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 :Zone.Identifier:$DATA padded to the filename, which of course is impossible to delete from the remote PC since : is not a valid character in a Windows filename. This strange behaviour has never been seen in previous versions of openSUSE, so there must be something special about the Samba package in openSUSE 11.0
Since I need to remove those extra files manually from the server, it’s rather annoying to say the least.
Any tips about avoiding this is welcome, or hopefully there will soon come a patch for Samba to solve this problem. I seriously doubt that I am the only one with this problem, since it worked excellent on Suse 10.3, and I have not done any changes in my Windows PC…
They have been generated it seems since XP SP2. I wonder why they didn’t appear in Samba until now. Can you give me the web address of a file that (when downloaded in IE) does this so I can see for myself, and perhaps better understand it?
Thanks for the reply. I am sorry to tell that it happens when I use Firefox 3.01. I am not sure, but I think it happens when downloading any file. For example, I have just downloaded Virtual Dub portable: SourceForge.net: Downloading …
I just downloaded that file in my desktop Firefox (ver 3.0) in Linux and got no zone file. And downloaded it in IE 6 in windows and got no zone file. So its a real puzzle.
Just a thought: You can setup a cron job to purge files in the server directory, files that have a naming structure defined by you, like *.:Zone.Identifier:$DATA, on a cycle like hourly, daily, on each boot etc.
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).
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.
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.
I agree with what someone said above about fixing it would useful for Suse. I think the real issue is: why samba can’t read/write/delete these files? And maybe a part of this issue or another one related with it is: why the update to Samba 3.2 caused this? (if it is the real cause…)
Thanks
>
> I agree with what someone said above about fixing it would useful for
> Suse. I think the real issue is: why samba can’t read/write/delete
> these files? And maybe a part of this issue or another one related with
> it is: why the update to Samba 3.2 caused this? (if it is the real
> cause…)
> Thanks
>
>
This is from the SAMBA LIST with the problem and solution. It might help
some of you.
<snip>
>>I use a Suse 11.0 as a Samba 3.2 PDC. The clients run XP SP3. I have
>> upgraded a few weeks ago from Suse 10.3 and now all files tranfer that I
do
>> - for example, downloading a file using a web browser - it leaves a trash
>> file named “transferd-file:Zone.Identifier”
or “tranferd-file:encryptable”.
>>
>> The odd thing is that from Windows I can`t read/write/delete these files.
>> They appear with names like “hdje2423”.
>>
>> Any help will be apreciated.
>Looks like a bug in 3.2.0 that got missed in release.
>We now handle named streams in xattrs or in a database
>but if we’re not using either of those modules we should
>refuse to create them (as we did in Samba 3.0.x).
>Try this patch, should fix it - will be in 3.2.1.
>(attached to this post).
>Either that or you can add:
>vfs objects = streams_xattr
>to the share definition and the named streams will
>be correctly stored in xattr’s instead (so long as
>the filesystem supports them.
I did not copy the patch, but using the above parameter might help.
>
> It’s ok now. Thank you very much.
> :):)
>
>
Glad it helped. I had not noticed this on our servers until after this
thread was posted (if you don’t look, you won’t see it). We are running
Samba 3.2.0, but on OpenSuse 10.2, and this also fixed it for us. This
problem should be fixed in 3.2.1.
This fix with vfs objects = streams_xattr didn’t work correctly for me. When I setup it, i didn’s see shte existing Identifier files, but I can’t copy downloaded from the internet file to the server. It says Network Is Busy
>
> This fix with vfs objects = streams_xattr didn’t work correctly for me.
> When I setup it, i didn’s see shte existing Identifier files, but I
> can’t copy downloaded from the internet file to the server. It says
> Network Is Busy
>
>
Samba 3.2.1 has been released. It seems to solve the zone file problem without
the vfs objects parameter. We have not had the chance for extensive testing of
this last fact, but so far so good. The last time I looked The Suse RPMs were
not yet on the Mirrors, but they should be there as soon as the Mirrors sync.
>
> Yeah, I update to samba 3.2.1 and the problem with Zone Files disappear.
> I hope the new version will work fine now
>
>
Good News. I have no idea why the work around did not help you.
P. V.
Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
I use XP and Linux (many versions RH9 Suse10.3 Suse 11.0 Suse 11.1b5).
I download files with Firefox on my XP system, and since I have set Windows Explorer to show hidden files, I DO see the Zone Identifier files. These files started showing up with Firefox 3.x.
I do not remember getting this on Suse 11.0 with Firefox, so I suspect it’s not a Firefox thing therefore, and I can find no settings for it in the options.
It seems reasonable that therefore that it’s a Windows thing of some kind, triggered by the latest Firefox - though no obvious settings. “Fixing” it in Samba is therefore a mistake - the problem is most people don’t have their file manager on Windows set to “Show Hidden Files”.
Reading around on the Internet it seems likely that Firefox 3.x “improved” their file downloads by running them through the Microsoft “Attachment Execution Services (see IAttachmentExecute)” which (imperfectly) prevents execution of downloaded files. This matches the action the IE (Internet Explorer) takes with downloaded files.
>
> I use XP and Linux (many versions RH9 Suse10.3 Suse 11.0 Suse 11.1b5).
> I download files with Firefox on my XP system, and since I have set
> Windows Explorer to show hidden files, I DO see the Zone Identifier
> files. These files started showing up with Firefox 3.x.
>
> I do not remember getting this on Suse 11.0 with Firefox, so I suspect
> it’s not a Firefox thing therefore, and I can find no settings for it in
> the options.
>
> It seems reasonable that therefore that it’s a Windows thing of some
> kind, triggered by the latest Firefox - though no obvious settings.
> “Fixing” it in Samba is therefore a mistake - the problem is most people
> don’t have their file manager on Windows set to “Show Hidden Files”.
>
> Reading around on the Internet it seems likely that Firefox 3.x
> “improved” their file downloads by running them through the Microsoft
> “Attachment Execution Services (see IAttachmentExecute)” which
> (imperfectly) prevents execution of downloaded files. This matches the
> action the IE (Internet Explorer) takes with downloaded files.
>
> See
> ‘F-Secure Computer Virus Information Pages: Zone.Identifier’
> (http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/zoneident.shtml)
> ‘File Extension .IDENTIFIER Details’
> (http://filext.com/file-extension/IDENTIFIER)
> ‘Persistent Zone Identifier Object ()’
> (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537029(VS.85).aspx)
>
> So far there doesn’t appear to be a good way to prevent creation of
> these things.
>
>
Upgrade Samba to the current stable release. RPMs can be found here: //ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/samba/3.0/
This was a bug in 3.2.0 (distributed with 11.0) and repaired in Samba 3.2.1.
The current stable release is 3.2.4.
