NetBIOS Enumeration | Ethical Hacking (2024)

FAQs

What is NetBIOS enumeration? ›

NetBIOS Enumeration: NetBIOS is a protocol that allows devices on a network to share resources and communicate with each other. NetBIOS enumeration is querying a device to identify what NetBIOS resources are available. This can be done using tools like nbtstat and net view.

Why do hackers pay attention to NetBIOS computer name suffixes? The NetBIOS name suffixes correspond to the services, or resource types, running on a computer.

Attackers use the NetBIOS enumeration to obtain: List of computers that belong to a domain.

Importance of Enumeration

Through an enumeration scan, ethical hackers find what ports are open in the device, what kind of data sharing, and which port has what kind of services. This information is then used to exploit vulnerabilities and unauthorized access into the system.

If NetBIOS is enabled and open to the outside, attackers may try to reach shared directories and files. This also gives sensitive information to the attacker such as the computer name, domain, or workgroup. Solution: The recommended solution is to block it in your firewall (or even your router, using ACLs).

In this attack, the attacker intercepts and relays NETBIOS authentication requests from one device to another, effectively impersonating the target device and gaining unauthorized access to its shared resources.

How to check if NetBIOS is enabled. Run the command ipconfig /all and check the NetBIOS over Tcpip value.

NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System) is a network service that enables applications on different computers to communicate with each other across a local area network (LAN). It was developed in the 1980s for use on early, IBM-developed PC networks.

Both your Active Directory domain FQDN and NetBIOS can be confirmed using simple command prompt commands. Type nbtstat -n and it will display some information. Under Name will be several entries: the NetBIOS will be one of the Group type.

Enumeration is defined as the process of extracting user names, machine names, network resources, shares and services from a system. In this phase, the attacker creates an active connection to the system and performs directed queries to gain more information about the target.

What is the risk of enumeration? ›

Account or user enumeration attacks occur when a bad actor tries to identify valid users, emails, etc within web applications' authentication flows. Enumeration attacks are primarily used to gain information about a system that can be used in further attacks, and does not directly result in compromised accounts.

Enumeration belongs to the first phase of Ethical Hacking, i.e., “Information Gathering”. This is a process where the attacker establishes an active connection with the victim and try to discover as much attack vectors as possible, which can be used to exploit the systems further.

Enumerations offer an easy way to work with sets of related constants. An enumeration, or Enum , is a symbolic name for a set of values. Enumerations are treated as data types, and you can use them to create sets of constants for use with variables and properties.

NetBIOS is an abbreviation of Network Basic Input/Output System. The primary purpose of NetBIOS is to allow applications on separate computers to communicate and establish sessions to access shared resources, such as files and printers, and to find each other over a local area network (LAN).

When making outbound connections to servers, SMB 1 and NetBIOS are enabled by default in macOS to improve compatibility with third-party products. macOS will attempt to use the later versions of SMB, as well as DNS and port 445, with failover to port 139 and SMB 1 as needed.

Disabling NETBIOS on Windows™ servers

In most instances, some improvement in performance will result if you disable NETBIOS on the Windows™ server where you are installing the Conversion component. If using CIFS (SMB) to access any shared storage from this server, DO NOT disable NETBIOS.