Re: Default Shares

From: Steven L Umbach (n9rou_at_nospam-comcast.net)
Date: 10/24/05

  • Next message: Wolf Kirchmeir: "Re: Update Rollup 1 for W2K SP4 uninstalls IE 6 SP1 icon"
    Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:16:38 -0500
    
    

    I would not worry too much about disabling the default shares if they are
    going to make your jobs more difficult and they should not be disabled on
    domain controllers. Instead focus on using very strong passwords and
    training domain level administrators to never use their domain level
    administrator account to logon to any domain computer that is not known to
    be 100 percent secure as in free from keyboard loggers, malware, malicious
    scripts, etc. Instead create regular domain user accounts that are in the
    local administrators group of domain computers which can be easily managed
    via Group Policy Restricted Groups and tell them to make sure they do NOT
    use the same password as they use for their domain level administrator
    account. Sensitive servers should have a different global group of domain
    user accounts in their local administrators group for management than the
    regular domain workstation population to further isolate them in case of the
    capture of credentials via a domain workstation or a worm infection that may
    try to access administrative shares. Regularly reviewing of your security
    logs can also detect failed logon attempts [assuming auditing is enabled]
    and questionable logons such as an administrator accessing a computer from a
    workstation that they should not be or at strange days/times.

    This is something to consider. Even if the administrative shares are
    disabled a user could still use something like psexec to access the command
    prompt of a server remotely if they knew administrative credentials. You
    should also consider implementing ipsec to protect domain computers
    including from each other if there is no reason for particular domain
    computers to access other domain computers for any reason. Ipsec is somewhat
    complex and requires a lot of planning, testing, and exempting domain
    controllers from ipsec policies that would otherwise cause them to try to
    use ipsec between themselves and domain computers which can cause huge
    problems in the domain. Microsoft has an excellent white paper on using
    ipsec for domain isolation at the link below. Windows 2003 and XP Pro
    computers can also take advantage of the Windows Firewall to manage what
    traffic a computer can accept and from what IP addresses being managed by
    Group Policy. Ipsec "filtering" policies can also do much of the same for
    Windows 2000. --- Steve

    http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsExec.html --- psexec.
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/topics/architectureanddesign/ipsec/default.mspx
    --- Server and Domain Isolation Using IPsec and Group Policy

    "nospam" <bluetooth995@gmail.com> wrote in message
    news:1130160678.673165.62990@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
    > Hi all,
    >
    > Any secure practices would recommend you to
    > disable all the windows default shares -C$..Admin$
    >
    > Of course, this is going to create problem for the system
    > administrator - this limit their ability to
    > manage the system with WMI, remote access,etc...
    >
    > So, if the admininstrator is having a strong password
    > does it somehow mitigate the risk of having default shares?
    >
    > I would normally think defense in depth - though admin with
    > strong password, but shnd still disable default shares
    >
    > Any comments?
    >


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