1.5 Prerequisites/Preconditions

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CIFS requires an underlying network transport that is generally connection-oriented. With some minor modifications to CIFS protocol behavior, CIFS messages can be exchanged using a connectionless transport. If the transport is connection-oriented, the connection needs to be established before CIFS messages can be exchanged.

CIFS assumes that the server has one or more of the following local resources available:

  • For file sharing services, a local file system or some other resource (such as a database) that can be presented as a file system. This resource is known as the object store.

  • For printer services, a local print queue that spools print jobs to a printer.

  • For interprocess communications using the named pipe abstraction, a file system that supports named pipes or a suitable emulation built into the CIFS server.

The server is also required to provide or have access to a password database for authentication. To support challenge/response authentication, the password database is required to store the LAN Manager (LM) and NT LAN Manager (NTLM) password hashes.