Macintosh Namespace Problems
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Feb 2002
Q.
We have been running into some interesting problems concerning the Macintosh namespace on NetWare volumes. Particularly, we have noticed that [Root] gets all rights except Supervisor on the Network Trash Folder. This has created a problem with pesky viruses like Nimda.
Our virus scanner is able to detect the infection and clean it; however, we can get rid of the problem if we change the trustee assignments on the volume. Of course, these changes become moot if the server is rebooted and the volume remounted. [Root] gets everything but Supervisor.
Obviously this behavior is by design, but is there some way we can restrict these rights? If not, I am presuming this is a limitation that one must deal with as a result of allowing Macs access to your server. Any ideas?
Trashed in Tremonton
A.
Dear Trashed: I dealt with this problem a few years ago. Not only is it a problem for viruses, but also for PC users who discover the space and start filling it up with MP3 files (think students). There are a couple of initial approaches to fixing this.
One of the fixes can cause problems for the Macintosh in terms of undesirable behavior or an incomprehensible error message.
Delete the Network Trash Folder.
Remove [root] as a trustee.
Another and better approach (the one I used) was to quota restrict the Network Trash Folder directory to zero bytes. No space, no way to store data, but the rights are still there, and the folder still exists. You will probably want to do this because of a serious side-effect that occurs: everyone has change rights to anything in a user's trash. If you consider the possibilities, you'll really want to set that quota.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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