Are Admin Shares Dangerous?
Hi Fred! I've tried multiple Google searches on this issue, but haven't been able to find the right combination of keywords to find the answer to my question. Firstly a bit of background: I have a wired/wireless network at home consisting of my PC, my brother's PC and a file server. My computer is attached directly to the network (and the Internet) via Cat5 to a Netgear RP614 router. My brothers PC is connected to the network via a wireless access point attached to my router. I have a share set up on my brother's computer for performing various administrative tasks, but my computer is totally locked down and doesn't have any sharing enabled. My question is: if my brother somehow catches a worm, trojan or other malware and the antivirus doesn't stop it - can this malware come through this administrative share that I have access to, and infect my PC? Or could it only infect me if I had a share on my PC for the malware to 'jump through'?
Thanks for any response and keep up the good work! :-) -Daniel S., England, UK
I think your risks are minimal, Daniel. The main way you could get infected would be if you triggered the malware yourself. For example, if your brother has a malware program called FUBAR.EXE on his PC, and you reach through the share and run that program, then FUBAR.EXE will be executed by *your* CPU in *your* PC. If FUBAR were able to get past your own defenses when it ran, then you could have trouble.
But one presumes you're not running random programs on your brother's PC. <g> And programs you do run remotely can usually be checked by your own antimalware tools; either by manually triggering a scan of your brother's hard drive prior to your doing any other maintenance there; or by scanning a specific EXE that you need to run. (Most AV tools, for example, let you right click on a file and select a manual scan from there.)
If that's not enough reassurance for you, consider using Remote Desktop for whatever maintenance you need to run on his PC. By making his PC the Remote Desktop host and your machine the client, all that will come through the wire to your PC is a copy of what would normally be on his screen: All the actual opening and running of files--- and any malware that may be triggered--- will be contained entirely within his system. Remote Desktop is a *very* safe way to access and work on another PC.
See:
XP Professional's "Remote Control" Option
http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20030221S0012
How To Ensure Remote-Control Security With XP
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=164300008
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Other
Permalink
