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File and Printer Sharing Insecure in XP SP2
ProKras writes "German magazine PC-Welt has discovered a major security flaw in Windows XP SP2 when installing over SP1. The article says that 'with a certain configuration, your file and printer sharing data are visible worldwide, despite an activated Firewall.' The magazine claims they were 'able to discover private documents on easily accessible computers on the Internet' and that the configuration is fairly common."
Please PLEASE if you have friends, family, or loved ones that are not behind a NAT router/box, please install one for them.
Not just for flaws like this, but for windows problems in general and basically so you don't have to worry about the win32 machines BEHIND the nat before you worry about the nat box itself.
Hint: ICS doesn't count as NAT IMHO.
Chris
If I'm understanding it correctly, using the "Subnet" scope for your dialup connections actually allows access from the entire Internet. The article seems to argue that this "bug" is due to Windows ignoring certain settings when it deals with dialup connections. It doesn't say if the firewall code is flawed (and thus not properly calculating the "subnet" scope), or if there is some other DUN code which is overriding the firewall settings.
I work at an OEM making bespoke Video Editing systems under XP. We are installing XP SP2 on all of our machines currently - these are machines that need VERY high performance in terms of both IO and actual OS-level resources.
Service Pack 2 has a couple of irritations, and does seem to make things a tad slower on a couple of configurations, but this is just pure BS - I have not seen a single instance where it has enable File & Print Sharing as default on a Dial-up connection - or even where it has had those ports unblocked in the (rudimentary) firewall as default.
Every one of our machines is different, I have NEVER encountered this problem on any of them.
If you're stupid enough to tick a box in the Network Connections settings and you have no idea what it does, then you deserve to be 0wned!
Actually, it was from Killer Instinct (which also predated Q3A).
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
Get them a mac.
Windows is the only OS in the world where an external NAT device is a "necessity".
It's also worth noting that most US broadband ISP block all Windows Filesharing traffic -- otherwise your network neighborhood becomes your real neighborhood. So this "issue" isn't likely to affect many users.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
me say "expression" not "band name" you speak english, yes ?
I've seen this exact same post elswhere. Is this the new "BSD is dying" troll?
Moderators - read this carefully. It doesn't make any sense.
My suspicion is that the "bug" is that while the XP SP2 firewall closes File&Print sharing on public IP addresses, there are several ISPs out there that give internet-connected computers private network (10.x.x.x) IP addresses.
XP SP2 opens certain services, such as file and print sharing, to the local subnet. The local subnet is defined by the IP address and subnet mask assigned to the computer. It is not determined by if the IP address is public or not.
you can't see them, but they exist
//random_name
//COMPUTERNAME -U Administrator
:)
Sure you can see them.
# smbclient -I [IP Address] -L
Password: [Enter]
It will list the computers name as:
Domain=[COMPUTERNAME] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
Then use:
# smbclient -I [IP] -L
Password: [Enter]
And it'll list all the shares including IPC$, C$, D$, etc.
Now just mount whatever you want. Or connect to a printer and use 'print <filename>' to print a file from your local drive on their printer. Use 'queue' to make sure it printed. It may be off or out of paper or whatever. Happy hunting.
I can't find a reference, but I've heard about a school which, despite its best efforts, was hosting a MUD on one or more of its laserjets. The best efforts of the administration, of course. Needless to say, the best efforts of the students running the MUD were better.
CAUTION: Product may be hot after heating
People laugh at the argument that paper and ink cost money but consider this... I have an Epson 9600 wide format (50") printer hooked up with ultrachrome inks and frequently have canvas in there. If some well intentioned person prints a warning on it, depending on how I have my RIP set, it could print out a few feet across. That would cost me 20 bucks or more. That would really suck. I know that if I have the connection open it would be better than a hacker printing my whole $300 roll of canvas but still, it may not be such a great idea to just start printing warnings on everyone's printers.
That is presuming there is an administrator password, and the guest account is disabled. It seems XP also just authenticates you as a guest if you press enter for the Administrator password.
>With a certain configuration, ssh is accessable
>from outside, even with a firewall.
indeed, but only if the firewall is not configured to block ssh.
This is quite different: it's like an ssh server *not accessable from outside*, that magically becomes accesible from outside after a kernel update. It's not overzealous, it's a configuration problem that is encountered when you upgrade to SP2.
Yes, it's not an exploit. It's just configuration, but still an SP2 problem.
Washington bullets will simply be known as the "Bulle
Illegal trespass is illegal trespass. Various people have in fact gone to court and lost for "informing people of their systems' vulnerabilities."
The guest account is disabled by default.