Here’s something I want to share with all of you. If I am not wrong, about 4-5 years ago, I’ve got a friend telling me how much fun he had by scanning the whole college network for shared folders. He was able to discover so many important files and also did many bad things by deleting important files from My Documents and also destroying Windows by deleting Windows system files. I was totally against that because who knows that the poor guy/girl spent many weeks to complete an assignment and was about to hand over to the lecturer but found out that it’s GONE!
For people who don’t know nuts about repairing own laptops, they’d have to fork out extra money just to get their Windows fixed or reinstalled. My friend could have been the good guy in placing a note in the shared folder to warn them about the danger of sharing but he had an evil sick and twisted mind instead.
So I am here to warn you about the danger of sharing folders on the network and I am going to show you how easy it is to scan the whole network, or even the whole Internet for shared folders.
If you didn’t know, sharing a folder on the Network is VERY easy. Just right click any folder or even your drive, select “Sharing and Security” and all it takes to share is by checking the “Share this folder on the network” checkbox. That leaves the folder open for everyone to access. Checking another box “Allow network users to change my files” lets anyone on the network to create and delete files in the shared folder.
Most common mistake that a lot of people make after sharing the folder to the network is forgotten to unshare it. Unchecking the checkboxes will unshare the folder. If you want to know what folders are being shared by you, use Computer Management to show you all your shared folders. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and expand System Tools -> Shared Folders -> Shares.
The ADMIN$, C$, and IPC$ is shared by default. You do not need to worry about that.
Here are a few steps you can take to protect yourself from intruders in getting in your shared folders.
1. Unshare the shared folder after you’re done sharing the file to another person.
2. Use a money dollar sign $ at the end of the Share name to hide shared folders from being displayed publicly.
3. Use NetShareMonitor to notify you when someone is accessing your shared folders.
4. Use a “router” instead of direct connect to the Internet as it gives you a layer of protection against intruders. Works only at Home.
5. Do not use Simple File Sharing. Go to Control Panel -> Folder Options -> click the View tab, and uncheck “Use simple file sharing”.
6. Finally, a decent firewall can protect you from intruder.
Now I’ll show you how easy and fast it is for an intruder to scan for open shared folders in network or Internet. There are many types of security scanners but I am going to use a simple, small and fast tool called “Angry IP Scanner” to scan hundreds and thousands of computers for shared folders.
I downloaded the latest Angry IP Scanner and also the Windows Shares plugin. I ran a test scan on a range of IP addresses and found a few victims that has some folders being shared.
I simply use the Windows method of access another computer \\IP or \\HOSTNAME. In this case, I enter \\218.208.224.16 in Windows RUN and hit the OK button.
Within seconds, a window box appears displaying the shared folders. I can now access the victim shared My Documents folder and “maybe” even have the rights to change, add or delete files.
See how easy it is for an intruder to access your shared folders? Stop being a victim and start protecting yourself.