mount.cifs; NetApp; owner/mode appearance

If this is an FAQ, feel free to point me in the right direction...

Short-form:
 o UNIX-derived filesystem (qtree) on filer;
 o Linux client using "mount.cifs" to access qtree via CIFS;
 o File ownerships look wrong; mode always shows as 777.


Detail:

We run a central fileserver on behalf of many users.  A particular new
qtree is a fresh copy of a filesystem (on which many users each have their
own, self-owned subdirectory).  It was previously hosted on UNIX, and is
still intended to be used solely in a UNIX context.

But we (service providers) don't own the Linux machines which will be
connecting to this, therefore we are not exporting it as NFS (host-based
security) as this would compromise security.  (User-A on their Linux box
could 'su' to root and then 'su' again to User-B and see User-B files...
this would be bad.)

So we are trying to set things up so that the users can use CIFS (which is
user-based security).  So we have set the qtree mixed mode and made it a
CIFS share on the filer.  So far, so good.



Overall: UNIX users on UNIX clients to UNIX-filesystems on filer, but
having to use CIFS rather than NFS as the protocol.



When a user on their Linux client does:
   /sbin/mount.cifs //filer/qtree /local/mountpoint

what they see is that all file ownerships are apparently their own (even
though this level shows the directory of self-owned subdirectories) and
that all permissions appear as 777 (rwxrwxrwx).  The actual workings seem
to be OK, but the appearance is less than desirable.

Presumably this is because the SMB/CIFS protocol cannot carry the UNIX
permissions and ownerships.

1. Is the above reasoning towards understanding the problem more or less
correct?

2. Is there any way around it?  I understand that more recent definitions
of CIFS have UNIX extensions.  Is this implemented in ONTAP?

Our versions:
   filer: "NetApp Release 7.2.2"
   mount.cifs: 1.10


Apologies if the question is poorly expressed!



--

:  David Lee                                I.T. Service          :
:  Senior Systems Programmer                Computer Centre       :
:  UNIX Team Leader                         Durham University     :
:                                           South Road            :
:  http://www.dur.ac.uk/t.d.lee/            Durham DH1 3LE        :
:  Phone: +44 191 334 2752                  U.K.                  :