The smb-protocols nmap script checks to see which smb dialects are present on the Samba server.

client min protocol sets the minimum smb dialect that server can use to connect to another server not the minimum dialects that a client to this server can use.

By default the version of samba used in Ubuntu 18.04 sets the server min to NT1 ( smbv1 ) and the max to SMBv3.

If you want to restrict access to this server to SMB3 and SMB3 only you need to set the server min protocol:

server min protocol = SMB3

*Note: there are sub-variants to this dialect:

SMB3_00: Windows 8

SMB3_02: Windows 8.1

SMB3_10: early Windows 10

SMB3_11: Windows 10

By default SMB3 in smb.conf selects the SMB3_11 variant.*

Answer from Morbius1 on askubuntu.com
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nixCraft
cyberciti.biz › nixcraft › howto › samba (smb/cifs) › how to configure samba to use smbv2 and disable smbv1 on linux or unix
How to configure Samba to use SMBv2 and disable SMBv1 on Linux or Unix - nixCraft
May 12, 2021 - I added the following lines to /etc/samba/smb.conf in all Linux machines (servers and clients), and it all worked perfectly – all servers can now see shares on all clients, and vice-versa. [global] workgroup = MYHOUSE client min protocol = SMB3 server min protocol = SMB3
Discussions

samba - Available min max values for SMB protocol - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Normally this option should not be set as the automatic negotiation phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choosing the appropriate protocol. The value default refers to SMB3_11. ... wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba3/SMB2 states "Samba 3.6 added basic support for SMB2.0", "Basic support for ... More on unix.stackexchange.com
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July 24, 2018
What if I change max samba protocol from SMB3 to SMB4?
There is no SMB4 protocol. You are confusing the Samba version and the protocol. DSM is already on one of the 4.x versions More on reddit.com
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December 10, 2022
networking - Set SMB2 protocol in Samba 3.6.6 - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
I've decided to switch to the higher version of SMB in Samba (at least 2) - mostly because of the security reasons. I've tried to add to the smb.conf in the [global] section: client min protocol = SMB2 client max protocol = SMB3 server min protocol = SMB2 More on unix.stackexchange.com
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November 7, 2018
security - securing SAMBA smb.conf best parameters - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
But as of today's date in RHEL-8.9 with samba-4.18.6-3 that seems to have been corrected. note: AES-128-GMAC is not supported by win10 clients at least not how those win10 systems I deal with were set up ... Got the same issue 4.17 but noticed it's because a typo on server min prototcol = SMB3_11, "prototcol" has an extra "t" and should be server min protocol ... More on unix.stackexchange.com
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November 14, 2023
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Samba
samba.org › samba › docs › current › man-html › smb.conf.5.html
smb.conf
The value default refers to the latest supported protocol, currently SMB3_11. See client max protocol for a full list of available protocols. The values CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2 are silently upgraded to NT1. ... This setting controls the minimum protocol version that the will be attempted to use for IPC$ connections as DCERPC transport.
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16

From the man page for the configuration file for the Samba suite in the "client max protocol" section:

Possible values are :

  • CORE: Earliest version. No concept of user names.
  • COREPLUS: Slight improvements on CORE for efficiency.
  • LANMAN1: First modern version of the protocol. Long filename support.
  • LANMAN2: Updates to Lanman1 protocol.
  • NT1: Current up to date version of the protocol. Used by Windows NT. Known as CIFS.
  • SMB2: Re-implementation of the SMB protocol. Used by Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. SMB2 has sub protocols available.
  • SMB2_02: The earliest SMB2 version.
  • SMB2_10: Windows 7 SMB2 version.
  • SMB2_22: Early Windows 8 SMB2 version.
  • SMB2_24: Windows 8 beta SMB2 version.

By default SMB2 selects the SMB2_10 variant.

  • SMB3: The same as SMB2. Used by Windows 8. SMB3 has sub protocols available.
  • SMB3_00: Windows 8 SMB3 version. (mostly the same as SMB2_24)
  • SMB3_02: Windows 8.1 SMB3 version.
  • SMB3_10: early Windows 10 technical preview SMB3 version.
  • SMB3_11: Windows 10 technical preview SMB3 version (maybe final).

By default SMB3 selects the SMB3_11 variant.

Normally this option should not be set as the automatic negotiation phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choosing the appropriate protocol.

The value default refers to SMB3_11.

Adding clarification from A.B in the comments:

wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba3/SMB2 states "Samba 3.6 added basic support for SMB2.0", "Basic support for SMB 2.1 was added in Samba 4.0.0", "Basic support for SMB3 is included in Samba 4.0.0 and later."

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Gen
support.gen.uk › kb › faq.php
Setting SMB Versions in Samba Server - GEN HelpDesk
- client … protects any outbound connections Samba makes (e.g. to a Windows DFS or a backup target). ... [global] # ----- Server side ----- server min protocol = SMB2 # reject SMB1 (CIFS) server max protocol = SMB3_11 # use the latest SMB3 version you support # ----- Client side ----- client min protocol = SMB2 client max protocol = SMB3_11
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ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.org › title › Samba
Samba - ArchWiki
May 26, 2026 - For compatibility with older clients and/or servers, you might need to set client min protocol or server min protocol to an older protocol, but please note that this makes you vulnerable to exploits. Tip Use server min protocol = SMB3 when clients should only connect using the latest SMB3 protocol, ...
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GitHub
gist.github.com › fschiettecatte › 02d61e3d36c5f8d36bd45586fc5d0dc7
Setting up SAMBA for Linux / MacOS · GitHub
# Reported to Apple as FB11738061, reported as fixed? on Oct 16, 2025 # Present in macOS 14 (Sonoma) (Accessing Linux Samba 4.20.x) # Present in macOS 15 (Sequoia) (Accessing Linux Samba 4.21.x) # Fixed? in macOS 26.2 (Tahoe) (Accessing Linux Samba 4.22.x) # kernel oplocks = yes # Added for Mac Client support # https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Configure_Samba_to_Work_Better_with_Mac_OS_X # https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/vfs_fruit.8.html min protocol = SMB3 ea support = yes vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr fruit:metadata = stream fruit:model = MacSamba fruit:veto_appledouble
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Linux Mint Forums
forums.linuxmint.com › board index › main edition support › networking
Samba configuration - NT1 vs others - Linux Mint Forums
December 22, 2022 - When the samba client initially contacts the samba server a dialog begins between the two to "negotiate" the best smb dialect ( SMB1, SMB2, SMB3 ... ) to use. By default both the client ( client min protocol ) and the server will start with SMBv2.02. The problem you are experiencing is likely ...
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Linux Mint Forums
forums.linuxmint.com › board index › main edition support › networking
[Solved] Samba issue - Linux Mint Forums
December 17, 2021 - Weak crypto is allowed Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE client ipc max protocol = default client ipc min protocol = default client max protocol = default client min protocol = SMB2_02 server max protocol = SMB3 server min protocol = SMB2_02 jack@rz7:~$ ssh pi4 "testparm -sv | grep 'protocol'" Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf Loaded services file OK.
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SambaWiki
wiki.samba.org › index.php › Samba_4.11_Features_added › changed
Samba 4.11 Features added/changed - SambaWiki
The defaults of 'client min protocol' and 'server min protocol' have been changed to SMB2_02. This means clients without support for SMB2 or SMB3 are no longer able to connect to smbd (by default).
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SLES 11.4 is old enough for its Samba to default to SMBv1 only. You've set both client min protocol and client max protocol, which only affect Samba when it's acting as a client, like smbclient.

For server-side, you've only set server min protocol, so the server max protocol is still defaulting to SMBv1. And because now min protocol is higher than max, smbd actually cannot allow any protocol at all.

The facts that SLES 11.4's Samba is so old and its SMBv3 support seems to be buggy (as you discovered) caused us to make it a priority at work to upgrade any Samba servers that were still running SLES 11.4 to SLES 12 or newer.

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running Samba-3.6.3 in SLES 11.4 which has kernel 3.0, my global section is this and I know SMB2 works because windows 10 client will NOT connect via SMB1 the minimum is SMB2 for win10 out of the box.

Note that if you set Min Protocol = SMB2 then if your clients are Windows 7 it will not work for them... at least i did not figure it out troubleshooting on the windows side I think for Win7 it is default SMB1 unless you manually configure something in win7 to say do SMB2.

And for whatever reason setting max protocol = SMB3 caused things not to work for me thus I have SMB2 specified.

[global]
    min protocol = SMB2
    max protocol = SMB2
    workgroup = workgroup
    passdb backend = tdbsam
    map to guest = Never
    usershare allow guests = No
    add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd  -c Machine -d /var/lib/nobody -s /bin/false %m$
    domain master = No
    security = user
    wins support = No
    server signing = auto
    name resolve order = lmhosts bcast host
    printing = bsd
    printcap name = /dev/null
    log level = 2 auth:10 auth_audit:3 auth_json_audit:3 winbind:5
    max log size = 1000000

and a sample of a share that i use

[data1]
    create mask = 660
    directory mask = 770
    inherit acls = Yes
    path = /data1
    read only = No

you should not need to do anything in /etc/fstab other than mounting your storage resource as you normally would. Then once mounted make sure access permissions of that folder... chmod 777 /data1 in my example, are open for starters, then when working go ahead and remove world permissions and change group ownership and permissions as you need.

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Arch Linux Forums
bbs.archlinux.org › viewtopic.php
Samba: how to access both SMB1 as well as SMB2+3 shares? / Networking, Server, and Protection / Arch Linux Forums
November 15, 2017 - Eventually I found a workaround: https://superuser.com/questions/1226973 … lt-to-smb3 If I add the following to /etc/samba/smb.conf on the client (!) it works: client min protocol = SMB2 ; default is 'CORE' (MS-DOS era) client max protocol = SMB3 ; default is 'NT1' (aka CIFS)
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for anyone interested, after going through the current man page for samba this is what I pulled out of it that seemed relevant. With the global section defined below a samba connection from windows 10 works for me to a RHEL-7.9 system (and I assume rhel 8.8+). Per the man page description I think much of it is default settings but it's nice eye candy knowing what's actually in effect.

# /etc/samba/smb.conf
# https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/smb.conf.5.html

[global]
    server role = standalone
    security = user
    passdb backend = tdbsam
    map to guest = Bad User

#   turn off print stuff
    printing = bsd
    printcap name = /dev/null
    load printers = no
    disable spoolss = yes

#   default deadtime to disconnect after N minutes of inactivity is 10080
    deadtime = 5

    server min protocol = SMB3_11
    server smb encrypt = required
    server signing = mandatory
#   server smb3 encryption algorithms = AES-128-GCM, AES-128-CCM, AES-256-GCM, AES-256-CCM
#   server smb3 signing algorithms = AES-128-GMAC, AES-128-CMAC, HMAC-SHA256
    server smb3 encryption algorithms = AES-256-GCM
    server smb3 signing algorithms = AES-128-GMAC

    client min protocol = SMB3_11
    client smb encrypt = required
    client signing = required
    client ipc signing  = required
    client protection = encrypt
#   client smb3 encryption algorithms = AES-128-GCM, AES-128-CCM, AES-256-GCM, AES-256-CCM
#   client smb3 signing algorithms = AES-128-GMAC, AES-128-CMAC, HMAC-SHA256
    client smb3 encryption algorithms = AES-256-GCM
    client smb3 signing algorithms = AES-128-GMAC
    
#   client use kerberos = < off | desired | required >
#   kerberos encryption types = < all | strong | legacy >

#   hosts allow = 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
    
    max log size = 0
    log level = 0 vfs:10
    log file = /var/log/samba/sambavfs.log
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TrueNAS Community
truenas.com › forums › truenas scale › truenas scale cobia
Can't set server min protocol to any value in CLI | TrueNAS Community
December 22, 2023 - Also, in case someone else needs to edit global smb configuration, you set a parameter by launching cli and then running service smb update smb_options="server min protocol = SMB3_11" where you replace server min protocol = SMB3_11 with whatever option you need set.