Check your EC2 security groups for inbound rules that allow unrestricted access (0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0) to TCP port 139 and UDP ports 137 and 138 and restrict access to only those IP addresses that require it in order to implement the principle of least privilege and reduce the possibility of a breach. These ports are used for NetBIOS name resolution (i.e. mapping a NetBIOS name to an IP address) by services such as File and Printer Sharing service running on Microsoft Windows Server OS.
This rule can help you with the following compliance standards:
- PCI
- APRA
- MAS
- NIST4
For further details on compliance standards supported by Conformity, see here.
This rule can help you work with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
This rule resolution is part of the Conformity Security & Compliance tool for AWS.
Allowing unrestricted NetBIOS access can increase opportunities for malicious activity such as man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM), Denial of Service (DoS) attacks or BadTunnel exploits.
Audit
To determine if your EC2 security groups allow unrestricted NetBIOS access, perform the following:
Remediation / Resolution
To update your security groups inbound/ingress configuration in order to restrict NetBIOS access to specific entities (IP addresses, IP ranges, etc), perform the following:
References
- AWS Documentation
- Amazon EC2 Security Groups for Linux Instances
- Security Groups for Your VPC
- Authorizing Inbound Traffic for Your Linux Instances
- AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Documentation
- ec2
- describe-security-groups
- revoke-security-group-ingress
- authorize-security-group-ingress
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You are auditing:
Unrestricted NetBIOS Access
Risk level: Medium