Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Blocking NetBios


From: Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers <bugtraq () planetcobalt net>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 15:33:00 +0200

On 2004-06-15 Dan Denton wrote:
I believe there's a registry entry you can change to disable the
administrative shares in WinXP and 2K Pro. Google for "disabling
administrative shares" and you should find atleast something to go off
of.

It's the value "AutoShareWks" (or "AutoShareServer" for servers) in
HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters, see KB article
314984 [1] for Details. But even though one can disable automatic
sharing of local drives (and ADMIN$), it won't affect IPC$ (needed by
the server service). That's why I don't see much sense in disabling
administrative shares. A strong admin password would IMHO give better
protection.

You could also disable the Server service if you don't want any access
to any resource on the destination box, but I'm not sure how that
would affect administrative functions.

This thread has shown a whole bunch of options to restrict the usage of
NetBIOS. However, any of these options may affect functionality in one
way or the other. Unfortunately the OP did not provide sufficient
information for a reasonable suggestion on which option may suit his
client's needs best.

[1] http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q314984

Regards
Ansgar Wiechers

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