File shares are where an environment keeps its data, and they are routinely exposed with weak or no authentication, world-readable or world-writable permissions, and legacy protocols. Offensive value is in two directions: reading what the share holds (credentials, backups, documents) and writing to it to gain execution or coerce other users. The area splits by how the files are reached.
Subtopics#
- Network file systems: SMB, NFS, and AFP, reached by mounting or protocol clients.
- Transfer protocols: FTP, FTPS, SFTP, TFTP, and rsync.
- Web file access: HTTP file servers, WebDAV, and managed file transfer appliances.