Security and Resource Sharing in an Nt Environment
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84-10-51 DATA SECURITY MANAGEMENT SECURITY AND RESOURCE SHARING IN AN NT ENVIRONMENT Gilbert Held INSIDE Overview; Share Creation; Setting Permissions; Multiple Identities; Considering Subfolders; Operational Control Because an understanding of the method by which shares are created fa- cilitates an understanding of different levels of data security associated with resource sharing, this article examines in detail the creation of a shared folder on one computer and its access via another computer. In doing so, this article references a series of screen images that illustrate the actual use of the Windows NT operating system to create shares and discusses and describes methods that control access to shared resources, providing different levels of security concerning the ability of network users to access shared resources and, once accessed, their ability to ma- nipulate data. PAYOFF IDEA OVERVIEW The ability to enable remote users to share re- Windows NT provides users with the sources on NT workstations and servers repre- ability to share access to the contents sents one of the major benefits of the use of this of an entire drive or folder over a operating system. By enabling employees in an organization to share access to drives, folders, network. Although shares only oper- and files, one obtains the ability to significantly ate at the drive and folder level, the enhance productivity. However, one also pro- operating system provides several vides the potential for other persons with access methods to control access down to to the organization’s network to either intention- individual files. ally or unintentionally read or modify existing data as well as store new files whose contents could Because sharing is integrated with have an adverse effect on the operation of the or- the operating system’s database of ganization. Thus, it is important to understand the user accounts and passwords, it is options associated with Windows NT resource possible to restrict sharing to a spe- sharing, as they control access to shares as well as govern the level of security associated with cific user, a group of users, or several network-based resources. 10/99 Auerbach Publications © 1999 CRC Press LLC predefined user groups. In addition, because sharing is also integrated with the Windows NT file system, it is also possible to assign a variety of permissions to shared resources. However, the ability to do so depends on the file system used to create a volume. If a share resides on a volume created using the original File Allocation Table (FAT) file system that dates to the original IBM PC, shared resource permissions will be restrict- ed to a series of basic permissions. In comparison, shares residing on a volume created through the use of the more modern NT File System (NTFS) can be assigned additional file-by-file permissions due to the en- hanced level of capability of that file system. SHARE CREATION An appreciation for the security of data associated with resource sharing is best facilitated by creating a shared resource. Thus, this section will create a shared folder and examine how access to data in the folder can be controlled. The creation of a shared resource requires one first selects a drive or folder icon. Once that is accomplished, right-click on the previously se- lected icon to display a list of options associated with the drive or folder. Exhibit 1 illustrates the selection of the folder icon labeled PKZIPW lo- cated in the folder PKWARE and the resulting pop-up menu displayed as a result of right-clicking on the selected icon. Consider the selected fold- er to represent a subfolder or, for die-hard DOS fans, a subdirectory. From the pop-up menu displayed as a result of right-clicking on an icon, one can invoke sharing in one of two ways: either selecting the Properties or the Sharing menu entries. Selecting the Properties menu en- try results in the display of a dialog box labeled Properties, prefixed with the name of the previously selected icon. That dialog box contains two tabs, as illustrated in Exhibit 2. The first tab is labeled General. The con- tents of this tab are displayed in the foreground and provide information about the selected icon, such as its location, storage size, contents, cre- ation date, and any assigned attributes. The second tab, labeled Sharing, which is located in the background of the display, provides the ability to share the resource as well as control access to it. If one selects Properties from the pop-up menu shown in Exhibit 1, one would then have to select the Sharing tab shown in Exhibit 2. In comparison, if one selects the Sharing entry in the previously shown pop-up menu, the Sharing tab would be directly displayed. Thus, the se- lection of the Sharing entry from the pop-up menu can be considered as a small shortcut for accessing the sharing facility for a Properties dialog box for a selected drive or folder icon. Because one wants to create a share, one would either click on the tab labeled Sharing in Exhibit 2 or select Sharing from the pop-up menu en- © 1999 CRC Press LLC 10/99 that enablesasharetobecreated. EXHIBIT 1— Right-clicking onaselectedfolderordriveiconresultsinpop-upmenubeingdisplayed © 1999 CRC Press LLC 10/99 EXHIBIT 2 — A folder or drive Properties dialog box contains two tabs, with the General tab providing information about the selected icon, while the tab labeled Sharing providing the ability to share the selected resource. try shown in Exhibit 1. Either action will result in the display of the Shar- ing tab for the Properties menu of the selected icon. Exhibit 3 illustrates the display of the Sharing tab for the previously se- lected PKZIPW folder. Several entries in the tab display were either placed by default by the operating system into an appropriate box or en- tered by the author of this article and will now be described as one takes a tour of the entries. When initially selecting a nonshared drive or folder, the button labeled Not Shared will be shown selected. When one clicks on the button la- beled Shared As, the name of the folder by default will be placed in the box associated with the label Shared Name. One can enter a share name up to 80 characters in length; however, one should probably consider a © 1999 CRC Press LLC 10/99 EXHIBIT 3 — The Sharing tab in the Properties dialog box for a selected icon provides the ability to control resource sharing. much shorter name length, especially if the organization has Windows 95-based computers that will access the share. This is because a Win- dows 95 system cannot see a share name more than 12 characters in length. In addition, DOS and Windows for Workgroup users are restrict- ed to the 8.3 DOS file naming convention; so, when in doubt as to who will access a share, it is best to use the lowest common denominator of naming restrictions. The actual composition of a share name can include all letters and numbers and the special characters $ % ‘ - _ @ ~ ! ( ) ^ # and &. If using long filenames, one can also include the six additional special characters + , : = [ and ]. One additional item that is worthy of mention concerns the use of the dollar sign ($) as a suffix to a share name. Doing so hides the share from direct viewing by other network users when browsing Net- © 1999 CRC Press LLC 10/99 work Neighborhood and provides a bit of privacy. However, if improper permissions are assigned to the share, other users who know its Univer- sal Naming Convention (UNC) address can access the data in the share. Note the down arrow to the right of the box for the Share Name. As noted shortly, the operating system provides the ability to share a re- source under multiple names, allowing one to tailor access and permis- sions to each share name. Another word of caution is in order concerning share names: once a share is named, the only way to rename it is to disable it and then re-enable it using a new name. Continuing the tour of the Sharing tab, the box labeled Comment pro- vides the ability to add a comment concerning the share. The User Limit area provides the ability to control the number of users that can access the share at one time. While this option does not restrict access based on any permissions, it is valuable to consider from both a license and per- formance perspective. That is, its use enables one to remain in compli- ance with certain software product licenses that restrict the number of users that can use the product at any one time. In addition, this feature allows one to consider the movement of data across a network and indi- rectly control both data flow on the network and its effect on network performance. For example, a shared application that enables clients to back-up the contents of their drives to a disk array on a server could bring the network to a halt if a large number of employees decided to initiate the application at the same time. SETTING PERMISSIONS Returning to the Sharing tab displayed in Exhibit 3, note the button la- beled Permissions. This button provides the ability to control access to the share both via users that have accounts on the computer, as well as by setting permissions that control access to the data in the share. Exhibit 4 illustrates the result of clicking on the button labeled Permis- sions. This action results in the display of a dialog box labeled Access Through Share Permissions.