SMB1
Does Removing SMB1 Break Anything on Home Networks?
My previous post provided information ( primarily for home users) on how to turn off SMB1 to help avoid the bad guys who are out to cripple your Windows computer. Microsoft released some patches, and if you are totally up to date, you are protected. For Now. And to be honest, there are plenty of people out there with Windows 8/8.1 and older that are not up to date. It is unknown if future attack vectors will use SMB1 in a different manner to install malware/ransomware. Turning of SMB1 on your Windows computer closes the hole.
Most casual home users (who aren’t working in the tech or IT Pro industry) probably don’t know that there are consumer networking devices and programs that rely on SMB. And there are devices that are using SMB1 and you MAY have devices and products where the vendor has not updated to at least SMB2. These issues probably won’t impact casual home users, but I want to call them out.
If, after disabling SMB1, you find something that doesn’t work, it may well be a result of disabling SMB1. Before you enable it again, there are a few things to try, depending on the issue. Following are the three biggest “gotcha’s” – with my comments, suggestions, work around’s.
Turn Off SMB1 on Windows Now
For the non technical computer users out there, this is a red alert. You many have heard of Wannacrypt. There’s a new variant out now. Even if you haven’t heard of this ransomware malware, please turn off SMB1 on your Windows computers. The following is for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1/8. It is very easy to do (note – click or tap on an image to show larger version):
1. Type the words control panel in the Cortana/Search box lower left. Control Panel will appear at the top. Double click to select it.
