Re: Home network admin - can he browse my files?

myahact@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Hello,

I'll be staying with a family for a few weeks and they have a Home
Network that I'll be connecting to in order to access the internet. Can
the network administrator log on through the network to my laptop as
"administrator" (or something else) and access my files? I know he can
intercept my internet communications (including passwords) and that
doesn't bother me, but I don't want him accessing my files. I checked
the properties for my C:\ drive and it is not shared, yet I have this
feeling there's another door somewhere...

I use XP Home, NTFS filesystem.

It depends on system configuration. Is NetBIOS exposed? Is the administrator account named administrator or admin? Is your system suitably firewalled blocking all inbound ports below 1024? Does every account on the system have a complex password (Each of 4 character sets minimum of 10 character password)? Is sharing turned on anywhere on local system? Is it part of the families domain and is every password protected on their system? Have you turned off unneeded windows services?

If NETBIOS is exposed it doesn't require an administrator (or anyone else) any effort to determine every account name on a system and whether or not that account has a password.

If you join the domain of the family systems the domain administrator can get access to your system through the domain account.

If you have sharing turned on (windows default is to include everyone in share with read only access). There are several exploits to shares that can allow one to expand the scope of files exposed via share.

There are many potential doors into a system. There are ways if one controls the hub to attack the system below the transport layer on many flavors of NIC cards. Depending on your local machine configuration and the expertise of your family threat there are numerous potential holes. It is very difficult without more information to assess your security posture.

If the family member is extremely knowledgeable and willful enough, you will be hard pressed to prevent access to both the transmitted information as well as access to local system resources.

Winged
.

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