Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Larry Osterman [MSFT] — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:04:29 GMT

Stephan,
Passwords on shares? What do you mean? Shares haven't had passwords since Win95.

If you're thinking about the strength of passwords on the administrative accounts, that's a group policy - Windows itself can't enforce strong passwords, for users that want to shoot themselves in the foot, Windows will oblige.

Having said that, I don't know (for real), but I would speculate that Longhorn may warn the user about weak passwords.

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Stefán Jökull — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:20:14 GMT

Interesting discussion. While i don't consider the share itself to be a huge security risk, the fact that Windows XP and 2000 let you get away with installing them without a strong password for the local Administrator account is a HUGE issue. I bet that i could access over 90% of the root shares of the computers logged in to my university that are owned by the students (i.e. their laptops).

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

paul — Tue, 31 May 2005 09:52:09 GMT

PsExec

now thats funny. Just had a lengthy conversation with someone on this late last week. Basically the discussion started on how to perform remote DLL registration and the guy wanted to know how to do this. After a short discussion on an approach, this tool came up.

He didn't realize one makes plenty of assumptions on remote access (e.g. firewall blocking ports, filesharing turned off and of course remote admin creds ..etc).

This is a pretty interesting onion but theres alot of ways to skin a cat too.

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

M Knight — Fri, 27 May 2005 13:34:01 GMT

Mike, I guess it only applies for Windows XP onwards then.

It is controlled by the group policy "Accounts: Limit Local account use of blank passwords to console logon only".

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Manip — Fri, 27 May 2005 12:54:34 GMT

You are inaccurate. They are not *disabled they are *inaccessible. I do wonder if you were able to clone the SID if you could access them even with SFS turned on?

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Dean Harding — Fri, 27 May 2005 08:56:54 GMT

Norman,

Actually, I just tried it on my computer that's connected to a domain and it looks as though enabling Simple File Sharing does nothing. So it might be that Simple File Sharing *only* works when not connected to a domain, not just by default.

I'm sure there's people who know more about this than I do, though...

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Norman Diamond — Fri, 27 May 2005 08:28:46 GMT

I'll be. That KB article indeed says that simple file sharing disables domain admins from accessing the administrative shares.

So now we've got the opposite problem. In a company that does want domain administrators to be able to access administrative shares, any user of Windows Explorer can defeat it by going into Tools - Folder Options - View and setting simple file sharing.

Shouldn't this kind of setting be done in Computer Management? or in Control Panel?

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Dean Harding — Fri, 27 May 2005 08:06:58 GMT

Manip,

When you have Simple File Sharing turned on in Windows XP (that's the default for Windows XP Professional not joined to a domain, and it's the only choice for Windows XP Home), then the admin shares are *disabled*.

The admin shares are only available if you have Simple File Sharing turned *OFF* which is only the default for Windows XP joined to a domain.

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040 for information on Simple File Sharing.

And remember, there is no security issue if a given feature (or bug) does not give you access to more things that you'd normally have access to. It doesn't mean it's not a bug, of course, it's just not a *security* bug. If you're an administrator on the machine, then you have access to all it's files anyway and adding an extra share doesn't give you anything except convenience.

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Manip — Fri, 27 May 2005 07:46:32 GMT

Does anyone else notice how a lot of the above posters are ignoring the consumer market? I mean admin by default, passworded suggested..

With a default install of XP someone can remotely access all your data and as the XP setup suggests you set a password there is something to be cracked...

I am talking about SOHO and consumers, you guys seem to be talking about highly qualified technical professionals that understand how remote login works (and are even aware it exists).

re: Why does Windows share the root of your drive?

Yaytay — Fri, 27 May 2005 07:42:33 GMT

REMOTELY, REMOTELY!
you could, as an admin, manage the computer remotely and set up a root share on each drive yourself.

Doh!