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Asked: 2016-01-26 07:07:54 +0800 CST

Mount a samba network drive from terminal without hardcoding a password

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I know that the default command would look like this: 

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=YOUR_USERNAME,password=YOUR_PASSWORD,uid=YOUR_UBUNTU_USERNAME //networkNameOfRemoteComputer/path/to/my/folder /path/to/mounting/dir

However I want to mount a samba share folder without hard coding my password. I consider it a high security risk if the password is visible. Does anyone have an idea?

(In a previous version of this question I also asked for mounting without sudo rights but it seems that this is just not possible :( )

networking

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Use the mount.cifs command instead, as it allows to specify a credentials file or prompts for a password if none given.

    Installation

    First of all, check you have the needed packages installed by issuing the following command:

    sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

    METHOD 1 - USING A CREDENTIALS FILE

    According to the manual http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/man8/mount.cifs.8.html :

    OPTIONS
    [...]
    credentials=filename specifies a file that contains a username and/or password and optionally the name of the workgroup. The format of the file is:

    username=value
    password=value
    domain=value

    Usage:

    mount.cifs //<hostname_or_ip>/<cifs_share> <local_mountpoint> -o user=<user_to_connect_as>,rw,credentials=<path_to_the_credentials_file>

    Example:

    sudo mount.cifs //domain.com/share /mnt/domain_com -o user=admin,rw,credentials=/root/.credentials

    It's important to note that the "name_of_the_user_to_connnect_as" can contain also the domain or the workgroup:

    user=workgroup/user
user=domain/user

    (Depending on you environment, you will need more or less options)

    Regarding security, it should be enough to store the credentials file in the /root directory, but if you want to store it elsewhere, just

    • set the root user as its owner with sudo chown root <file>
    • set owner-only permissions with `sudo chmod 600

    METHOD 2 - PASSWORD PROMPT

    If as stated, you don't want your password to be visible at all, then just don't provide the "password" option in your mount.cifs command.

    From the manpage at http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man8/mount.cifs.8.html

    password=arg

          specifies  the  CIFS  password. If this option is not given then the
      environment  variable  PASSWD  is  used.  If  the  password  is  not
      specified directly or indirectly via an argument to mount mount.cifs
      will prompt for a password, unless the guest option is specified.

      Note that a password which contains the delimiter character (i.e.  a
      comma  ’,’)  will  fail  to be parsed correctly on the command line.
      However,  the  same  password  defined  in  the  PASSWD  environment
      variable  or  via  a  credentials file (see below) or entered at the
      password prompt will be read correctly.

    Accordingly, the following command should prompt for a password:

    mount.cifs //<hostname_or_ip>/<cifs_share> <local_mountpoint> -o user=<user_to_connect_as>,rw

    Tested and working as expected:

    enter image description here

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