✎ SMB Hardening [NoSociety.de]

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====== SMB Hardening ======

===== Technical background to the SMB protocol =====

[[wpde>Server Message Block]] is susceptible to NTLM relay attacks if packets are not signed. This [[wpde>Man-in-the-Middle-Angriff|man-in-the-middle attack]] hijacks authentications between clients and servers. Authentication can be used to start a session on the server and steal data.
The SMB signing explicitly assigns each initiated session to the client. This means that it is still possible to hijack the authentication, but it is discarded as the session is not signed.

In SMBv1, SMB signing is deactivated by default. This protocol is outdated, error-prone, insecure and should generally be switched off.
SMBv2 activates SMB signing as the default value, but only uses it if the server or client require it as a prerequisite. This is usually not the case.

This means that SMB signing must be activated on the server as a prerequisite.

===== Procedure =====

<mermaid>
  flowchart
      Z[Flow]
      A[Disable SMBv1]
      B[SMB signing]
      C[Client)
      D[Server)
      E(optional activation)
      F(forced activation)
      Z--Step 1-->A
      Z-->B
      B-->C
      B-->D
      C--Step 2-->E
      D--Step 3-->F
</mermaid>

==== Step 1 - Deactivate SMBv1 ====

=== Clients ===

Clients can be managed via the login script. The status can be queried via Powershell (admin rights required) as follows:

<code powershell>Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName SMB1Protocol</code>

SMBv1 can also be deactivated via Powershell (restart required):

<code powershell>Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName SMB1Protocol</code>

=== Server ===

The same commands apply to servers. A restart should be scheduled in advance.

==== Step 2 - Optionally activate SMB signing on the client side ====

In the next step, SMB signing is optionally activated on the client side. A global group policy can be set for this purpose.
The corresponding guidelines can be found here:

<code>
Computerkonfiguration       ->
 Windows-Einstellungen      -> 
  Sicherheitseinstellungen  ->
   Lokale Richtlinien       ->
    Sicherheitsoptionen
    </code>

Alternatively, the settings can also be set in the registry.

<code reg>
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters]
"EnableSecuritySignature"=dword:00000001
"RequireSecuritySignature"=dword:00000000
</code>

==== Step 3 - Force SMB signing on the server side ====

=== Option 1: via group policy ===

<code text>
Computerkonfiguration       ->
 Windows-Einstellungen      -> 
  Sicherheitseinstellungen  ->
   Lokale Richtlinien       ->
    Sicherheitsoptionen
    </code>

=== Option 2: via Powershell ===

== Retrieve status ==

<code powershell>
Get-SmbClientConfiguration | select RequireSecuritySignature, EnableSecuritySignature
Get-SmbServerConfiguration | select RequireSecuritySignature, EnableSecuritySignature
</code>

== Enable force ==

<code powershell>
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $true
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $true
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $true
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $true
</code>

----

References

<sup>
https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/troubleshoot/windows-server/networking/overview-server-message-block-signing
</sup>

<sup>
https://en.hackndo.com/ntlm-relay/
</sup>

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