. It occurs in any folder of the home file system (resierfs).

Thanks.

[raguiarunav]

Thanks for giving it a try. I think it is a samba issue, because it doesn�t happen when I download files using KDE in Suse 11.0, but only in the machines connected to it, as clients of a winodws domain. I mean, I use the samba server as a PDC. It occurs in any folder of the home file system (resierfs).

Thanks.

The odd thing is: why samba is not able to read/write/delete the Zone Identifier file?

I forgot to tell you that it happens with Firefox and IE. The clients are XP SP3. And I have no group policy active as explained in: Description of how the Attachment Manager works in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Thanks.

[bmynars]

I just downloaded that file in my desktop Firefox (ver 3.0) in Linux and got no zone file. And downloaded it in IE 6 in windows and got no zone file. So its a real puzzle.

Just a thought: You can setup a cron job to purge files in the server directory, files that have a naming structure defined by you, like *.one.Identifier:$DATA, on a cycle like hourly, daily, on each boot etc.

I have exactly the same issue running on OpenSuSE 11.0, samba 3.2.0-22.1, so it is not isolated to the originator of this post. Suggesting creating a 'cron' job does not seem to be the right solution but only a 'work around'.

It appears that OpenSuSE 11 has many more quirks than one would wish for. Can anyone on the SuSE team seriously look into this? Eventually, this will be rolled up into Novell Enterprise product and when it does, please, believe me, I will come after Novell with a heavy hammer to have it fixed. We are running many SuSE Enterprise servers and having unwanted files created during each file transfer is something I am really not looking forward to.....

[bmynars]

I have exactly the same issue running on OpenSuSE 11.0, samba 3.2.0-22.1, so it is not isolated to the originator of this post. Suggesting creating a 'cron' job does not seem to be the right solution but only a 'work around'.

It appears that OpenSuSE 11 has many more quirks than one would wish for. Can anyone on the SuSE team seriously look into this? Eventually, this will be rolled up into Novell Enterprise product and when it does, please, believe me, I will come after Novell with a heavy hammer to have it fixed. We are running many SuSE Enterprise servers and having unwanted files created during each file transfer is something I am really not looking forward to.....

To anybody who is interested in making sure that *.Zone.Identifier:* files are not created during the transfer, please, add following to your GLOBAL section in samba config file:

veto files = /*.Zone.Identifier:*/

This will prevent those files from being created. Warning: any files that would be named in a similar fashion will not be allowed on the Samba server when you set it up that way. However, I'd rather have this than a 'cron', yet another unnecessary job running for something that the system is not supposed be doing anyway.

[swerdna]

I don't have the time or the inclination to go into the zone thing too deeply. But as far as I've searched in Goolge they appear to be files generated by microsoft code for security enhancement purposes. They are invisible in windows -- but they are there nevertheless. They are there also in Linux and the fuss appears to be around because they are visible in Linux. That seems to be the only difference on a cursory look. I'm really very happy to be corrected on this because I didn't look hard. But prima facie they should appear in a Samba server if the server is functioning correctly.

If you want to filter out the files mandatorily created by microsoft, probably good idea to use the veto method recommended by bmynars.