Ubuntu
samba package

14.04 LTS plans when Samba 4.1 hits EOL

Asked by Ian McMichael

Given that Samba 4.3 has recently released, according to the Samba Supported Release Lifetime document (https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_Release_Planning) 4.1 has now entered "Security Fixes Only Mode". It will remain in this mode for 9 months (until 8th June 2016) before being discontinued.

According to the Ubuntu Release documentation (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases) 14.04 LTS is support until April 2019. How will Samba be supported between the 4.1 retirement and the end of 14.04 LTS? Will a 4.2 or 4.3 release be back-ported? Will security updates somehow be cherry-picked for the 4.2/3 code base?

What is the "normal" procedure for products that have faster retirement schedules than the Ubuntu LTS? How can we ensure our servers stay secure once Samba 4.1 retires?

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment,

Ian.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

I suggest you report a bug to make this more visible. The version should then be updated

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#2

Hello,

you answered the question somehow.

Either the newer version of Samba will be back-ported or only the security fixes will be cherry-picked from Ubuntu developers and integrated to the older release. For this particular package I guess it will happen the first.

Regards
NickTh

Friendly Reminder: Mark the question as [SOLVED], when done.

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Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk) said : 		#3

Thanks for the answers. I guess I was looking for more of a policy statement on how software updates (in this case Samba) are handled when the LTS included version goes end-of-life before the Ubuntu release does. This would have allowed me to plan a timely migration based upon the standard procedure.

In this particular case the issue is now solved by the BadLock Bug (http://badlock.org/), to which the Canonical response is being tracked in bug #1569497 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/1569497). This is forcing the 14.04 LTS Samba 4.1.6 release, which is now part of the unsupported 4.1.x series, to be upgraded to 4.3.8.

Due to a release being skipped and the number of configuration changes in this security release we are having to carry out a substantial amount of testing ahead of the estimated 19th April release to ensure our customers continue to operate correctly in the new Active Directory environment.

A little more transparency from Canonical on this process would have been very much appreciated as it was predictable in advance.