MSFN's Unattended Windows : Disabling the C$, D$ and ADMIN$ Shares

Disabling the C$, D$ and ADMIN$ Shares

By default, Windows 2000 and XP will automatically setup the hidden Shares below that allow your windows folder and the data on your machine to be viewed over a network and possibly the internet. This can be very helpful but it is possible that Hackers may be able to access these vital directories too if they can authenticate properly into your pc. Unfortunately, if you try to get rid of them using "Computer Management", windows complains that they are needed for Administrative Reasons. By adding the registry keys below and then restarting your pc, you can eliminate the security risk, ensure that they are disabled by default and hence not visible to anyone but users of your machine.

(*) ADMIN$ - Points to C:\WINNT\ or C:\WINDOWS\
(*) C$ - Points to C:\
(*) D$ - Points to D:\

» Example Registry Tweak

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters]
"AutoShareServer"=dword:00000000
"AutoShareWks"=dword:00000000

Submitted by Unknown.
Last updated 2006-04-05 15:35:48 by Unknown