Mac clients cannot create files in write-only folders over SMB

Problem

Macintosh users may receive either a "permission denied" error message or "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items" error message when trying to create or to copy a file into a folder that is not readable by that user over the SMB/CIFS protocol, including the smb.pass.psu.edu or win.pass.psu.edu gateway servers. 

Windows users appear unaffected, provided they do not use Windows Explorer to perform the copy (e.g. command line tools are unaffected).  UNIX/Linux users who use the smbclient or smbmount/mount -t smbfs commands do not appear to be affected.

Mac users may see this error when copying files over SMB using Finder when the folder is not readable:

Solution

Mac users may use alternative methods, such as the NFS PASS Gateway, PASS Explorer or SSH Secure File Transfer, to avoid this problem.

NOTE: Both Windows Explorer and PASS Explorer will refuse to browse a folder in which the user does not have read access.  PASS Explorer will allow the user to upload to a child folder when specified in the "Upload as" field of the Upload files dialog window even if the child folder does not permit read.

Using the smbclient command, as opposed to the mount_smbfs or "Connect to Server..." feature of finder, one may be able to create folders using the "mkdir" sub-command, but one still cannot upload files via a "put" sub-command. Attempts to delete or rename known files (via the Terminal) will also fail for Mac SMB clients.  Subfolders cannot be traversed by Mac SMB clients while the parent folder is unreadable.

Verified on

• Mac OS X 10.3.9
• Mac OS X 10.4.9

• smb.pass.psu.edu (Samba 2.2.2a / DCE/DFS)
  
• Windows XP SP2 (NTFS)
• udrive.win.psu.edu (Windows 2003 Server R2 / NTFS)