[Player]

Can someone explain the lack of security on a xp box that doesn't have a password set for the Administrator account? When trying to access c$ for example, a password is still requested. Thank you

[whi7er]

if i understand your question... if a password is still being asked for then do one of these:

1. press enter (to keep a blank password)

2. change your syantax (net use x: \\<IP>\<SHARE> "<PASSWORD>" /user:<USERNAME>

and for the second one if the password is blank just do "" for the password

example:

net use x: \\127.0.0.1\C$ "" /user:Administrator

where "" = blank/no password

example 2

net use x: \\127.0.0.1\C$ "easypassword" /user:Administrator

where easypassword is the password.

hope that helps.

[Terminal]

By default, Windows XP Professional systems that are not connected to a domain use a network access model called "Simple File Sharing," where all attempts to log on to the computer from across the network will be forced to use the Guest account. This means that network access through Server Message Block (SMB, used for file and print access), as well as Remote Procedure Call (RPC, used by most remote management tools and remote registry access) will only be available to the Guest account.


So if ur admin account has empty passwords still no one can access it remotely until "Simple file sharing" is enabled .





But if a 2k box has empty password then everything can be accessed remotely using psexec or some tools like that ...

[White Scorpion]

There's even a nicer option in XP as well:

by default network access is denied to accounts which don't have a password... you can change this option in the group policy but that probably won't help you since you have to be able to access it .....

[Player]

Thanks for the replies. That's the impression that I was under, that file sharing had to be enabled. I've always read having a null password for Administrator is not a good idea, which makes sense. So many users on the network here where I live that I admin are in this case; so I was concerned.